Demand that FDA regulate all genetically engineered animals!

The FDA just approved and deregulated a new GMO cow -- meaning it can enter the market without any required assessment or oversight to protect our health, environment, or animal welfare. This sets a dangerous precedent for other GMO animals to enter our food system with no regulation -- such as pigs and chickens, engineered to withstand crowded, polluting, and inhumane factory farms.

Comments

To Department of Health and Human Services,

I am writing with deep concern regarding the recent FDA decision granting regulatory exemption to the first cow genetically engineered via CRISPR approved for human consumption. There are too many unanswered questions and risks associated with this new GE cow for it to be unregulated. I am asking the FDA to revoke this decision and do a full assessment.

Further, I urge the FDA to commit to fully regulate all genetically engineered animals, including gene-edited animals, and to not exempt them from regulation and precautionary assessment. A growing body of science suggests that GE animals, particularly those engineered with gene editing techniques, may pose serious risks to the environment, human health, and animal welfare. FDA should revoke the regulatory exemption granted for this genetically engineered cow and explicitly name that all similar applications derived from genetic engineering, including gene editing, will be evaluated.

In order to fully understand the risks that GMO animals may pose to public health, the environment, and to animal welfare, FDA should assess full genetic sequences of all genetically engineered animals. This should Include an evaluation of all off-target changes to the genetic sequence, as they may have significant impacts on the animal. In addition, FDA should ensure that genetic engineering does not result in animal suffering. It should also require full, transparent safety assessment of food from genetically engineered animals to ensure it doesn’t contain toxins, pathogens, or cause allergic reactions.

It is the FDA’s responsibility to ensure that all GE animals are thoroughly assessed for potential impacts on human health, including triggering unexpected allergies in people that consume them, and to ensure they do not negatively impact the animals themselves or the environment. This can only be upheld through rigorous and mandatory regulation. 
 
Sincerely, 
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