The American Chestnut Foundation pulls support for embattled GMO American Chestnut Tree

A much-hyped GMO solution to reviving the American Chestnut Tree in the U.S. is withering on the vine—like other GMO promises. In a December press release The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) announced withdrawing their support for the “Darling 58” genetically engineered American chestnut tree “for several pending regulatory petitions that would authorize distribution of transgenic Darling trees outside permitted research plots.”

TACF said also “that it will discontinue its development of the Darling 58 American chestnut due to significant performance limitations that, from TACF’s perspective, make it unsuitable as a restoration tree.”

This announcement follows closely on the heels of a press release (original press release below) highlighting a call by a coalition of organizations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reject deregulation of the Darling 58 GMO chestnut tree based on the revelation by researchers of significant problems with the GMO American chestnut tree.

In a statement on December 7th, Global Justice Ecology Project Executive Director Anne Petermann stated that, “the only ethical move by the D58 researchers, knowing these GE trees have problems that they don’t understand, is to withdraw their petition to the USDA for deregulation of the D58.”

“Now that the TACF has withdrawn support for this failed project, we again call on the USDA to deny the petition for deregulation,” said Petermann.

Organic & Non-GMO Insights February 2024