EarthWatch guest Jaydee Hanson on GM salmon

Today on Sojourner Truth's weekly Earth Watch segment our guest is Policy Director for the Center for Food Safety, Jaydee Hanson. Multinational corporations pushing GM crops, food, trees and fish are up against environmentalists who outright oppose them or question the need for them. Will we see a future where foods are derived from GM microorganisms or GM animals are more broadly introduced into the market? Does the general public even know what GM foods they are now consuming? In 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California agreed, with the ruling that the FDA ignored the serious environmental consequences of approving GM salmon. The court also ruled that FDA's unilateral decision that GM salmon could have no possible effect on highly endangered, wild Atlantic salmon was wrong and it violated the Endangered Species Ac. The original suit was filed in 2016 by the Quinault Native American tribe in Washington state, who sued the FDA along with environmental and fishing organizations, for approving the safety of GM salmon based on limited research. We will speak to Policy Director for the Center for Food Safety, Jaydee Hanson on the recent court ruling and what it means for the future of GM foods in the U.S. Jaydee Hanson's expertise includes emerging technology issues related to nanotechnology, synthetic biology, animal cloning, animal genetic engineering and gene editing. He has a Master's degree in Biogeography and Resource Management from the University of Hawai'i. Before coming to the Center for Food Safety, he worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service, starting both the environmental justice program of the United Methodist Church and their genetics and bioethics program. He is a co-author of the Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology, the US co-chair for the Nanotechnology Taskforce of the Transatlantic Consumers Dialogue, a member of the synthetic biology experts committee for the Convention on Biological Diversity and a fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future.