FDA Tries To Kill FOIA On Alter Of GMOs
FEBRUARY 8, 2018
By Brandon Turbeville, Natural Blaze
In a surprising turn of events, a U.S. federal court has ruled in favor of the public interest. Even more surprising, the court ruled against the FDA which has been pushing the approval of GE salmon for human consumption.
The approval of the GE salmon, which is made from the DNA of Pacific Chinook Salmon, Atlantic Salmon and Deepwater Ocean Eel Pout, took place in 2015. However, the battle has been raging long before and after that date. The FDA, while launching a jihad against natural supplements and kratom, became the first government agency in the world to approve a GM animal for commercial sale and consumption.
Apparently the “every possible danger must be hyped, examined and exploited for a ban” methodology only applies to harmless substances and those that improve the health and livelihoods of the average American. When it comes to those substances which could potentially harm large amounts of people, or eradicate entire species of animals, the FDA takes a hands-off approach.
This time around, many experts have expressed concern with GE salmon, including biologists at U.S. Wildlife agencies who work with fish and wildlife, criticizing the FDA for not properly investigating the potential impacts. The FDA while jumping on the bandwagon of every distorted story in regards to kratom and natural supplements, ignored these professionals with real concerns. As a result, on March 2016, Earth Justice filed a lawsuit against the FDA. The lawsuit required the FDA to compile a record of research and documents that led up the FDA decision to approve GE salmon. The lawsuit requires a complete record.
At the time of the writing of this article, the FDA has refused to release most of the documents related to its decision despite a number of clients requesting those documents under FOIA. As Earth Justice states,
The public has a right to know how the agency came to this seemingly ill-informed decision, especially because the FDA’s approach will likely serve as a precedent for the assessment of future GE food animals. Withholding that information is illegal because government agencies like the FDA are funded by taxpayer dollars, which means that any records they create, with only limited exceptions, can and should be available to the public and to citizens seeking to hold the government accountable in court.
A U.S. District Court Judge ruled in favor of Earth Justice in January 2017 and concluded that the U.S. Government “is wrong to assert that these types of materials…should be excluded” from the record. The FDA was then required to complete the record with the missing documents by July 2017. Several months after the U.S. District Court ruling, the FDA appealed the decision that essentially argued for the ability of government agencies to determine on their own what information it can give to courts and that they do not have to disclose internal material. If this appeal is upheld, it will set an extremely dangerous precedent for public review of government agencies, their decision-making process and their policies.
A new hearing is set for late February 2018, and if the FDA’s position is upheld, it will be yet another nail in the coffin of democracy and transparency. The FDA remains one of the most corrupt agencies in the U.S. government and under no circumstances should the agency be able to make policy and law. If the American people do not rein in the power of the FDA they will eventually wake up in an America where all of their food is genetically modified, their medicine is toxic, and natural supplements are banned. Of course, if Americans would simply wake up, they might realize this is already their country.
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