Engineered Organisms in the Environment? Not Yet.

The article focuses on issues related to release of genetically engineered organisms in the environment. In June 1983 the U.S. National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) approved the first three requests. The first one was a test by UC Berkeley researcher Steven Lindow of a genetically altered version of the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae that would retard frost formation on potato plants. A coalition of public interest groups including the Foundation on Economic Trends, Environmental Action Inc., Environmental Task Force Inc., and the Humane Society of the United States sued NIH for approving all three releases and stopped Lindow's field research with the legal basis that NIH failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.