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The decades-old fight over genetically modified food has reached a fever pitch in Washington.

The Obama administration and Congress are weighing the safety of technological advances that seem ripped from science fiction, including salmon that can grow to full size in half the normal time and strains of crops engineered to resist powerful herbicides.

Critics of these innovations warn that they could pose threats to public health, damage the environment or, in the salmon’s case, lead to the destruction of species when gene-splicing goes wrong.

Proponents argue that genetic engineering is perfectly safe and say it’s critical to providing a sufficient food supply for the world’s ever-growing population.

Proposed regulations to govern the foods are the subject of skirmishes that pit food safety advocates, organic farmers and consumer rights groups against the agriculture and biotechnology industries.

At the same time, a renewed legislative effort to require labels on genetically modified foodstuffs is gaining momentum in Congress.

“There’s a new consciousness in America about food and Agriculture,” said Colin O’Neil, the Center for Food Safety’s director of government affairs. “Finally this issue is being elevated to the national spectrum.”

Late last month, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced a bill that would require labeling on all genetically modified food.

“Consumers deserve to know what’s in the food they eat,” Boxer said. “When we give them the facts, they make the best decisions for their families.”

The effort is not new. Boxer started pushing the idea 13 years ago, and her legislation is seen as facing a difficult path forward through the divided Congress.

But both backers and opponents of the measure agree that support has grown. When she first introduced the bill, Boxer had zero co-sponsors. Now the legislation has more than 30 in the House and Senate, including a pair of Republicans.

The strides come as an increasing number of states have taken up the issue. None carried a heavier price tag than California’s Proposition 37, which was on the state’s ballots last year.