From: Erica Lindstrom-Dake [erica.lindstrom-dake@SONOMA.EDU]
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 12:33 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598


To whom it may concern,

This letter is regarding the Food and Drug Administration's
proposed new rules on genetically engineered (GE) foods.

Despite overwhelming consumer demand, the FDA
has failed to require health and ecological safety testing
or mandatory labeling -- thus putting my health and our
environment at risk and depriving consumers of the right
to know or choose what we are eating.

This failure is unacceptable.

As a citizen of the United States very concerned about GE food,
I formally request that:

* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market comprehensive
environmental review. Unlike conventional pollutants,
where a given amount of pollutant causes a limited amount
of damage, a small number of mutant genes could have a
population explosion and reproduce forever, causing
unlimited and irreparable damage.

* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health
testing. GE products could be toxic, cause allergic
responses, have lower nutritional value, and compromise
immune responses in consumers.

* The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products.
Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health
professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction
was the result of a genetically engineered food. Consumers
would be deprived of the critical knowledge needed to hold
food producers liable should any of these novel products
be hazardous.

* The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries
it purports to be regulating. People have been allowed to
work for a biotech company, then work for the FDA writing the
regulatory rules on that company's product, then go back to
working for the company. Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory
committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.

Thank you,

Erica Lindstrom-Dake
Santa Rosa, CA