From: martha3938@hotmail.com
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 11:16 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Oppose FDA's New Regulations on Genetically Engineered Food

Martha Pollock
3441-13th Street
Sacramento, CA  95818

martha3938@hotmail.com


RE: Docket No. 00N-1396, and 00D-1598

Dear FDA,
 
I am writing to request you change your new policies on genetically engineered (GE) foods. Despite overwhelming consumer demand, your agency still fails to require safety testing and mandatory labeling for GE foods. Your "notification" policy is inadequate, and ignores strong scientific evidence of numerous potential health and environmental risks to GE foods. You should be aware that these foods could be toxic, could cause allergic responses, could have lower nutrition value, could compromise immune responses in consumers, and could cause irreparable damage to the environment. 

I am also greatly opposed to your new "voluntary labeling" policy, which denies consumers a basic right to know. 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 will also be deprived of the critical knowledge they need to hold food producers liable should any of these novel foods prove hazardous.

Your proposed rules ignore serious concerns, and appear to be a decision made to convenience industry at the expense of public health and the environment.  Please reconsider and tighten labeling regulations so that consumers can make informed decisions about genetically engineered foods.

Sincerely,


Martha Pollock

Martha Pollock