From: Center for Food Safety [action@foodsafetynow.org]
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 4:20 PM
To: FDA Commissioner
Cc: president@whitehouse.gov; vice.president@whitehouse.gov;
fdadockets@oc.fda.gov; fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Oppose the New FDA Regulations on GE Foods!

FDA Commissioner 
Dockets Management Branch (HFA 305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fisher's Lane, rm. 1061
Rockville, MD 20852

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

Dear FDA,

Remember when the chemical industry was espousing the benefits and safety 
 of their newly introduced chemicals and pesticides (DDT, Malathion, 
Benzyne, and Polyvinylchloride to name a few)?  I remember pictures and 
video footage of DDT being sprayed directly on beachgoers and children 
because it was thought to be safe.  Needless to say, sufficient research 
had not been done.  Let's not repeat history with Genetically Engineered 
Foods.

We are outraged by 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 an insult to consumers, and irresponsibly 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.  Genetically modified foods have been banned in 
several European countries due to concern for potential effects on human 
health.

We are 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. We will not accept your attempt to make us a guinea pig of 
these untested foods, and We trust you will take our concern along with 
the thousands of others into serious consideration. 


Sincerely,
      David & Debbie Robinson


David & Debbie Robinson
910 S. Black
Bozeman, MT, 59715

CC: 
The President
Vice President Dick Cheney
FDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00N-1396]
Senator Max Baucus
Senator Conrad R. Burns
Representative Dennis RehbergFDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00D-1598]


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