From: Maharishi Vedic University [mvuashvl@brinet.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 8:32 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Would like to be heard

FOR THE SAKE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND FUTURE
>       GENERATIONS
>
>       TELL THE FDA THAT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS
>       MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY!
>
>       The Food and Drug Administration is now accepting public
>       comment on its 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, and thus puts your health and our
>       environment at risk and deprives you of the right to know
>       or choose what you are eating.
>
>       The proposed rules:
>
>       * Do not require mandatory pre-market safety testing
>       * Do not require pre-market environmental review
>       * Do not require mandatory labeling of GE foods
>       * Restrict voluntary labeling of non-GE foods
>       * Require a mere letter of notification prior to the
>         marketing of a GE food
>       * Fail to ensure public access to adequate information
>         for independent review
>       * Are supported by industry and opposed by consumer groups
>
>       The FDA needs to hear from hundreds of thousands of Americans
>       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.
>