From: Lewis Wilson [lwilsonii@lisco.com]
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 9:30 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Dockets 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
To Whom It May Concern at the FDA,

I must, at the most intense level,  hereby voice my concern about the FDA's policy of allowing genetically engineered food and products to be sold to the public without being labeled as genetically modified or engineered.

The companies offering genetically modified foods and seeds and other agricultural products do so in the most frivolous, shortsighted, superficially understood, and rawly profit-motivated manner.   Companies presenting themselves as concerned about world hunger as they proffer their "terminator" seeds embarass the human race.

All genetically modified products must be tested to evaluated their safety for the potential consumers--both human and animal, and their effects upon the environment before they are approved for released upon the market. These test results and precedures must be freely available for independent review and as public information.  The products should be closely monitored after release as well.

In your ignorance, the FDA is letting--literally--the biotect industry to author FDA policy about genetically engineered products.   Like an 'idiot savant' who have some capacity in one area but tunnel vision in others, the biotech industry must not be allowed determine PUBLIC POILICY.

Test them, label them, watch them closely, and do not ignore the concerns of the public.  The biotech industry is at a very preliminary level of understanding of the genetic level of life.  Now is the time for cautious, systematic, and carefully evaluated, small steps into this new level of understanding  of nature.   In time, wisdom may tell us that to create new forms is not our role here, but instead to repair the existing forms.  In time,  in time,  greater wisdom will dawn.  We don't need any genetically engineered foods at this time.  

Sincerely,

Lewis Wilson