From: Center for Food Safety [action@foodsafetynow.org]
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 7:24 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,
 
I am 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. These foods could be toxic, cause allergic responses, have 
lower nutrition value, compromise immune responses in consumers, and could 
cause irreparable damage to the environment. Such policy decisions do not 
take a cautious ecosystem-based approach to our environment or public 
health. The FDA and other federal regulatory bodies should take the time 
to consider and attempt to understand the consequences of our decisions on 
the environment and human health, rather than economic and political 
expediency.

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. Given 
the market reactions of many people with respect to the "Terminator Gene," 
what company would voluntarily place a label that would reduce its 
competitive position in the marketplace?!

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 your alternatives and opt to take a more 
cautious approach to the potential consequences of these decisions.

Sincerely,

Tim Walls


Tim Walls
1053 Raritan
Saint Louis, MO, 63119

CC: 
The President
Vice President Dick Cheney
FDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00N-1396]
Senator Christopher S. Bond
Senator Jean Carnahan
Representative William L. (Bill) Clay, Jr.
Representative Todd Akin
Representative Richard A. GephardtFDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 
00D-1598]


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