From: Center for Food Safety [action@foodsafetynow.org] Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 6:54 AM 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, As with many things the Former Bush Administration has done, undone, broken and "streamlined", 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. Plus, you set up the American public as test subjects for products that may be totally unsafe. I suppose you and your office are protected against the millions of lawsuits that should be coming your way when/if Americans and others become ill. For those of us who might want to avoid these "foods", where shall we find a "genetically modified-free" supply? Mars perhaps? 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, but we know that, given our new government, awareness is a rare commodity. Since your administration is quickly returning us to the Nuclear Brink, I'd like my last few meals to be a few notches up from the nutritional value of sawdust. I am also greatly opposed to your new “voluntary labeling” policy, which denies consumers a basic right to know. Like the RADURA labeling policy of the first Bush Administration, your agency continues in an industry-supportive mode, ignoring the basic decency of informing the public. In my memory, long and tired, you have historically opposed the public's right to know regarding herbicide, pesticide and other "food coating" labeling. We only shop in stores where there's a policy to label everything possible, but if the supplier isn't informed, neither will we. I suppose the deep-thinking philosophy at your agency (and now throughout our government) is "what you don't know won't hurt you". 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. Naturally, as with RADURA, you all know that mandatory labeling will scare the hell out of the public. They'll reject genetically engineered food, which will cut into the profits of large corporations. Thanks for doing your duty. Your proposed rules ignore serious concerns, and appear to be a decision made for industry at the expense of the public health and the environment. I will not accept your attempt to make me a guinea pig of these untested foods, and I trust you will take my concern along with the thousands of others into serious consideration. I'd rather starve. But I doubt you'll listen to little old me. I doubt you read these things, unless they are from the president of some corporation, begging for a handout. I doubt you or your agency, all under the thumb of our idiot president, have the guts. Surprise us. Sincerely, Mark Richards Mark Richards 29 Juniper Road Littleton, MA, 01460 CC: The President Vice President Dick Cheney FDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00N-1396] Senator Edward M. Kennedy Senator John F. Kerry Representative Martin T. MeehanFDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00D-1598] To the recipient -- this fax/email message has come to you via the Center for Food Safety web site -- a public tool for providing input on food safety issues. The user/site visitor had complete control over editing the content of this message. Thus, the opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily those of CFS or its parent organization, ICTA. Please contact CFS at (202)547-9359 or email office@centerforfoodsafety.org with any questions. Thank you. ___________________________________________________________________________ This letter was composed at www.foodsafetynow.org, a web site maintained by: The Center for Food Safety, 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 302 Washington, DC 20003 PH: (202)547-9359 Fax: (202)547-9429 Email: office@centerforfoodsafety.org web: www.centerforfoodsafety.org