From: jzfields [jzfields@interaccess.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 12:25 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Genetically Engineered Foods

FOR THE SAKE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS
           GeNETICALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS 
MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY!

It puts your health and our 
environment at risk and deprives us of the right to know 
or choose what you are eating.

Do not establish the following 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 should 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 should 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 should 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 should 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.



Jeremy Z. Fields, Ph.D.
1837 Wesley Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201
jzfields@interaccess.com
847-475-8151 (tel)
857-475-4562 (fax)