From: sally peden [speden@mum.edu]
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 2:35 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396

					     March 27, 2001

Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305)
Rockville, MD 20852

To the Food and Drug Administration:

You must listen to the desires of the people of this country. Your actions
are counter to the demands of the people. We are deeply concerned about our
food supply and the contamination by genetically engineered crops.

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 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.
Sincerely yours,

Dr. Sally Peden
Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy