From: OC EXECSEC
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 2:12 PM
To: Dockets, FDA
Subject: FW: Docket # 00N-1396 and #00D-1598



> ----------
> From: 	Lorinda Parks[SMTP:NITEDATA@AOL.COM]
> Sent: 	Friday, April 06, 2001 2:11:35 PM
> To: 	Commissioner
> Subject: 	Docket # 00N-1396 and #00D-1598
> Auto forwarded by a Rule
> 
> 
Commissioner ,

I am extremely concerned that the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has proposed regulations that still
fail to require labels or safety tests on genetically
engineered (GE) food. Labels on GE foods are required
in Japan, Russia, and throughout Europe, yet your new
proposal continues to deny Americans the right to know what
is in our food. The needs of the many outweight the agenda of a few.
 

Labels must be required to protect the public from potential
health effects that could only be traced if GE foods can be
identified, yet FDA?s "voluntary labeling" guidelines will
leave thousands of unlabeled GE foods on our supermarket
shelves. Furthermore, the agency?s proposed rule only
requires companies to notify FDA when bringing GE foods
to market, but it fails to require any safety testing.
Doctors and scientists have warned about the potential for
GE foods to trigger dangerous allergies, change the
nutritional value of foods, and cause irreversible harm to
the environment. FDA appears to be playing politics with
our food, disregarding science-based precautions that other
countries have implemented.

Speaking as a trained diet counselor, pardon me if I consider it downright
evil to withhold information regarding the nature of our food sources made
available to the general public. We have a right to this information. 
We should not even have to provide a reason for this, 
although as a diet counselor I can tell you that 
food allergies are a big one.


I urge you to reconsider this proposal and insure that GE
foods are subject to pre-market testing and labeling.
Americans deserve the same protections as the rest of the
world. 


Lorinda Parks
1660 Lockhart Gulch Road
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
US
nitedata@aol.com