From: Virginia Todd [Green_Tara_Organics@juno.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 6:47 PM
To: Food and Drug Administration
Subject: Docket # 00N-1396 and #00D-1598


Food and Drug Administration ,

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.

In addition to the FDA's refusing to require labels and safety tests on GE food and thus protect U.S. citizens, the FDA shows its disregard for the environment by jeopardizing the organic industry's very existence through permitting GE food production and distribution.  

Producers of certified organic corn are being threatened with extinction because they cannot guarantee their product has not been contaminated by GE corn.  By refusing to control the chemical industry's production of GE foods, the FDA shows its favoritism of companies that undermine health; and it does so at the expense of those who support the environment and human health.  Perhaps very soon, those who wish to purchase organic products may not be able to do so because of GE food and fiber contamination.  Thus, organic producers and consumers and the environment will lose because of the FDA's failure to act.

As an organic producer and consumer of organic products and as someone concerned about the health of the U.S. plant and animal environment, I urge further testing, regulation, and labeling of GE products.
 

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.


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. 


Virginia Todd
240 N. Terrace
Wichita, KS 67208
USA
Green_Tara_Organics@juno.com