From: John Harper [jonjharp@newnorth.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 4:19 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: RE:Docket Nos. 00N-1396 and 00D-1598

Gentlemen:

 

I must admit that you have a tremendous responsibility to the U. S. Public in insuring that their food and drug supplies are safe.  In the case of drugs you require the companies presenting new drugs to supply proof of safety and effectiveness.

 I have to assume that you do not apply this same standard to genetically engineered foods because you are following some hidden agenda of the biotech industry, or am I to understand that you must wait for a body count of the dead or deranged individuals before you begin to execute you duties more competently in protecting us from genetically altered food sources.

A majority of the people want to know what they are consuming and whether is contains genetically altered ingredients, but you seem not to see this as a call to action.  When the monarch butterfly started dying because of pollen from genetically altered plants the U. S. Flag should have been flown at haft mast.  Gee wheeze, these genetically altered foods are different than naturally occurring varieties of food, not “the same as,” which is what you keep purporting.  They are more than just a moneymaking scheme by the biotech industry—they are a highly potent killing machine, which may not only endanger animal life, including humans, but also severely alter the entire ecosystem.

The precautionary principle and an ecological paradigm must be implemented to evaluate the safety of GE Foods.  Countries which band importation of these GE Foods show great wisdom in protecting their populations, but by the U.S. F.D.A. flinging the door wide open to these products and the growth thereof, it is inevitable they will show up worldwide in the perpetuation of the biosphere itself, just as B.S.E. is now showing up in the U.S.  Political borders and fences don’t stop these sorts of manipulations at the very base of life itself.

So I beseech you to stop using the U.S. population as human research animals for the biotech industry and error on the side of caution rather than wait for a body count of the dead.

 

W. John Harper

12329 Felser Rd.

Tripoli, WI 54564

 

E-mail: jonjharp@newnorth.net