From: violaaine@hotmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 8:46 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket No. 00N-1396, and 00D-1598



Jane Henney
Dockets Management Branch, Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fisher's Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852

Dear Jane Henney,

The new regulations and guidelines put forward by your
agency on genetically engineered (GE) foods are an
injustice to American consumers. Despite overwhelming
and consistent demand, your agency still fails to require
comprehensive safety testing for GE foods. The notification
policy ignores strong scientific evidence of numerous
potential health and environmental risks to GE foods,
and allows the current system of laissez-faire oversight
to continue. You have been given the responsibility
to make decisions for this country; don't let corporations
do this to us.  As you know, genetically engineered
foods can be toxic, cause allergic responses, have
lower nutrition value, compromise immune responses
in consumers, and cause irreparable damage to the environment.

I am also greatly opposed to your new "voluntary labeling"
policy, which denies consumers a basic right to know.
Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health
professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction
was the result of a genetically engineered food. This
is an especially irresponsible decision considering
that polls have shown that consumers would not buy
GE foods if they were not kept in the dark.  Consumers
will also be deprived of the critical knowledge they
need to hold food producers liable should any of these
foods prove hazardous. Isn't that dangerous?  And because
there are ecological risks associated with genetically
engineered crops, such as impacts on the soil ecosystem
and non-target species like Monarch butterflies, consumers
may want to avoid them.  We need labeling to be able
to make an educated decision. 

Your proposed rules ignore serious concerns, and appear
to be a decision made to convenience industry at the
expense of public health and the environment.  WHAT
BETTER USE IS THERE FOR YOUR MULT-MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET
THAN GIVING AMERICANS THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE?  I trust
you will actually read this letter and give it some
consideration.  I, like many others, want to be treated
like a true American by those that have been chosen
to govern us. 



Sincerely,


Erica Gilmore
4 Stonespring Lane
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011