From: Center for Food Safety [action@foodsafetynow.org] Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 12:47 PM To: FDA Commissioner Cc: president@whitehouse.gov; vice.president@whitehouse.gov; fdadockets@oc.fda.gov; fdadockets@oc.fda.gov Subject: Oppose the New FDA Regulations on GE Foods! FDA Commissioner Dockets Management Branch (HFA 305) Food and Drug Administration 5630 Fisher's Lane, rm. 1061 Rockville, MD 20852 RE: Docket No. 00N-1396, and 00D-1598 Dear FDA, I am outraged by your new policies on genetically engineered (GE)foods. Despite overwhelming public demand, your agency still fails to require SAFETY TESTING and MANDATORY LABELING for GE foods. Your “notification” policy is an insult to consumers, and irresponsibly ignores strong scientific evidence of numerous potential health and environmental risks to GE foods. You should be aware that these foods could be toxic, could cause allergic responses, could have lower nutrition value, could compromise people's immune responses, and could cause irreparable damage to the environment. I am also greatly opposed to your new “voluntary labeling” policy, which denies people their basic rights to INFORMED CONSENT and DISCLOSURE. Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor healthcare providers will be able to determine if an allergic or toxic reaction was the result of a genetically engineered food. The public will be deprived of the critical knowledge they need to make informed decisions, and/or to hold food producers liable should any of these novel foods prove hazardous. You are also not being mindful of the thousands of people who eat a KOSHER DIET, who need to know EXACTLY from what, and from where their food is derived. These people need to know not only what is IN their food, but also WHERE the food originated, WHAT FROM, and HOW that food was produced or manufactured. There is a serious problem here, as genetically engineered food may render a lot of foods which thousands of us eat now as unfit, according to the dietary laws of some Jews, Muslims, and other religious groups. Your proposed rules ignore many very serious concerns, and appear to be a decision made to convenience industry at the expense of Public Health, the environment, and other very serious issues. I will not accept your attempt to make me a guinea pig of these untested foods, and I trust you will take my concerns, along with the thousands of others, into serious consideration, and act accordingly. Sincerely, Deborah J. Peterson, M.S. Deborah Peterson 5857 West Bermuda Circle West Palm Beach, FL, 33407 CC: The President Vice President Dick Cheney FDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00N-1396] Senator Bob Graham Senator Bill Nelson Representative Mark Foley Representative Alcee L. HastingsFDA Dockets Management [Docket No. 00D-1598] To the recipient -- this fax/email message has come to you via the Center for Food Safety web site -- a public tool for providing input on food safety issues. The user/site visitor had complete control over editing the content of this message. Thus, the opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily those of CFS or its parent organization, ICTA. Please contact CFS at (202)547-9359 or email office@centerforfoodsafety.org with any questions. Thank you. ___________________________________________________________________________ This letter was composed at www.foodsafetynow.org, a web site maintained by: The Center for Food Safety, 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 302 Washington, DC 20003 PH: (202)547-9359 Fax: (202)547-9429 Email: office@centerforfoodsafety.org web: www.centerforfoodsafety.org