From: Patty [faussettdp@msn.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 10:37 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

To the FDA:

You are charged with protecting the American public, and it is my understanding that your proposed new rules for genetically engineered foods does not allow protection for the American public in the least. 

Despite overwhelming consumer demand, (and you know the American public has a right to know!) you have failed to require health and ecological safety testing 
or mandatory labeling of these "Frankenfoods."   You are taking liberties with my health, and our environment , putting them at risk and depriving me of the right to know or choose what I am eating.

When will you start showing that you care about PEOPLE in America?  It is so blatant that you are in bed with the Corporations.  You people are not in the government to serve the American public, as much as you would like to think so. 

Here's the least that I expect, as an American:

* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market comprehensive 
  environmental review. (Unlike conventional pollutants, 
  where a given amount of pollutant causes a limited amount 
  of damage, a small number of mutant genes could have a 
  population explosion and reproduce forever, causing 
  unlimited and irreparable damage.)

* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health 
  testing. (GE products could be toxic, cause allergic 
  responses, have lower nutritional value, and compromise 
  immune responses in consumers.)

* The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products. 
  (Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health 
  professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction 
  was the result of a genetically engineered food. Consumers 
  would be deprived of the critical knowledge needed to hold 
  food producers liable should any of these novel products 
  be hazardous.)

* The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries
  it purports to be regulating. (People have been allowed to 
  work for a biotech company, then work for the FDA writing the 
  regulatory rules on that company's product, then go back to
  working for the company.  Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory 
  committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.)


You are charged with doing the right thing.....and you know who you will ultimately have to answer to for it...NOW DO THE RIGHT THING and give the American public the information they need about their foods, so they can make their own choices about whether or not to eat Genetically Engineered foods.   You will see a boom in the Organic foods business if you don't!

Sincerely, 
Patricia Faussett