From: Sam [samri@samshomepage.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 2:05 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
Please read this letter and forward it to any one who you think would be interested, concerned, or tolerant of the offensive views which I share with millions of other Americans and which would result in your losing money.  WAH!  I feel so sorry for you. 
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I am writing about the Genetically-Engeneered (GE) food controversy. 
I strongly believe that GE organisms are harmful and that there is no accurate way to predict what will happen when an organism of any sort is Genetically Engineered.  Why then are scientists allowed to tamper with the Genetic Structure of organisms, when they have no idea what their action will do to the intricately inter-laced network of chemical reactions etc. taking place in that organism?! 
I will use an example to illustrate my point.  When scientists first began experimenting with the Escherichia coli bacterium, they were extremely cautious in their every move, because they didn't know what they were doing, and were afraid that they might accidentally create a "super germ."  However, this (rightful) caution wore off, even though they still didn't know what they were doing, and now there are dangerous strains of E. coli that cause disease, just as they had feared from the beginning.  Perhaps if they had continued being careful in what they did, and certainly if they had not messed with things they never understand in the first place, this would never have become a problem! 
Today, scientists know little, if nothing, more than they did then.  Why then, are they allowed to haphazardly throw an entirely foreign DNA sequence into the intricate (and not yet even fully understood) code of a living creature?  They seem to forget that a living creature has certain "pre-programmed" instincts, certain instincts that make it replicate itself, and defend itself from harm.  So why are they blithely taking whatever enzyme they imagine might provide a desirable trait, from whatever organism they feel like, and sticking it into the middle of an amazingly complicated message that they do not even know how to decode?  And their methods are inaccurate at best!  Imagine a chef trying to cut vegetables for a salad using a chain saw, or Michaelangelo using a 18" wide roller on a 12' long handle to make the "finishing touches" on your portrait?  Would it even look like you?  Perhaps if the portrait was the size of Mount Rushmore!  But if it were the size of a penny, you must admit that your face would look interesting indeed. 
YET, AFTER ALL THIS, these dangerous procedures are being used on the very FOOD THAT WE EAT!  How can you, the FDA, say that you are concerned with the health of America, when you allow such things to occur?  And to your shame, you will not permit us to, even REQUIRE THAT WE NOT, even be allowed to know whether the food we are eating is a result of this Genetic Engineering!  Do we even have a choice?  If I were to decide, for my own self, that this process is dangerous and unwholesome, and that I, and not necessarily anyone else, do not wish to subject myself to it, would I even have that choice?  Surely I must be allowed to make the decision for myself, even if no one else agrees with what I have decided. YOU MUST REQUIRE THIS DANGEROUS FOOD TO BE LABELED!  You CAN NOT take away the right of the people to know what they are PUTTING INTO THEIR MOUTHS! 
This food is dangerous not only for people and animals, the environment and everything else, but it is bad for farmers too!  A family farmers, growing traditional crops for many years, can suddenly be sued by the "big bucks companies" who "invented" the crops growing on the next farm over!  Why?  Because a few grains fell into his field, grew, and were found there, or perhaps some pollen from the literal living pesticide factories contaminated his farm?  It has happened!  Do not try to say it hasn't!  And what of the mere fact that they did contaminate this farmer's crop?  These poisons spread!  Already, weeds have developed which are resistant to the same chemicals which these "special" crops were designed to be resistant to!  What are the implications of this?  Soon, no chemical will be effective, because all weeds and insect pests will be immune to the chemicals in use! 
Therefore, we must come a the conclusion:  Genetically Engineering organisms is dangerous, bad for the environment, bad for humans, bad for farmers, bad for animals, and to top it all off, it is extremely inaccurate!  This practice ought be halted, but you must at least give the consumers the ability to know!  You MUST require GE foods to be labelled as such!  You cannot afford not to.  Yes, I know that everything you do revolves arount making money.  We are not talking about $$MONEY$$ here!  The future of the world is at stake! 
Sincerely,  me, a concerned person who happens to eat food every day and would like to know what has been done to it.