From: Ben Levi [ben@dimensional.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 2:30 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

Re: Rules on Genetically Engineered Foods

You 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. It would be irresponsible of any FDA official to allow such a
possibility to happen, and the American people would hold you personally
responsible for such an irresponsible lack of concern for the welfare of the nation.

You 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, especially at the welfare of the
multinational companies that produce these products. The job of the FDA is to
advocate and protect the American people, not Monsanto.

You must require mandatory labeling of GE products!
You must require mandatory labeling of GE products!
You must require mandatory labeling of GE products!
(GET IT???)

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.
Our democracy can only continue to thrive if the People have the information
they need to make important decisions. Without mandatory labeling, this
information would prevent any American from making a clear decision and choice
about their health and well-being -- the purpose of the FDA.

You must end your cozy relationship with the industries  you purport 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. For the sake of the American
people, I urge you to stop this incestuous and dysfunctional behavior. It is
clearly dangerous to the American people.

Thank you.
Ben Levi
-- 
Ben Levi         | Ph:303-546-0679    | Fax: 303-473-0489
151 Wildcat Lane | Boulder, CO  80304 | ben@dimensional.com
"Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being
is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiraling process marked by progressive
subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order
systems as man's existential problems change." -- Clare Graves