From: csc216@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 6:33 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: What's in your food? (FDA Dockets 00N-1396 and 00D-1598)


Dear Corporate and Government Leaders,

Neither government nor industry is protecting Americans from the risks posed to human health and the environment by genetically engineered (GE) foods. The Food and Drug Administration's "new" policy on GE foods (proposed January 18, 2001) continues to let the biotech industry regulate itself; it fails to require the long-term, pre-market safety testing demanded by independent experts. The "voluntary labeling" guidelines are a wholly inadequate response to the overwhelming public support for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. Therefore, I urge you to keep all genetically engineered ingredients and crops off the market unless:

1) Independent safety testing demonstrates they have no harmful effects on human health or the environment, 

2) They are labeled to ensure the consumer's right-to-know, and 

3) The biotechnology corporations that manufacture them are held accountable for any harms they may cause.


Please don't always accept what Big Business tells you. Their number 1 priority is profit, and they will literally do anything, no matter how inhumane or otherwise corrupt, to get it. Sweat shops are only one of the many examples. Now they are using unmarked genetically engineered food as a tool for their greedy profit. If this food is marked, they may get less customers- with good reason. Once thorough impartial testing has been performed, amd the results made public in a complete and impartial way, then people may be able to better decide about which foods to eat. If businesses coninue to use GE that has been proven to be somehow harmful (if it is proven to be such), they will lose customers and will have no choice but to use normal food. And business continues. Biotechnology will need to learn more about what they are doing before they release mystery food to the public.


Sincerely

Charlie Calhoun