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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently
announced new rules and guidance on genetically engineered (GE) foods.
Unfortunately, despite
overwhelming consumer demand, the agency has still failed to require safety
testing and mandatory labeling for GE foods.
Instead of mandating safety testing, the FDA's new
rule merely requires that food producers notify the agency before marketing
a GE food.
There is strong scientific
evidence of numerous potential health and environmental risks to GE foods.
These foods could be toxic, could cause allergic responses,
could have lower nutrition value and could compromise immune responses
in consumers.
Under FDA's new notification rule, GE foods will reach
supermarket shelves without any required testing for these human health
problems, much less any review of their environmental risks. As a result,
millions of consumers will continue to be unknowing
guinea pigs testing the safety of these foods.
This is totally unacceptable!
As for labeling, the FDA has decided to make all
labeling of GE foods voluntary. Not surprisingly,
no GE food producer has agreed to label their products.
So consumers still will have no way of knowing which
foods have been genetically engineered.
This voluntary labeling scheme not only violates
the consumer's right to know, it also has health
consequences. Without labeling, neither consumers nor health
professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction was the result
of a genetically engineered food. Consumers will also be deprived of the
critical knowledge they need to hold food producers liable should any
of these novel foods prove hazardous.
The good news is that these rules are not final. The
FDA, as required by law, has opened a comment period to hear from the
public. This comment period lasts until April 3rd. We need to let the
FDA and the Bush Administration know that we will settle for nothing less
than mandatory safety testing and labeling
of all GE foods.
It is critical that the FDA hears from hundreds of
thousands of Americans. To help get this massive response we are providing
you with the letter below, which we recommend that you print out and mail
to the address provided.
Otherwise, you can use this website to submit your
comments directly into the federal docket. Additionally, we are mailing
over 200,000 postcards nation wide for people to sign and send to the
FDA. If you are interested in helping us distribute these postcards to
your friends, family, co-workers, and natural food co-ops, please call
1-800-600-6664.
Fill out the form to the FDA at the following web
site now!
http://www.foodsafetynow.org/send.asp?cam_id=70
The
Center for Food Safety
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