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
Genetically modified foods did not exist prior to 1995. Ninety percent of the money Americans spend on food is spent on processed foods and seventy percent of processed foods have genetically modified foods in them.
There are NO LONG-TERM STUDIES with humans on what happens when one consumes genetically modified foods. The FDA has ASSUMED that they are equivalent to the original and never required any studies to have them approved.
This is despite the fact that this technology has never existed in the history of the world before.
Absolutely Brilliant!
Especially in light of the US Federal track record on genetically engineered safety which is terrible.
Last year Starlink corn was only approved for animal consumption, NOT human consumption. This was because of a concern that it could cause allergies in humans. Well, Starlink corn wound up directly in the human food supply, despite FDA precautions.
There are EIGHT different agencies in the US regulating biotechnology under TWELEVE different set of laws. NONE of the laws had biotechnology in mind when they were passed, as they are 40-50 years old.
Folks, this is one of the biggest disasters I have ever seen that is waiting to happen.
You say why aren't people getting sick? Well, the damage may be insidious, similar to smoking and it might require many decades of ingestion to observe a defect.
Already investigators have found that rats fed genetically modified potatoes had an increased thickening in the lining of their stomach and intestine and a weakening of their immune system.
To add insult to injury the new legislation does not even have the growers identify the food as genetically modified. So you will be left clueless and in the dark. The process is completely voluntary.
Please take the time to fill out the form at the website of the The Center for Food Safety at http://www.foodsafetynow.org/send.asp?cam_id=70
In addition, Greenpeace has just launched an international campaign targeting genetically modified fish, which I would encourage all to participate in at http://www.truefoodnow.org/inside_scoop/index.html
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