High everyone!! Its Wisconsin here again!! This is from the Center for Food Safety (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/). Spread the word far and wide and remember to vote early and vote often!! ;-) You can either copy and personalize the letter they provide or use their interface. I recommend personalizing because politicians tend to ignore the prefab postcard/letter campaigns, because they don't think people are serious enough to write their own letters. They dismiss the prefab letter-writing campaigns and rationalize the dismissal as legitimate because the campaign is the product of the organizing group rather than any true public sentiment!! Oppose FDA�s New Regulations on Genetically Engineered Food http://www.foodsafetynow.org/send.asp?cam_id=70 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. The comment period has been extended until May 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 you to personalize, print out, and mail to the address provided. Otherwise, you can use this website to submit your comments directly into the federal docket.
