PLEASE ACT TODAY
THE DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS TUESDAY, APRIL 3.

TELL THE FDA THAT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS
MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY

The Food and Drug Administration is now accepting public comment on its proposed new rules on genetically engineered (GE) foods. Despite overwhelming consumer demand, the FDA has failed to require health and ecological safety testing or mandatory labeling, and thus puts your health and our environment at risk and deprives you of the right to know or choose what you are eating.

The proposed rules:

Do not require mandatory pre-market safety testing

Do not require pre-market environmental review

Do not require mandatory labeling of GE foods

Restrict voluntary labeling of non-GE foods

Require a mere letter of notification prior to the marketing of a GE food

Fail to ensure public access to adequate information for independent review

Are supported by industry and opposed by consumer groups

The FDA needs to hear from hundreds of thousands of Americans that:

* The FDA 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.

* The FDA 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.

* The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products.
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.

* The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries
it purports 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.

PLEASE ACT TODAY
THE DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS TUESDAY, APRIL 3.

eMail your comments to:
fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
with "Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598" in the Subject line

Mail your comments to:
Food and Drug Administration
Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305)
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852

For more information:
218-226-4164
www.OrganicConsumers.org