market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market Farming
List archive
- From: "Jill Taylor Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
- To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
- Subject: Letter to the Editor
- Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 07:12:33 -0600
To the Editor:
The food on the shelves in your grocery store are full of genetically engineered ingredients. These foods are not labeled as containing GE ingredients, nor have the GE ingredients been tested for consumption safety. The Food and Drug Administration 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. Since labeling for GE foods is now voluntary, no GE food producer has labeled his/her GE products. For now, the principle of "Substantial Equivalence", a concept created by lawyers working for the Biotech industry in order to facilitate rapid approval of GE foods, has been accepted for assuring us that GE foods are safe for us to eat. Here is what Dr. Pusztai, one of the few scientists that have been involved in testing GE foods for safety in consumption says about it: "The idea of "substantial equivalence" is that there is no need for biological safety tests because the plants must be of similar composition as the parent line. This is the basis on which GM crops are being released. However, they cannot be substantially equivalent to the parent because you've introduced new genes. That's why I don't give tuppence for substantial equivalence. We had two transgenic lines of potato produced from the same gene insertion and the same growing conditions; we grew them together along with the parent plant. With our two lines of potato, which should have been substantially equivalent to each other, we found that one of the lines contained 20% less protein than the other. So the two lines were not substantially equivalent to each other. But we also found that these two lines were not substantially equivalent to their parent. This could not be predicted. It demonstrates that the unpredictability is inherent in the GM process on a case by case basis - and also at the level of every single GM plant created............... In genetic engineering, a lot of GM plants never see the daylight, because for one reason or another they don't grow or they have an unpleasant colour like the GM salmon which turned green. Where unpredictable effects show up, you throw them out. But from the point of view of science, these are important. Because if GM is such a predictable, precise science, then you should be able to produce the same thing again and again. But you can't," said Dr. Pusztai. http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/A.Pusztai/index.htm The good news is that the FDA, as required by law, has a comment period, which lasts until April 3rd, to hear from the public. Please write and give the FDA your opinion about GE foods - whether you think there should be mandatory labeling, and whether there should be safety testing. Your comments should be addressed to FDA Commissioner, Docket No. 00N-1396/OOD-1598, FDA Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. You can also submit comments directly to the FDA through the website of the Center for Food Safety - www.foodsafetynow.org Jill Taylor Bussiere |
- Letter to the Editor, Jill Taylor Bussiere, 02/27/2001
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.