Demand the Same Level of Food Safety that Europeans Enjoy!
Contamination Threat Against U.S. Food Supply
| The Center for Food Safety has issued this action alert. If you care about American children, you will take this issue very seriously. Safety standards in the US are much lower than those in Europe. |
Tell USDA that Contamination of our Food Supply is Unacceptable
The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is currently seeking public comments as it reevaluates its genetic engineering regulations. This review comes at a time when recent research highlights the risks and pervasiveness of contamination of conventional crops with genetically engineered (GE) traits.
A National Academy of Sciences report found that containment of GE crops could not be guaranteed under the present system, and that the spread of genes from GE plants poses potential environmental harm. In addition, a new report published this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) found widespread contamination of conventional seeds with GE contaminants.
Instead of seeking to control the contamination of the food supply, USDA is considering a complete cave-in, tolerating the presence of transgenic DNA in conventional varieties of seed. This could result in the agency skipping any human health and environmental review of these GE varieties before they end up in the food supply. To make matters worse, some of the GE contaminants could come from plants engineered to produce pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals, products never intended for the human food supply.
Please Submit Your Comments
Tell the USDA that the contamination of conventional varieties with GE varieties is unacceptable. Tell them to include the following determinations in the Environmental Impact Statement:
- There should be no open-air plantings of "biopharm crops", crops engineered to produce pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals;
- "Biopharm crops" should not be engineered into food crops;
- There should be no exemptions for the occurrence of 'low' levels of unapproved varieties in the food supply; and
- There must be regulations in place to ensure that all GE crops are appropriately monitored.
You can also submit comments via postal mail (send an original and three copies) to:
Docket No. 03-031-2
Regulatory Analysis and Development,
PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71
4700 River Road, Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238
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