This comes to us from MoveOn.org:
Below is an email from Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, and Gary Hirshberg, chairman of Stonyfield Farm. Eric and Gary created a petition on SignOn.org that is getting a lot of attention. If you have concerns or feedback about this petition, click here.
The FDA is on the brink of approving genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. This would be the first genetically engineered animal on supermarket shelves in the United States.
The salmon is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice the normal rate. The government already requires labels to tell us if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised—don’t we also have a right to know if our salmon is genetically engineered? Without labels, we’ll never know.
More than forty countries, including Russia and China, already require labels on genetically engineered foods. As Americans, we firmly believe that we deserve the same right to know what we are eating.
That’s why I created a petition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on SignOn.org, which says:
Commissioner Hamburg, we urge the FDA to require the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. We have a right to know about the food we eat and what we feed our families, but under current FDA regulations, we don’t have that ability when it comes to genetically engineered foods.
Polls show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare. Please listen to the American public and mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods.
Will you sign the petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=271198&id=35802-3898478-SizS90x&t=2
Thanks!
–Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirshberg
There are so many problems with gietencally engineered animals and vegetables. Where to begin?When this became a reality under George Bush’s administration,(not George W.- his father) resided over by his Vice President, there was a clear decision not to allow anyone to know anything about the details. Patents were bandied about. Shrimp genes in tomatoes, human genes in other vegetables. So you want to eat humans? Remember, genes are actual biological realities. They give you the make up of who you are.. eye color/hair color. I will skip the canabalism.Secondly, how do people with religiously or ethically based diets protect their food sources? Is a tomato kosher if it has shrimp genes in it? Is it halal for the Islamic community? (You know the halal designation only exists for meat. Until now, I guess) How about the pork genes in vegetables? No one will tell you which is which. So, where is the outcry by the clerics? If you don’t have to pay attention to the shrimp and pork genes (an human genes- are humans kosher and halal?), why not just chow down on any animal flesh? Where is the distinction? If part of a tomato or a goat is human, the religious community has to answer some tough questions.How about that separation of church and state? Isn’t the government making choices for people’s religious practices by withholding this information? Has not the government decided that these religious or ethical tenets are unimportant?Personally, I already was a vegan. Made me into a vegan who eats only organic food. I want to know what I am eating. I think it is my right as an American.P.S. The interesting part was that as soon as we went organic, both my husband and I lost 25 pounds each, without any other change in our diets. Makes you wonder about the multi-billion dollar diet industry and the FDA and USDA hmmmP.P.S. The first patent for a gietencally engineering organism was a bacteria. You see no normal cell will allow the invasion of a foreign gene unless you destroy it with this bacteria.The scientist will tell you that this is just the centuries old process of grafting fruits and vegetables together speeded up a bit. I think not.