Suppressed FDA documents about genetic engineering

[fran7371@uidaho.edu (John Francis)]

Visionaries
Top Food and Drug Administration officials have apparently suppressed
warnings from their own scientists about rhe dangers of genetically
engineered plants.  The warning memos by these scientists have now been
posted on the Internet.  The story, as related below by a University of
Texas biologist, is a disturbing one.


>From: Dick Richardson <d.richardson@mail.utexas.edu>
>Subject: Suppressed FDA documents about genetic engineering
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>
>The FDA dismissed/suppressed much discussion about the risks of
>trans-species engineered crops in order to allow the industry (Monsanto,
>Novartis, etc.) to market the crops without extensive testing. The decision
>was purely political, although now the claim is that it was scientific. If
>you want to read copies of the FDA memos, which came to light after a court
>order, check the web site:
>
>http://www.biointegrity.org/list.html
>
>You can read how their staff complained about the schizophrenic and
>unscientific position that subsequently has been adopted by the agency.
>But, now you will read statements from the industry and the FDA, USDA, and
>other agencies that the critics are hysterical, and unscientific.
>
>The genetic engineering industry, the FDA, and even though relatively
>silent in the discussions, the USDA, are clearly not representing the
>public interest. The things I have mentioned before are either repeated in
>these documents or have been recognized since these memos were written.
>This is a clear case of our public health regulatory system breaking down
>in order to benefit a selected industry which it is supposed to regulate.
>Now the political agenda has become an issue of "trade restrictions." As
>one writer said, the safety regulation has moved from testing to "body
>counts". But, it may be years before they are counted, which allows
>millions to be harmed in the meantime.
>
>We have experience with this delayed effect with respect to pesticides
>(insecticides and herbicides) that were NOT genetically engineered into
>what we eat. (You can't wash off the pesticides made in the plant.) We were
>not protected from endocrine mimicking pesticides because they were assumed
>to not have properties other than what they were marketed to have. Now are
>only beginning to see the tips of icebergs -- the effects that were not on
>the label. The full impact of these pesticides will remain unknown for many
>more years. This is a USDA, and ultimately an EPA, failure. USDA and EPA do
>not approve food safety, but deal with pesticides that kill pests (USDA) or
>with chemicals that are pollutants (EPA). The FDA regulates food, not
>pesticides. Note, the ecological effects were not the concern of the FDA,
>so they were not relevant to these agency memos. Neither USDA nor EPA have
>gotten into the genetically modified issues, since only food is modified.
>But, where does the crop debris go after the harvest. What are the effects
>of pollen, or beneficial insects eating insects that have eaten a sublethal
>dose of the plant produced pesticide? We now have good data that both can
>be ecologically harmful, but to the full extent we haven't a clue.
>
>Dick
>
>
>
>
>Dick Richardson
>Section of Integrative Biology (C0930)
>School of Life Sciences
>University of Texas at Austin
>Patterson Laboratories -- 24th at Speedway
>Austin, TX 78712-1064
>
> Phones:	512-471-4128
>	fax	512-471-3878
>
>
>
>
>
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John Francis
311 East 6th St., #2
Moscow, ID 83843
(208) 883-0105       fran7371@uidaho.edu