Response to my letter from FDA
Somebody at the FDA has responded to my complaint, and here is the correspondence (start at the bottom and work your way up, for chronological order):
You might file a freedom of information request using guidance provided at http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInforma...OI/default.htm
Consumer Affairs Specialist #3
Communication and Coordination Branch Division of Education and Communication Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition U.S. Food and Drug Administration -
----Original Message-----
From: *********
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 7:47 AM
To: CFSAN-Consumer
Subject: Re: Petition signatures
Is there any way I could find out this information?
*********
On 04/13/2012 05:51 AM, CFSAN-Consumer wrote:
Ms. ********, This is a good suggestion but we don't normally do that with dockets. All signatures that are not duplicates will be counted from what I have been told. This is normal practice with any information submitted to dockets.
Consumer Affairs Specialist #3
Communication and Coordination Branch Division of Education and Communication Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition U.S. Food and Drug Administration -
----Original Message-----
From: **********
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:44 PM To: CFSAN-Consumer
Subject: Re: Petition signatures
Will y'all be sending out a press release or some other type of public information, letting everybody know exactly how many signatures have been received? There are a lot of angry people out here that might be "soothed" somewhat to find out that the majority of the petition signatures will be counted after all.
Thanks for your time,
*********
On 04/12/2012 12:25 PM, CFSAN-Consumer wrote:
They have arrived at dockets and been counted.
Consumer Affairs Specialist #3
Communication and Coordination Branch Division of Education and Communication Office of Food Defense, Communication, Education and Response Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
From: *********** Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 1:20 PM
To: CFSAN-Consumer Subject: Petition signatures
So, does that mean that a hard copy of the petition should be arriving in your office soon? And that the hundreds of thousands of signatures will be counted?
On 04/12/2012 08:04 AM, CFSAN-Consumer wrote:
For privacy purposes it may be that the signatures do not get posted on the web. However, the hard copy would still have the signatures if they were there from the beginning.
Consumer Affairs Specialist #3
Communication and Coordination Branch Division of Education and Communication Office of Food Defense, Communication, Education and Response Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
From: ******** Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 10:26 AM
To: CFSAN-Consumer Subject: LISTEN TO US! :(
Sirs,
I am sending this email to my Representative and both my Senators, with a copy to the FDA. I AM OUTRAGED that the FDA can completely disregard the wishes of the majority of the American people when we DEMAND that they LABEL GMOs!
I apologize for using caps, but I don't know how else to get across how FURIOUS I am! I signed the "Just Label It" petition a few weeks ago, and now I find out that the nearly 1 million signatures on that petition are being written off as ONE COMPLAINT by the FDA! ( http://naturalsociety.com/fda-delete...#ixzz1qerLDm4f ) How IN THE WORLD does that make any sense?????
A MILLION AMERICANS took the time to participate in this campaign to have genetically modified foods labeled as such . . . and the FDA just WRITES US OFF??? Excuse me?
I am a 57-yr-old grandmother with one college student still at home and the grandkids coming over once or twice a week to visit. I struggle every day to provide healthy, nutritious food for my family. I know that MOST Of the corn, soy, canola, and sugar beets in this country are genetically modified. I don't want that CRAP on my table! So, one day I went down the cookie and cracker aisle at my favorite grocery store, reading the ingredients on every package. There was only ONE PACKAGE on that aisle that did not have one of those in the ingredients! I bought 3 packages of pecan shortbread cookies that day, because it was the only product on the entire aisle that I TRUSTED!
WE WANT GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS LABELED. Can I explain it any more clearly than that?
Several medical organizations have expressed reservations about the safety of genetically altered foods, and GMOs have been implicated in the die-off of honeybees -- the primary pollinators of most of our fruits and vegetables.
If a MILLION Americans took the time to write the FDA -- or sign the petition -- asking to have these food products LABELED, shouldn't our voices be heard? A million Americans . . . That means one in every 350 Americans (men, women, children) have put their name down requesting this action by our government. How many more feel the same way, but are either not on the Internet or simply feel there's no point, because the government doesn't listen to the people anymore, anyhow? Please stand up for We the People. We want this stuff LABELED.
Thank you for taking the time to read my rant.
Sincerely,
***************
