Jim Hightower

Does Texas get hot in August? Does a bear squat in the woods? Does Quaker have a lot of oats?

To this list of questions that answer themselves, add this one: Does the American public want corporations to label their genetically manipulated food products? Since Monsanto, DuPont, and other global biotech giants have tampered with the very DNA structure of about a third of the food products in the supermarket, and since this altering of the genes of corn, potatoes, soybeans, and other edibles has been done without testing the longterm impacts it will have on human health, the environment, or the food supply itself--the answer to the question is not "yes"...but "Hell yes, you Frankenfood greedheads!"

We Americans want to know what's in the food we feed our families--how much saturated fat, what kind of chemicals, and-yes-whether some laboratory geeks have put mouse genes in the French fries. The Food & Drug Administration, however has allowed these altered, dangerous foods to go on the market without even telling the buying public. Now, though, the public is learning about it, thanks to some watchdog groups, and people are rightly steamed. Also, some members of congress have made noise about it. So, in response the FDA recently decided to ask the public the obvious question, commissioning a series of 12 focus groups and soliciting tens of thousands of consumer comments. It then compiled all of these comments into an internal report.

Big surprise: FDA's15 page report concludes: "Virtually all participants said that bioengineered foods should be labeled as such." Futhermore, the FDA report notes that "most participants expressed great suprise that food biotechnlogy has become so pervasive in the US food supply...[and] outrage that such a change in the food supply could happen without them knowing about it."

This is Jim Hightower saying...Well, duh! Now FDA knows the obvious--yet it's doing nothing to require labeling. Congress can make FDA do it, though, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich is pushing a bill to make labeling mandatory. To help pass it, call his office: 202-225-5871.