U.S. Crop Seeds Contaminated Petition

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April 14, 2004

We the undersigned, endorse the following petition:
U.S. Crop Seeds Contaminated
Target: Bobby Acord USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Sponsor: Union of Concerned Scientists

SIGNATURES.15,366

GOAL: 12,000

DEADLINE: Ongoing ...

Consumers who want alternatives to genetically engineered (GE) food have sought products grown from traditional, non-GE seeds. Consumers take the availability of such seeds, and the ability of farmers to grow them, for granted.

The findings of a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists shatter this assumption. Laboratory testing of traditional varieties of corn, soybean, and canola seeds revealed widespread contamination by DNA from commercial GE crops.

These findings suggest that current federal regulations are inadequate to protect our seed supply from the next generation of GE crops – those engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals. Contamination of the traditional seed supply by these crops could result in farmers unwittingly planting, harvesting, and selling a crop that looks like its traditional counterpart to the naked eye. This product could then be processed and end up on our tables as drug-laced corn flakes and other consumer items.

Sign this petition to protect our nation's seed supply! Urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture to amend federal regulations to explicitly protect the seed supply from contamination by engineered pharmaceutical and industrial crops.

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.>MOST RECENT 25 of 15,366 SIGNATURES

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Number	Date	Name	State	I am concerned about genetically engineered foods because:
15,366	10:55 am PDT, Apr 14	Jeri Ann Guth	NC	There has not been long term research on all of the effects to human beings. If there was any other product that anyone asked me to have my child ingest, and explained that we still don't know the long terms effects- 20,30,40 years- I would refuse to give it to my child. And this is our food!!!!!!! And our future!!!!!!!!!!!!
15,365	10:51 am PDT, Apr 14	Anonymous	MA	Keep my food clean!!!!!!
15,364	10:49 am PDT, Apr 14	David O'Hara	PA
15,363	10:41 am PDT, Apr 14	Paul Foster	MI	Let's practice the precautionary principle.
15,362	10:39 am PDT, Apr 14	Stacy Philpott	MI	they are untested.
15,361	10:36 am PDT, Apr 14	Seneca Bowers-Janowicz	MI	They are infiltrating our food supply and leaving us with no choice. Even organics are at risk.
15,360	10:33 am PDT, Apr 14	Ruth Cain	GA
15,359	10:18 am PDT, Apr 14	Peter Rosset	CA
15,358	10:15 am PDT, Apr 14	Anonymous	MN
15,357	9:53 am PDT, Apr 14	La Deana Jeane	IL	this contamination of our food supply is slowly erradicating our right/ability to choose non-manipulated sources. I do not want to take part in this experiment.............
15,356	9:43 am PDT, Apr 14	jacqueline lyons	CA
15,355	9:15 am PDT, Apr 14	Anonymous	AZ	We need to protect our environment, our food supplies and our health. We need to take back control from Big businesses and the Chemical industries and do more natural things to ensure a healthy planet.
15,354	9:13 am PDT, Apr 14	Lisa Archer	MD	I don't want to lose the alternative of eating non-gmo crops. I'm also concerned about pharm crop contamination. It's your duty to make sure the food supply is safe. Stop allowing the open planting of these risky experimental crops.
15,353	8:52 am PDT, Apr 14	Anonymous	WA
15,352	8:45 am PDT, Apr 14	Holly Johnson	OH	I feel that the human species has no right to play God, mad scientist, or whatever with life on earth!! Things are the way they are for a reason!!!
15,351	8:44 am PDT, Apr 14	John Eakins	CO
15,350	8:43 am PDT, Apr 14	Anonymous	NY
15,349	8:41 am PDT, Apr 14	Tom Taylor	MN
15,348	8:38 am PDT, Apr 14	Guillaume Mimoun	NY
15,347	8:38 am PDT, Apr 14	Stephanie Purvis	IN
15,346	8:34 am PDT, Apr 14	Paul C. Bermanzohn, MD	NY	This is only a quieter, more insidious form of US imperial domionation. GE foods in the poor countries of the world are another answer to the question why do they hate us?
15,345	8:29 am PDT, Apr 14	Anonymous	PA	Please leave well enough alone. I prefer nature's natural products, unaltered. What are the consequences of tampering with nature's seeds over the long run??
15,344	8:23 am PDT, Apr 14	Briana Wagner	NY	we cannot ignore millions of years of evolution
15,343	8:18 am PDT, Apr 14	Paul Smith	--
15,342	8:16 am PDT, Apr 14	Madeline Schindel	PA

.>U.S. Crop Seeds Contaminated
Dear Administrator Acord,

Gone to Seed, a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), found that seeds of traditional varieties of corn, soybeans, and canola are pervasively contaminated with DNA from genetically engineered (GE) crops. I am writing to ask you to immediately amend federal pharmaceutical (pharm) and industrial crop regulations to explicitly protect the seed supply for food and feed crops from contamination by these genes and seeds.

UCS commissioned laboratory tests of traditional (non-GE) seeds of corn, soybeans, and canola which documented the presence of genes commonly used in commercial GE crops. I feel that these findings suggest inadequate government standards to protect seed supplies, and ultimately the nation’s food, from contaminants originating in pharm and industrial crops.

As you know, pharm and industrial crops are genetically engineered to produce drugs, vaccines, antibodies, and research and industrial chemicals. This emerging field of biotechnology essentially turns common food crops like corn into biological factories. While proponents of such crops promise benefits such as cheaper medicines and other consumer products, the drugs or industrial products they produce could be harmful to human health if unintentionally consumed.

Existing federal regulations attempt to keep pharm and industrial crops separate from food and feed crops, but they do not specifically address the issue of seed supply contamination. Now that we know that seed supplies are vulnerable to contamination we must protect them from pharm and industrial crop genes and seeds. If farmers grow crops using seed contaminated by pharm and industrial crop genes, they might unwittingly harvest and market crops that look like traditional food crops to the naked eye. Some of this contaminated harvest may make its way into food products. Consumers would be unaware that they were serving their children drug-laced corn flakes.

The federal government must act now to protect the seed supply, and ultimately my food, from contamination by pharm and industrial crops. I urge you to immediately amend federal pharm and industrial crop regulations to explicitly protect the seed supply for food and feed crops from contamination by these genes and seeds.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

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