Get the Drift?

Save our seed supply from further GE contamination

40 percent of all organic soy products tested in a new UK study were tainted with genetically engineered material. And recent reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the Union of Concerned Scientists highlight the threat posed by GE crops of contaminating conventional seeds and damaging the environment as altered genes spread. But the USDA is considering allowing the spread of these engineered genes (including those from pharmaceutical crops) in conventional seeds without any human health or environmental review. Urge them instead to protect our seed supply from genetic contamination.

Take Action

Tell the USDA:

* There should be no open-air plantings of "biopharm" crops (crops engineered to produce pharmaceutical drugs and industrial chemicals);

* "Biopharm" crops should not be engineered into food crops;

* There should be no exemptions for the occurrence of low levels of unapproved varieties in the food supply; and

* There must be regulations in place to ensure that all GE crops are appropriately monitored.

Send comments to regulations@aphis.usda.gov , and include Docket No. 03-031-2 in the subject line. The comment deadline is MARCH 23, 2004.

Vote with your dollars:

* Buy organic corn and soy products whenever you can, and ask your store manager if they are GE-free. Print out and give him a copy of this page and urge him to join with you and other customers in demanding protection of our food and the environment from GE contamination.

More Information

Read "Gone to Seed" the Union of Concerned Scientists Report on gene drift from GE plants.

Read "Biological Confinement of Genetically Engineered Organisms" from the National Academies of Science (2004).

For more on the UK study of organic contamination, see "Expert: 40% of Soya is Contaminated" in the London Evening Standard.