Without warning or notice, you have been included in a potentially dangerous experiment on our food. Look at the ingredient list on any packaged food in your cupboard. You are certain to find ingredients made from corn, soy, canola, or cottonseed. These ingredients commonly come from plants that have been genetically altered and are being grown on millions of acres in the U.S. Soy derivatives like lecithin alone are found in 60 to 70 percent of all processed food. The food industry doesn't want you to know that it has embarked on an experiment unique in human history-an experiment that doctors and scientists around the world are warning may not be safe.
Consumers have a right to know whether the food they eat has been genetically modified.
We should all have the ability to avoid eating genetically modified food. But documents from a 1998 lawsuit against the FDA show that even within the FDA, scientists warned that genetically modified foods could have adverse health effects. If a car company came out with a new model without doing thorough safety testing, most people would be reluctant to buy the car. Yet right now we are serving as the crash test dummies for the food industry's experiment on our food. Unlike traditional crop or animal breeding, genetic engineering enables scientists to cross genes from bacteria, viruses, and even humans into plants and animals.