Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the educational and outreach initiative on agricultural biotechnology which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was tasked to carry out in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017. Consumers Union is the policy and action division of the nonprofit Consumer Reports, the largest consumer organization in the United States, reaching more than 7 million consumers through its print and online publications, and engaged with more than 1.5 million consumer activists concerned about policy issues.
Consumers Union has long advocated for pre-market safety testing and labeling of GMO foods, as Consumer Reports’ national surveys, year after year, have shown that an overwhelming percentage of consumers, upwards of 90%, say they want to know if the food they are buying has been genetically engineered.