Comment from Eric Stubbs

Deregulating this crop will lead to more genetic contamination. There is already a risk of genetic contamination due to people unknowingly planting seeds from imported GE papayas. Allowing growers to plant this crop on a large scale, however, will ensure that naturally-breed varieties will be contaminated. In the end, the only people that benefit are those selling the GE products - not the growers, the consumers, or the environment. Consumers cannot vote for or, more importantly, against this with their dollar, as one comment suggested. Most consumers don't even know that they eat GE foods on a daily basis because Monsanto has done such a good job seeking the approval of 'dereg' politicians. Since the GE foods are not labeled, as they must be in the EU, consumers in this country are absolutely unaware of the issue. However, if one looks at the exponential growth of the organics industry, it is easy to conclude that consumers are voting NO for GMO foods. Please consider this news article when making your decision: http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2004/09/20/News/Gmo-Taints.Isles.Papaya.Crop-2799609.shtml