Hightower Lowdown

Does Texas get hot in August? Does a bear squat in the woods? Does Quaker have a lot of oats?

Now add this one to the list of questions that answer themselves: "Do Americans want to require corporations to label their genetically manipulated food products?"

Now that Monsanto, DuPont, and the other biotech giants are tampering with the DNA of a third of the products in the supermarket without any testing of the long-term impact on human health, the environment, or our food supply—the answer is not simply "Yes" but "Hell yes, you Frankenfood greedheads!"

Americans want to know what's in the food we feed our families—which chemicals, how much saturated fat, and, yes, whether some lab geeks have put mouse genes in the french fries.

Yet the Food & Drug Administration has allowed these altered foods to go on the market without even telling the public. Now that people have learned about it and are rightly steamed, however, the FDA belatedly decided to commission focus groups and solicit tens of thousands of consumer comments. Big surprise: Its 15-page internal report concludes: "Virtually all participants said that bioengineered foods should be labeled as such." Furthermore, "most participants expressed great surprise that food biotechnology has become so pervasive in the US food supply . . . [and] outrage that such a change in the food supply could happen without them knowing about it."

But the FDA is still sitting on its hands. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is pushing a bill to make labeling mandatory. To help pass it, call his office: 202-225-5871.