Genetically engineered foods

OK, I was visiting the Whole Foods website and read their stand on genetically engineered foods. You can read it here: wholefoodsmarket

I felt like I had to respond because things are getting out of hand, so this is what I sent them.

I LOVE your stores and your products. I have to feed not only myself but a number of different animals that are even more sensitive to pesticides, etc. than we are. However, I have one concern about your statement on genetically engineered foods. I think that you are in a position to education people with true scientific information rather than jumping on the mass media band wagon and lumping all "genetically engineered foods" in to one scarey basket.

Please remember that even hybridization is a form of genetic engineering. That Ice Berg lettuce did not occur in nature. And that many crops we enjoy today would have been wiped out at some point in history if farmers and botonists had not figured out how to share the hardiness or resistance of one plant with that of another.

I think there are absolutley risks with some genetic engineering and as always we need to be watchful about how far things go, but I encourage you to temper your position on the subject with some common sense and expanded understanding of the broader subject of possible benefits as well as risks.

I feel that your position right now just encourages ignorance in favor of a great marketing angle. I would hate to have Whole Foods become just another manipulator of public hysteria.