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Codex Alimentarius is One Big Football Game
In 1994, the World Trade Organization (WTO) replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) with actual trade-sanction power to enforce Codex and other standards and guidelines.
Not surprisingly, Codex took on an entirely new
importance.
This was the 34th session of the
Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU),
alias “Malnutrition Meeting,” in frigid Bad Soden, Germany the first week of
December 2012, where the National Health Federation sought to make its own
gains and preserve our health freedoms.
In this case, for the majority of the represented World, ‘tackled’ was a voluntary fumble,
You have to realize the World doesn’t often
enjoy what the United States takes completely for granted, in this case,
safe, high-quality supplements in abundance.
That’s how Codex operates: by consensus. We don’t vote unless pushed.
The World must agree, must cooperate… however, what I witnessed at this session of the CCNFSDU was clearly, in legal terms, “leading” and manipulating the room to the wishes of three strong forces:
At Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “Food Code”), the plays are read, line by line, and debated on by a World that doesn’t necessarily even accept certain principles in their daily life - like taking supplements.
As a Nutritional Therapist, this was my meeting.
I had to be there. Thankfully a few staunch supporters made sure that
happened.
Was there anyone out of the nearly 300 delegates who really cared at all about the issues that will impact you when you go to the health-food store this coming year?
This was my second Codex meeting and I could see
clearly that the paragraphs dedicated to the discussion of our NRVs were in
danger of being accepted as written and set into stone around the World, all
in favor of just getting to the coffee break, and I mean that literally.
We went into a health-food store and I could hardly find the vitamin/mineral section. I had to ask. When I did find the one small shelf, the highest values for Vitamin D3 were 400 IUs. I take 25,000 IUs daily… talk about breaking the bank.
No wonder the World, represented in the form of country delegates, was anxious to get to the free coffee, sweet rolls, etc. at the break. Their countries cannot afford what seems to them to be nonsense, so they mentally have moved on and disregarded any pro-vitamin/mineral argument.
This is not their World. In fact, if the National Health Federation were not present at this crucial meeting on setting Nutrient Reference Values, I can guarantee you that your World would never be the same again.
Once lowered, do you really think NRVs would ever stand the chance of somehow going through Codex’s 8-step process to rise again? From a Nutritional Therapist’s standpoint, several of the nutrients that were placed on Codex’s sacrificial altar were methylation factors. B6, B12, Folic Acid…
If we don’t methylate well, we can develop opportunistic diseases. Cancer… heart attack that occurs when Homocysteine elevates…
Some, like calcium, which Codex wished to elevate out of proportion to stabilizing magnesium, and when taken out of balance, creates disease as well by mineralizing in soft tissue like blood vessels instead of the bone and teeth.
So, at this point I’m thinking,
So many of the final decisions made by Codex equal ill health for the World.
It means both Big Pharma and the so-called “health” care system profits, while we grow ill and die. It is no secret that depopulation is one aspect of the World’s agenda.
Dr. Henry Kissinger himself wrote:
Apparently America is the new ‘third World.’
The National Health Federation (NHF) is the ONLY health-freedom organization that has the power to speak out and, believe me, we do and we have - frequently. We have also submitted comments to the Electronic Working Groups that often meet in cyberspace before the meetings, and we also have the power to propose correction of the final report.
Do you know how many delegates stick around for the tedious, line-by-line reading of the final report?
Many are long gone, mistakenly trusting that the
work they performed for the World will actually be represented accurately in
the final report. NHF stays… to the bitter end. Hours of rehashing what we
have spent the week working toward, defending our documented statements,
defending the truth that too-often gets somehow skewed, omitted, or somehow
rendered opaque.
The attack by Australia and others on these
particular NRVs, from my professional standpoint, is designed to take out a
large number of the population at least in the U.S. where we have access to
supplements with values that are currently at least approaching sufficiency
and where we have the incomes generally to support their purchase.
They are including transfats and contaminants in infant formula! When we learn that in France, for example, breast feeding is neither popular nor widely practiced, it pays to defend the integrity of infant formulas!
But the trajectory of the morning - 3 hours before NRVs were even approached - was on ‘growing up milk,’ which Elizabeth Streken (an INGO representative of the International Baby Formula Action Network) said was a market ploy to get mothers to feel guilty if they didn’t keep bottle feeding babies way past time…
At any rate, the discrepancy and complete disconnect in regards to the NRVs was that supposedly Codex was there to prevent malnutrition in the World, yet here they were, the very last ones in favor of optimal nutrition for infants.
Instead, Codex was lowering our already
malnutrition-promoting, low NRVs, which are set to prevent the very
last-ditch disease processes before death instead of promoting optimum
nutrition and vibrant, disease-resistant health.
And then let us not forget the overarching theme
by Mme. Chair - “not so terribly Noble, Pia” - “What I Decide, Will Be.”
So, do you see now how important this ability is?
Not only can we speak; but, as mentioned above,
we can submit written comments and arguments - and we did, three times - on
the NRV issue alone prior to the meeting in Germany (twice as part of the
electronic working group hosted by the ultimate opposition: Australia, and
once directly to the Committee).
It is not only quite humbling but it carries an
enormous responsibility to carry the wishes and desires of those whom NHF
speaks for and represents to the seat of power. And we do so faithfully time
and again.
The Codex meeting on nutrition was anything but.
It was about some elite marketers seeking to manipulate the World - guilting them into keeping children on formulas when they needed to embrace a solid diet - real ‘growing up’ food. It was about government regulators lowering key nutrients and raising others that would ensure that our health would deteriorate.
It masqueraded in the guise of compassion and
the oft-said mantra “consumer protection,” yet all the while was undermining
our health by chipping away at the very foundations in the name of control
and ill health.
The answer was - you guessed it - NO.
Codex is a body that is supposed to elevate your health, not suppress it.
But who speaks for you there?
The National Health Federation. That’s the real
WHO.
While you’re there, we invite you to join our efforts to protect the health of the World by becoming a member or helping to underwrite expenses to future Codex Alimentarius meetings like the one upcoming in March 2013 in Beijing where the topic of ‘contaminants’ will be reviewed.
My personal passion is focusing on contaminants in infant formulas, as well as aspartame and aluminum in our food supply. We really cannot fight this fight without every one of you pitching in and doing your part.
Believe me, it’s so satisfying to know we really ARE making an impact on this World for the benefit of future generations.
Malnutrition from NationalHealthFederation Website
three women ram through a Codex
standard that
Malaysian and Benin delegates
at CCNFSDU Meeting
Nearly 300 delegates were in attendance,
comprised of government functionaries and international non-governmental
organizations (INGOs) representatives. So, for one week, the assembled
delegates - including the INGO delegation of the National Health Federation
(NHF) 1 - met, discussed, and debated a wide number of food and
food-supplement issues, including the controversial draft Nutrient
Reference Values (NRVs) for vitamins and minerals.
For example, the Proposed Draft Additional or Revised NRVs for Labeling Purposes in the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labeling suggested reducing the,
...and so forth.3
Yet Australia and its supporters are so fixated
on reducing the values even more that they have blinded themselves to the
real science showing the absolute need for more nutrient intake, not less.
Three years have passed since we first stopped
these NRVs from being adopted, and each year of non-adoption has been a
victory for NHF, and for you.
NHF was a member of that group along with twenty
other delegations. Working through e-mails, the Australian-led eWG gradually
prepared a report; and the NHF and other delegations submitted comments
throughout 2012, to be included in that report.
Strangely enough, this was exactly the approach pushed by the United States at the 2010 CCNFSDU meeting held in Santiago, Chile, but which NHF, the European Union, and others had opposed and defeated back then.
Resurrected from its vampire grave just in time for this 2012 meeting, this plan found support with both Australia and the United States working hard to ensure that, this time, at least half of the dumbed-down nutrient values could be pushed forward towards adoption.
Of course, the Committee covered other topics,
such as draft guidelines on the addition of essential nutrients to foods and
formulated supplementary foods for older infants and children. The latter
was as hotly-debated a topic as the NRVs.
By the end of the meeting it was clear that Ms. Carroll had been successful as NHF was always recognized by the Chairwoman when it requested the floor to speak.
Still, Dr. Noble is popular with some of the delegates because, as they put it,
Well, “moving things along” - like “Fly Me To The Moon” - has become something of a theme song for this Codex Committee.
Real nutritional science is trampled into the
mud as the Committee rushes pell-mell to adopt guidelines and standards
without considering the consequences of what it is doing. Unfortunately only
a few delegates realize what is happening, the majority are content to drift
along in concert with and at the direction of the few leaders.
When she asked and heard in response that I had only spoken with her and the U.S. delegate about that, her position visibly hardened and she told me simply,
It became obvious soon enough what the Committee would do, as I pushed the button on my microphone to speak when the meeting resumed after the lunch break.
As in 2009, I was the second person to speak!
This is highly unusual since the Codex procedure
is to let all of the country delegations speak first, and only then allow
the INGOs to speak. Being second meant that there were few who wanted to
speak out on this issue.
With that, my microphone illuminated red and it was my turn to speak.
I told the Committee that, except for calcium (whose value had been increased while magnesium’s had been decreased, the exact opposite of what should happen with these twin minerals), the Australian figures were all too low, that the NRVs were being reduced by anywhere from 15% to 25%, and questioned why Australia was always choosing the lowest values it could find, even lower than what the guidelines would call for.
The safety of vitamins and minerals, I argued, was unparalleled, so that there could be no problem with having higher levels of these nutrients.
Moreover, lowering the NRVs was inconsistent
with Codex’s announced goal of preventing malnutrition.
Malaysian delegate Nagen on
the Saturated-Fats issue
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), to the confusion of many, simply said,
Did that mean they supported the values, or opposed them?
It sounded more like the former, but we could
not tell.
The European Union (EU) delegate, Basil Mathioudakis, quite sensibly asked the Chairwoman what logic did it make to advance some and not all of the NRVs at the same time.
Switzerland disagreed with the EU, but NHF spoke up in support of the EU’s question and suggested that the so-called “suitable” NRVs be held back, or at the very least some of the more questionable ones such as Calcium and Vitamin K.
IADSA, in turn, pointed out that the Committee
was going against its own guidelines by not selecting the proper value, a
higher value, for Biotin.
Not only was the answer “no,” but Dr. Noble decided that since opposition might grow against these so-called “suitable” NRVs, then they should be advanced along the path of adoption as quickly as possible.
So, she unilaterally undertook to advance them
along the 8-Step adoption process to Step 5/8, where they now hover on the
edge of full adoption by the Commission itself next year.
Amazingly enough, many delegations spoke out against such language.
Only the U.S. delegation and two INGOs (NHF and
GAIN) defended this statement.
...succeeded in finally pushing forward eleven of the nineteen vitamins and minerals further along the road to adoption.
At the Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting next July there will be a further push to adopt these eleven vitamins and minerals and set their low (except for Calcium) values in stone.
Barbara Schneeman, the U.S. delegate, will not
be there as her retirement was announced at the CCNFSDU meeting.
Fortunately, there is still an opportunity to derail this effort to
steam-roller consumers into ill-health and NHF intends to make the most of
it.
The eWG will report back to the CCNFSDU when it
meets again next Fall in Germany.
Whether it was her obstinate opposition to adopting a guideline for labeling GMO foods (at the Codex Committee on Food Labeling) or her questionable support for dumbing-down NRVs (at CCNFSDU), she has unfortunately been too often on the wrong side of the issues. Perhaps, in the interests of better health for consumers worldwide, her retirement from Codex could have happened a few years earlier.
While this might sound uncharitable, inflicting
ill-health upon billions of humans is far less charitable still.
Whatever their agenda might truly be, the sad
fact is that consumer health will suffer from their thoughtless and
stercoraceous actions.
The concept that there is a greater level of nutrition - of optimal nutrition - is as foreign to them as space flight would be to Stone Age people.
They fail to comprehend that nutrients at proper
levels can actually enable individuals to function at more proficient levels
and without those diseases that afflict sub-optimally fed populations.
Is their thinking really as shallow as that?
Maybe we better hope it is, as that is an easier
mindset to deal with than
one of active malevolence.
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