The State of Health Freedom

[Guest guest]

Hello Community......here is a recent update on the state of our right to

choose, on our

health freedom. Please read this and then you decide:

Cathleen Springer

 

 

 

 

July 4, 2007 

PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE

 

Summer of Decisions: The State of Health Freedom 2007

Natural Solutions Foundation Analysis

 

 

A series of international and US government actions at the end of 2006 and

beginning of

2007 have put Health Freedom of Choice -- with regards to Organic Standards,

Nutrients,

Traditional Remedies and Leading Edge Alternatives -- in greater jeopardy than

any time

since the adoption of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act  of 1994

(DSHEA).

Thus, the Summer of 2007 has become a Summer of Decision for health freedom

activists.

Codex Alimentarius is the least known, the most impactful and potentially the

most

dangerous threat to health and health freedom.  Most threats to health freedom

are local (

e.g., a State goes on a rampage against physicians practicing drug free

medicine), national

(e.g.,  the US FDA decides to articulate the law inaccurately setting the stage

for draconian

" enforcement " of a regulatory structure which deems all health aides to be

untested drugs,

like cherries if used for arthritis, or untested devices, like hot rocks to

sooth painful

muscles).  Codex, because it is a UN project which sets standards and guidelines

controlling the international trade of all foods and nutrients, not only

determines what is

available internationally (with all the market pressure that implies) but also

becomes the

domestic law for those countries which, like the United States, have decided to

" Harmonize " with Codex standards and guidelines.  The US announced its intention

to do

just that on October 11, 1995 in the Federal Register when it stated that it

would give

preference to international standards over US regulation and, as it has turned

out, US law

as well.

Codex is a mechanism for moving the entire world rapidly towards an

industrialized,

nutrient poor diet which benefit a multinational constituency and threaten

health

everywhere by compromising food on a cataclysmic scale.  Under Codex, dangerous,

expensive and health-damaging changes in the global food supply are being

implemented. Organic standards are being degraded, permitted heavy metal residue

levels

are being increased, Codex permits astonishingly high levels of dangerous

industrial

drugs, chemicals, pesticides, toxic veterinary drugs and other poisons in the

food supply. 

Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) for many pesticides are being removed so that

there is no

upper limit whatsoever to the amounts of these systemic poisons which can be

introduced

into foods (and into the bodies and environments of the farmer, his family and

his land.

Others are being increased dramatically.  Organic standards are being lowered so

pure,

unadulterated food can be expected to vanish globally since the phrase will be

maintained

but the reality will be degraded beyond recognition to meet the needs of

industrial

farming.  At the same time, high potency (dose) nutrients are being prohibited

since they

are treated as if they were toxins (severely limited, unlike most toxins) and

" assessed " by

" Risk Assessment " to be present at  no more than, for vitamins and minerals, for

example,

115% of the amount found in untreated foods.  High potency nutrients will become

unavailable in any country which " HARMonizes " with Codex " (the US) or adopts its

texts as

its domestic laws (most of the developing world).

In effect, Codex standards and guidelines mandate unparalleled levels of

toxicity plus

global under-nutrition, the very same condition to which the World Health

Organization

(WHO), one of Codex's parent organizations (Food and Agriculture Organization,

or FAO, 

is the other) attributes the global epidemic of non communicable diseases of

under

nutrition: cancers, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes and obesity. These

diseases

are the principle killers in the developed world (after properly used

pharmaceuticals) and

are rapidly becoming the principle killers in the developing world as well. 

These

preventable diseases are also major profit centers for industries that depend on

illness for

their profits: the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

At this year's Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) meeting (FAO Headquarters,

Rome,

July 2-7, 2007) the procedure has been radically altered.  In previous years,

standards and

Guidelines proposed by the various Codex Committees and regional associations

were

discussed (at least to some extent) by the national delegates to the annual CAC.

Unjust,

dangerous, unwise or unhealthy Codex texts were opposed by countries whose self

interest or public health was harmed by the text under consideration.  If the

standard or

Guideline was not approved or needed to be revised, it would either be killed or

sent back

to Committee for revision, often along with specific instructions to that body. 

When ready,

the text would return to CAC for further consideration, advancement to another

level of

acceptance or rejection.

That has changed dramatically.  The anticipated date for implementation and

globalization

of total control of the world's food trade appeared to be dramatically off

track.  Things

were not moving very rapidly despite the near-desperate efforts of Committee

chairpersons like the German Rolf Grossklaus, MD. of the Codex Committee for

Nutrition

and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) and the Canadian Ellen Mackenzie,

Ph.D. of

the Codex Committee for Food Labeling to rush decisions, curtail discussion and

gallop

through their view of the agenda at a dizzying pace. Of course, pro-health

options like the

WHO's Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Nutrition (mandated for

implementation by Codex by both WHO and FAO) somehow never seemed to garner

adequate time for meaningful discussion leaving implementation strategies in the

dust

and in the dark.

This year at CAC not only has the Natural Solutions Foundation been prevented

from

mingling, eating or talking with the Codex Delegates (by security guards on

several

occasions!), but the delegates have been prevented from discussion of the

standards and

Guidelines they are advancing through the Codex process!  It is strikingly

reminiscent of

the US Senate being handed sealed copies of the Patriot Act weeks after 9/11,

assured that

their security clearances were not high enough to read the law but being

instructed to vote

on it anyway. If you recall, 99 US Senators did.  Robert Bryd of Virginia was

the sole

member of the Senate to refuse to buy that pig in that poke.

At CAC, the Chair now urges members to adopt whatever texts have been brought

forward, whether they agree with them or vehemently disagree.  Texts and

amendments to

them are presented " en bloc " for approval en mass without a single word of

discussion, if

the Chair can bully the delegates into it.  When delegates try to overcome this

de facto gag

rule, either they are told that they are getting in the way of the good work of

the CAC

(shame) or that they are making it impossible for the CAC to complete its work

(guilt).

Those few delegates who try to clarify the irregularities of the process or the

dangers of

the standards or Guidelines are told that they are getting in the way.  Since

Codex refuses

to define " consensus " and the Chair's agenda is set before the meeting, the

Chair does

whatever the Chair had intended to do in the first place.  An example: today new

standards were authorized for a whole group of dangerous industrial chemicals

(pesticides) whose MRLs were simply evaporated by the Chairman's administrative

fiat. 

This means that there is no upper limit to the amount of these metabolic poisons

which

may be incorporated into your food.

Critical health freedom choices this summer mean making sure that your country

does not

harmonize with Codex Alimentarius and that your national scientists and

legislators follow

the Codex Two Step Process to make pro-health choices where Codex makes

pro-industry

ones and to protect your right to clean, unadulterated and healthy food.  If you

are a

United States citizen, that also means signing the Natural Solutions Foundation

Citizens

Petition to force the US Government to comply with US law, rather than Codex

standards

and Guidelines, with reference to vitamins and minerals.

In the last days of the year the President signed the Adverse Event Reporting

Act that

requires supplement sellers to report reactions to their products; we view this

law as

potentially beneficial to consumers. At the same time the Food and Drug

Administration -

the FDA - issued a draft " CAM " Guidance (complementary and alternative

modalities) that

Congressman Ron Paul, MD, called " an abuse of FDA power... " This is and attempt

to grab

power over our remedies traditionally overseen by state law by an agency that

has show

itself unable to effectively implement its confused and contradictory authority

over foods

and drugs.

The FDA issued the draft Guidance on December 26th, but did not bother to give

the

public notice until February 26, 2007. Then the public had its turn to comment. 

nearly

two hundred thousand people did so, telling the FDA to leave our alternatives

alone.  This

same grassroots movement has swelled the ranks of NSF supporters. We've joined

Dr. Paul

in condemning this blatant power grab and have called for meaningful

reorganization of

the FDA. The FDA needs to  focus on its core mission of protecting the public

from

dangerous, side-effect causing prescription drugs that, these days, have much

more in

common with chemical toxins than natural materials. To do that, the agency's

food

jurisdiction should be shifted to the US Agriculture Department or other

existing agencies.

Every Federal agency, however, is capable of causing great harm to the public

and the

USDA is no exception.  early June, the Department approved the addition of 38

more non-

organic source materials to products that can continue to mislead us by

pretending to be

truly organic. This continues a general and disturbing trend to dilute organic

standards. 

The NSF supports strong organic standards and supports the disclosure of

conditions,

such as irradiation and genetic modification, that allow the public to make

informed

choices.

Late in June the FDA, 14 years after being instructed to do so by Congress,

finally issued

what are called " Good Manufacturing Practices " regulations to the dietary

supplement

industry. This 467 page document has capacity to reduce consumer access to high

potency nutrients and admits that many small companies will be driven out of

business as

a result.  We are very concerned about this increase in regulation. Just

previously, the US

Senate adopted the FDA " Revitalization " bill which would " solve " the problem of

FDA

failures by granting it more power  to abuse.  When the public rose up against

that bill, it

was amended to protect dietary supplements from its new powers.  But the House

must

now consider it, as HR.1567, which ought to be further amended to further

protect 

natural remedies. We note that Dr. Paul has introduced the Health Freedom

Protection Act,

HR.2117, that would do just that.  Our Representatives need to hear from the

public so

they support our freedoms with Dr. Paul instead of the new restrictions proposed

by Sen.

Kennedy.

At the same time, various regional and international agencies continue to

threaten market

access to wholesome foods, natural remedies and dietary supplements. As always,

the

FDA's announced intent to " HARMonize " our  freedoms to international rules (even

where

that decreases our access to safe products), operating through the North

American Union,

Codex and the new US/EU cooperation agreement, remains an ever present threat.

Codex

Alimentarius -  the world food code - still remains too much a creature of big

governments and big commercial interests, although a nascent alliance of

health-friendly

countries, inspired by information from NSF is making inroads and recently

protected

healthy babies from being exposed to fluoride in their formulas.

This is an especially exciting time for the Dietary Supplement / Natural

Products market.

While stricter regulations seem on the way, scientific advances and ongoing

clinical studies

point the way to better and more effective products. The problem is not in the

science or

the production; the problem is in the politics. These products are generally

recognized as

safe  when used as directed, like any food. We therefore need to reject the big

government

notion that tells us we will only be safe if bureaucrats have more control over

us.  That

nostrum is provably wrong, as we see from the failure of government, with

plenary power

over approving drugs (as to efficacy and safety) to protect the public from what

some

estimate to be hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths each year from lawful

and

correctly used prescription drugs.

The wise people who wrote the Declaration of Independence told us, " But when a

long

train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a

design to

reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right,  it is their duty, to

throw off such

Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security... "

It is now time for people concerned with natural solutions to our health care

crises to

declare our independence from the failures of the bureaucratic  system and to

demand

new freedoms to offset and correct the old failures of the regulators.

Ralph Fucetola, JD

Trustee

Rima E. Laibow, MD

Medical Director

 

 

Natural Solutions Foundation

www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org

Citizens Petition: www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=184

HR. 2117:

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/

campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11754 

 

 

HR. 1561:

 

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/

campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11344