Citizen Petition

[Guest guest]

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