Dispatches from the Codex Commission #7
Natural Solutions Foundation, Public Observer
Dispatches from Codex Commission Meeting
Dispatch No. 7 – 04 July 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
Dr. Rima Laibow, MD, the Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation, continues her reports from the annual Codex Alimentarius (World Food Code) meeting in Geneva Switzerland with this video report on the pending collapse of the Codex food control system, under the weight of its own failures and a revolt of an informal Coalition of Health Conscious Nations who are finally resisting the bullying tactics of the dominant industrialized nations and international bureaucrats.
PS – Don’t forget, “We are more than just words…†Natural Solutions Foundation identifies the threats to your health and freedom and then we propose meaningful steps to have your voice heard — see: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=693
Dispatches from the Codex Commission #6
Natural Solutions Foundation, Public Observer
Dispatches from Codex Commission Meeting
Dispatch No. 6 – 02 July 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
Please see the link to today’s new, 2nd Video Report from Codex at the end of this blog entry. That video report amplifies some of the issues discussed here.
At the very first Codex meeting I attended, Dr. Kirsten Leitner, the WHO Undersecretary of Sustainable Development, responded to the questions of why WHO had not increased its financial contribution to Codex. Her answer stunned the assembly, “Because Codex has failed to make a meaningful contribution to human health in its [then] 42 years of existence.†That response was so significant that the audio tape showing it which had been mounted on the Codex Alimentarius site, www.Codexalimentarius.net/en was, following the Press Release I wrote on this response, taken down and a doctored AUDIO tape was inserted in which her response was missing.
Oddly enough, certain people on the “health freedom” side of the house, who were in the room and commented excitedly on that event later chose to publicly take the opposition position that this comment “never†happened. Whatever you choose to make of that aside, there has been a great deal of discussion about the fact that FAO has been forced to increase and increase its financial support to the point where now WHO provides a mere 15% of the budget while FAO provides the rest. Since the deal is supposed to be 50-50, one wonders if, in the halls of WHO power, the same problem is still perceived. I would share that opinion if it were.
Today, in what was a highly surprising move from Brazil, another iteration of the same theme was brought forward and it causes all “heck†to break loose!
I have been saying for some time that the system here is rigged. Developed (read, “rich, US supportersâ€) countries send full delegations to every single Codex meeting, sub meeting, task force, regional meeting and so on. They tend to be well informed, well prepared and have no trouble getting here. They do not have their visas refused or denied. They do not have trouble getting plane tickets or get turned out of hotels. Delegates from the Developing world (read, “poor, black, opposing the US on vital issuesâ€), on the other hand, have no end of difficulty getting here.
First, the meetings are very expensive for them to get to. Second, they often have enormous difficulty with their visas. For example, the Ugandan representative to the Codex Committee on Food Labeling, where GM labeling was the hot item on the docket, is from a country that has a moratorium on GM food — and a leading academic conducting safety assessments on those foods (they are failing miserably, of course) had his visa request to Canada denied twice.
China, hardly a minor player, was unable to secure a visa to the Codex Committee on Veterinary Drug Residues held in the US. You read that correctly. And then, at this Commission meeting, after the US had denied Chinese diplomats entry to the relevant committee meeting, its Codex delegation rejected to Chinese objections to dosing pigs with growth-stimulating drugs dangerous to humans by noting that China was not at the CCVDR meeting!
Even if not having Visa problems, countries from the Developing world, who are often dependent on funding from the Codex Trust Fund for their ability to attend these meetings, may find themselves penalized for taking stands that the multinational power centers of Codex do not like: Dr. Koura of Benin was denied her travel funds by the Trust Fund within days of her departure to the same meeting on GM labeling. Benin, like Uganda, has a moratorium on GM foods and Dr. Koura had instructions to strongly oppose the position by the US that would force unlabeled GM foods on Benin and the rest of the world. From last February’s previous GM labeling working group meeting in Africa (which we attended) the US knew who was objecting to the US GM agenda. That agenda, despite 87% American support for GM labeling (in a recent CNN/NY Times poll) is to not require GM labeling and to forbid GM-Free labeling.
For this meeting, Codex Contact Point Dr. Denis Mikode has his already approved travel support withdrawn by the Trust Fund, too, again, within days of his departure. It’s a pretty powerful technique: prevent the opposition from showing up and then claim whatever is decided in their absence represents and binds them, too, whether they like it or not.
The Trust Fund, we have been informed, is generously funded by nations like the US and by significant private donors, chief among them, the pharmaceutical companies who have such a strong parental interest in Codex, having given it birth so long ago.
So Brazil raised the problem to the consideration of the Codex Commission that without full participation by all countries in all committees, the legislative decisions (his words!) of Codex were illegitimate and that it was an urgent matter to assure full participation of all nations of the developing world or Codex had no international legitimacy!
The Chairman’s stand in, a Vice Chair, clearly did not know what to do. Brazil demanded that the Codex Secretariat prepare a report, complete with suggestions about how to fix the problem, and present it at the Codex Commission meeting one year from now, in July 2009.
The Acting Chair said that because 25 countries had immediately put up their flags, time did not permit discussing this option! There was a lot of very unhappy murmuring. The lunch break was hastily convened.
Maybe the Natural Solutions Foundation’s Codex Two Step, the legal method countries can use to avoid the worst excesses of Codex, is finally emboldening our informal Coalition of Health Conscious Nations!
After lunch, reports from other international organizations were permitted and finally the topic was brought back to Brazil’s intervention. The Secretariat alleged that since the task had been given to the Secretariat, there was no longer any opportunity for the membership to discuss the proposal. Brazil made the observation that the Secretariat was wrong and the discussion continued with a good deal of mounting energy from developing nations who began to air their many grievances about the system and its corruption.
In fact, the way it works if that the developed nations get to every meeting, develop competence, relationships, work out deals, figure out the system very well but the poor nations are encouraged by the Trust Fund to “Build capacity†which means that there is a revolving roster of people who are always new, do not often have the opportunity to build relationships, forge agreements or even figure out the corporate culture of Codex (and it is very much a corporate culture!).
So Brazil really opened up the biggest can of worms here: the illegitimacy of the entire process. The Vice Chair tried to stuff the worms back into the can by making it an issue for discussion next April at the Codex Committee on General Principles but, once again, Brazil and its now numerous allies, protested. The compromise?
Brazil will have its report read at the Codex Commission next year AND it will be presented for discussion April, too.
Let’s be clear: Codex is a crumbling hulk, despite its propaganda. The Executive Committee, which meets twice a year, in secret, I might add, will not meet for the second time this year because of the $200,000 that would cost and the lack of resources.
The newfound sense of outrage (which I must say we have helped to foster through our educational work in Africa and Asia) is bringing out capabilities which only two years remained hidden: countries following our suggestions and banding together to oppose the Multinational Agenda! Countries finally getting their bellies full of US bullying!
The International Decade of Nutrition, which we declared in 2004, is beginning to have its intended impact! See: www.naturalsolutionsfoundation.org
Countries noticing that without participation there is no representation! (That should sound very familiar to every American, by the way!)
So our work in the developing world must continue if we are to strike a blow to the monster. That means that we need your help. We need the resources to continue coming to meetings and to continue initiating agricultural and educational projects like the Valley of the Moon. We have been “Speaking Truth to Power†and we are beginning to be heard!
We need your financial support. There is literally no one else doing this work but you and the Natural Solutions Foundation.
Oh, yes, a US bureaucrat is now the newly “elected†chairman of the Codex Commission… for the next three years. So it is time to make sure Washington hears our voices.
Click this link to donate on a regular, recurring basis. Small donations, moderate donations, large donations. They all count. It really is up to each of us. Now. http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189
You can see all my Video Reports from Codex – including today’s – at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=720 and there is a direct link to my latest video report at the very bottom of this blog.
Dispatches from the Codex Commission #5
Natural Solutions Foundation, Public Observer
Dispatches from Codex Commission Meeting
Dispatch No. 5 – 01 July 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
Protecting Your Family from Codex Deprivations: GMOs Being Forced on the World!
If you are not eating organic food, you are letting those who are degrading your food and your health win. Codex is rigged. The science is rigged and the outcome is rigged. It takes strong, sustained and courageous countries to turn that process around. But some of the most outspoken countries in our informal Coalition of Health Conscious Nations are not here; in one case, WHO funding was “pulled†at the last moment.
Despite the Precautionary Principle (if something has not been proven safe, you cannot use it), supposedly a driving principle in Codex and despite the strong science disproving the safety of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), today the Codex Chair rammed through approval of all genetically modified plants for food use. Noting that genetically modified animals had already been approved as safe for food use, so that there was no reason to dispute the safety of plants [Logic alert!!!!], no dispute was permitted. That’s how “democracy†works at Codex.
Science prostituted once again. And health violated.
The day was replete, as is every Codex meeting, with such examples.
For example, beta agonist growth enhancers in pigs: The first and second largest pig meat producers in the world, China and EU, strongly oppose this drug but US wants it because it fattens pigs faster. Plan was to adopt it as a global standard. China’s objection was discounted because China did not attend the last Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs recently held in the US. Of course, as China pointed out, its delegates were not granted visas to attend. This was the same trick that was used to make sure that the strong opponent of unlabeled genetically modified foods from Uganda when Canada prevented him from attending the recent food labeling committee by refusing to grant his visa. This is a frequent gambit at Codex.
China persevered and opposed, along with the EU and many other countries, approval of the veterinary drug Ractopamine which is illegal in most of the world. It shifts nutrients to muscles so animals fatten up quickly and bring more at market. Of course, it is dangerous for consumers since beta agonists cause cardiovascular, pancreatic and lung changes which could be very dangerous in people who eat the drug (or its by products) by eating the –unlabeled – drug-treated pig meat.
The US and the usual gang of suspects, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Canada, etc., supported the use of this dangerous drug even though it is banned in 80% of the world’s countries. US meat is, in fact, regarded so poorly that riots are taking place even as I write this in South Korea because the government there has decided to resume importation of US beef!
US food is known all over the world as Killer Food b those in the know. But, laced as it is with chemicals and produced as it is ever more cheaply, this deadly material is, as the Indian Minister for Food Production Industries shouted from about 6 inches from my face, “Killing America and now they want to export it to kill usâ€. American food is what world food will become when Codex goes into world effect. And the obesity and fatigue and mind numbness that many Americans experience will be the FDA’s gift to the world.
So what can we do – what MUST we do? Take control of our health by taking control of our food.
I promise you that if we do not, individually and collectively, take the following steps, our food WILL kill us. It is already doing that and we must stop it.
Step 1. Eat clean food, no matter how convenient prepared food seems. It is very inconvenient to get sick and die.
a. Switch your budget priorities to organic food. Skimp on something else.
b. Grow whatever you can in window boxes or in your garden
c. Get together with neighbors and grow food in vacant spaces or someone’s yard. You would be amazed how much food you can grow using intensive Biodynamic farming principles. Look them up on the internet. We’ll also be making Biodynamic information available, through our Valley of the Moon demonstration project*. Grow organic, of course!
d. Find local farmers who do not use chemicals and buy from them. Becoming a “Locovore†(eating locally grown foods) is a growing movement
e. Trade services for organic food with people who produce it! Barter may be better than dollars.
f. Create an organic Food Coop to get good food cheaply!
Step 2. Consider your budget very, very carefully and commit NOW to a regular, recurring donation to the Natural Solutions Foundation which is the only organization which has the possibility of bringing Codex to heel and reversing its extraordinary danger to your life and your health. Natural Solutions Foundation has the relationships necessary to bring delegates to these important meetings under our own sponsorship — 5, 10 or 15 delegates, primed and ready to stand their ground can take Codex over. The only thing keeping us from doing that is money. It’s that simple. Our forming Coalition of Health Conscious Nations is a coalition of developing nations that need our help if they are to attend meetings and assert our common interests.
We need to have the money to make that move and without your donations, even small ones, on a regular basis, there is no possibility whatsoever of doing that. And whatever you can give will help. Large donations will help. Small donations will help. Doing nothing will accomplish nothing. And I firmly believe, enough, in fact, to close my medical practice and devote my life, my husband’s life and the nearly full time and energy of Ralph Fucetola and Kathy Greene, to the work that we are doing here. Can a couple of couples make a difference? You bet we can… with your financial help!
Look, how important is our health? How much is it worth to you?
Here is the link that you need to use to make your tax deductible donation. http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189
Don’t give more than you can afford to, but don’t give less than you can afford to, either. Your life depends on it.
How ironic that while the Natural Solutions Foundation has created the International Decade of Nutrition to reclaim food production – and is creating the Valley of the Moon Eco Community with a BeyondOrganic ™ Farm and Farm School*, food is being degraded to a point which will soon, with the destruction of the genetic material of the food supply, be damaged beyond repair if we do not seize the day.
There is no one else who will do this for you. It’s up to you.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
PS – as I write this from the Codex meeting the delegates are getting ready to vote for next year’s chair… it will be the United States. More about that in the next Dispatch from Codex.
* To learn more about this extraordinary community development in the beautiful, bountiful, temperate highlands of Chiriqui Province, Panama, please go to www.naturalsolutionsfoundation.org and click on the Community Index link. We invite your participation… we also need a couple Angels to make this dream a reality. Are you an Angel?
Dispatches from the Codex Commission #4
Natural Solutions Foundation, Public Observer
Dispatches from Codex Commission Meeting
Dispatch No. 4 – 30 June 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
Earlier today Dr. Rima E. Laibow and Maj. Gen. Bert Stubblebine, our intrepid Natural Solutions Foundation trustees and Public Observers at the annual Codex Alimentarius (World Food Code) attended the first session of the Commission and filed a video report from the conference room at the UN conference center hosting the meeting.
PS – Don’t forget, “We are more than just words…” Natural Solutions Foundation identifies the threats to your health and freedom and then we propose meaningful steps to have your voice heard — see: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=693
Natural Solutions Foundation, Public Observer
Dispatches from Codex Commission Meeting
Dispatch No. 2 – 28 June 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
You probably are familiar with the expression “To crash and burn”. Today was an example of “Burn and Crash” for us! We have certainly been burning the candle at both ends for many, many nights so, when we got to Geneva, we decided to allow ourselves the unaccustomed luxury of sleeping late – to 9 AM.
General Bert has an infallible internal alarm clock upon which we depend since, no matter what the time zone, he can decide to wake up at a particular time and then do it. Until today. When we woke up to the knock of the chamber maid, we looked at each other in something very much like shock – it was 4 PM! So much for the infallible alarm (of course, body time-wise we only overslept an hour!) At any rate, we went out in search of something to eat and then an internet cafe to check email, Skype and write this blog.
Like the UK, Switzerland serves meals at fixed hours and we were between them. The lovely restaurant we remembered from last time was only serving drinks so we went to a local chain of chicken restaurants which serves roasted chicken. Knowing that 60% of the animal feed used in the EU is genetically modified (making the meat or eggs or other food derived from its use as dangerous as any other genetically modified food) I was very uneasy about this option but there was little else.
Imagine my delight and surprise, then, to see the following, in English, on the English translation of the menu:
“Chicken Information – Our Chickens are fed with forage free from genetically modified food, anti microbial agents, animal protein and animal meal. They come exclusively from Swiss poultry productions, with very strict hygiene norms. Thus, our chickens are perfectly healthy and clean. We bake them during 60 minutes at 250 degrees (482 degrees F).”
That means that the owners of Chez de ma Cousine (My Cousin`s House) understands better than the US Government and Codex that GM food is not good for people and that people want to know what they are eating and that it is NOT genetically modified!
Codex Alimentarius, the International Food Code created by the United Nations at the request of the German Pharmaceutical companies after the 2nd Word War (see our DVD, “Nutricide” at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org for more of this very important story) controls the international trade of everything that can legally go into your mouth – except drugs.
See: US Bullies Health Conscious Nations at Codex Committee on Food Labeling Meeting… for the run up to this Codex Commission meeting: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=683
Standards and guidelines are set which degrade food and increase the market share of the illness industry (remember who urged its creation?). The driving force at the Codex meetings is, sadly, the United States which comes to these meetings accompanied by delegation members who work for Big Pharma, Big Agribiz, Big Biotech, Big Chema and Big Medica. Using its considerable heft, the US bullies everyone there who does not want to go along with its commercialization of the food supply.
Learn more at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and become a part of the push-back by joining the Natural Solutions Foundation`s distribution list for its free Health Freedom eAlerts (Ralph, put link in, please).
More tomorrow when I get up earlier!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
PS – In the meantime, here are some actions YOU can take to support Health Freedom: Riding the Health Freedom Train http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=693