Natural Solutions Foundation

Every cloud has a silver lining. We in the health freedom movement might just have been blessed with one.

China, Australia and Venezuela want to make itty, bitty changes to the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline (VMG) before it is ratified next July. Not that they mind it being ratified, you understand. They still want the VMG to be ratified. But, according to the Food Navigator, each of the three countries wants to introduce minor changes (a single word in one case) and this may be our silver lining!

Here’s how it could work: the CODEX Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) which includes special foods like baby formula containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and trans fats, is intending to do the same harm to our dietary supplements. Restricting them to ultra low doses of very few nutrients and making all others illegal globally is perfectly fine with those three countries. However, they need to make some bureaucratic changes to make the death and chronic degenerative illness they are regulating into existence a bit more precise.

Here’s where we start to see that silver lining, folks: having reached step 8 of the process, the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline (VMG) is ripe and ready for ratification (those are the CODEX University 3 R’s: ripe, ready, ratify) at the upcoming CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Commission (CAC) meeting.

But wait!

If the guideline is changed at all, so much as by a jot or a title, it may not be approved at the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Commission meeting. It may have to go back to the CCNFSDU committee to be re-approved!

YES!

That’s our opportunity. If it is sent back to committee because of the demands of China, Australia and Venezuela, it cannot come back around for ratification for at least another year, probably two.

And what can we do with that year or more? Just think. We have already mounted a significant legal challenge in the form of our emergency Citizen’s Petition which was presented to the US CODEX Office on June 1, 2005. Three Congressmen sent a bipartisan joint Congressional Letter to the US CODEX Office in support of that Citizen’s Petition. You have joined in, too, haven’t you? No? Click here and do it right now. It’s more important than ever and I’ll explain why.

You see, the US CODEX Office has announced its illegal policy to support the VMG in Rome next month. It has been warned by the Natural Solutions Foundation that this is an illegal policy (because it would go against established U.S. law such as DSHEA) but it has adopted it anyhow. The US CODEX Office is knowingly breaking the law and encouraging its delegates to do the same by supporting the VMG in Rome!

What does Congress have to say about the fact that we are sending a delegation of people to an international meeting with instructions from the United States Government to break US law?

Well, that’s where you come in.

Every single US Senator and Representative has been notified by the Natural Solutions Foundation that the US CODEX Office is pursuing an illegal policy, that they have been notified of the illegality of the policy and that they are breaking the law by doing so. And we have urged Congressional overview on the matter. Now here’s your part: go to www.HealthFreedomUSA.org/congress-stop-codex/ and follow instructions to send a letter to your local Congress representative. And then send the action page to everyone in your email address book using the “Email to Friend” button on the page itself.

What an opportunity: there are 3 countries who support the Vitamin and Mineral Standard who are delaying the ratification process. Let’s get our Congress to help them! Let’s give the US CODEX Office a “climb down” position: “OK, we’ll stop pushing for ratification this July. We know that it is illegal. We’ll help get the measure back to committee so we can sneak it over on you next time!” That’s fine with me, Ladies and Gentlemen of the CODEX Delegation. Just watch what we can do in the time before the next ratification attempt.

But right now, you need to tell Congress that it is NOT OK for the US CODEX Office to pursue an illegal policy and that you (and we) will be watching how they safeguard our health freedom.

Don’t delay: go to www.HealthFreedomUSA.org/congress-stop-codex/ and follow instructions to send a letter to your local Congress representative. And then send the action page to everyone in your email address book using the “Email to Friend” button on the page itself.

Oh, and by the way, we will be in Rome to observe the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Commission meeting and we need your financial support to do that: it is expensive but very important that we are there to see, and report accurately what happens.

Yours in Health and Freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation

P.S. Make sure to donate to support the work of the Natural Solutions Foundation in protecting your health freedom.

The Natural Solutions Foundation made an 11 hour round trip (by car) from New York to Washington, DC, to present 5 minutes of comments to the US CODEX Office Public Hearing on CODEX June 9, 2005.

It was an amazing experience!

In DC, we met Dr. Ed Scarbrough, US Manager for CODEX ALIMENTARIUS.

Dr. Scarbrough, a seemingly pleasant silver-haired gentleman, who has obviously been doing this sort of thing for a very long time, recognized me when I introduced myself before the meeting and mentioned our Citizen’s Petition.

I asked whether we should make our remarks at the end of the meeting, devoted to the dietary supplements issue, or the beginning, the public policy section since our Citizen’s Petition deals with global US CODEX policy, not just nutrients. He and his assistant felt that since the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Vitamin and Mineral Standard is coming up for ratification in July, we should speak at the end of the meeting.

Delegate after delegate reported on the work that the Committees they attend does and what the US Policy toward each measure in July will be.

When we got to the topic of dietary supplements, Dr. Scarbrough announced that the US Policy was to endorse the Vitamin and Mineral Standard in July and opened the floor for discussion. I was the first speaker. And, as it turned out, I had the opportunity to speak a number of times as did General Stubblebine. We have a transcript of my presentation at the CODEX public hearing, in PDF format. Click on the link to read my prepared comments for the meeting.

I pointed out to the hearing and to the record, that the US Policy on this measure (CODEX Vitamin and Mineral Standard) violated US Law and would result in vast harm both here and abroad. Dr. Scarbrough listened with apparent calm and began a very useful process: he asked us to put our questions in writing and acknowledged that he was intending to answer our petition.

Over and over again, whether the speaker was General Stubblebine referring to his 32 years of service to this country in defense of its freedoms and his unwillingness to lose them to corporate special interests, or the pleas from folks who spoke of their urgent personal requirements for high potency supplements to maintain themselves out of hospitals, or my questions about law, Dr. Scarbrough asked us to put our comments in writing.

When Dr. S. stated that there was no scientific literature showing that nutrients were safe, I told him that was simply not true. He said that he was not unaware of any such literature. His lack of awareness of such literature is not in alignment with the reality that such scientific literature does indeed exist. Thus, US policy to support the Vitamin and Mineral Standard is based on the (false) belief that nutrients are not proven safe! This is severe disconnect from the science of nutrition, plain and simple.

So I asked him publicly if the US policy on the CODEX Vitamin and Mineral Standard, officially determined on June 16, was subject to change in the face of information such as a dossier of scientific literature proving nutrients to be safe…

… and he answered that there was a possibility of changing that policy. I pressed him (still publicly) to find out if the possibility was a practical reality or just a theoretical one. His answer?

“Theoretical.”

Dr. Scarbrough has actually done us a favor by asking for questions and comments in writing. We will be putting all our questions and objections on the record.

If you care about health freedom, I advise you to do the following (your support is critical):

1. Join in the Citizen’s Petition via our 6 Easy Steps to Protecting America from CODEX.

2. Send your comments and questions to F. Edward Scarbrough, Ph.D., U.S. CODEX Manager by email at USCodex@fsis.usda.gov. Remind Dr. Scarbrough that you are aware that US Policy on the Vitamin and Mineral Standard violates US law as indicated in the Natural Solutions Foundation Citizen’s Petition and request a written response from him. Include your personal reason for not wanting the US to support this (deadly) standard. Tell Dr. Scarbrough that it is the legal and moral obligation of the US to support our own DSHEA law as the national standard, not the dangerous Vitamin and Mineral Standard of CODEX backed by the undemocratic World Trade Organization.

3. Email us a copy of your letter telling us if we may publish it on the web site to share with others.

4. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper (or national one, for that matter) and make it clear that the US Policy on the CODEX Vitamin and Mineral Standard, as indicated by Dr. Scarbrough, violates US law. But still, in spite of its deadly impact nationally and globally, the CODEX Vitamin and Mineral Standard is being pushed for (you can show the editor our Citizen’s Petition to explain the case for US CODEX Policy being in violation of US law).

5. Spread the word to everyone you know to do the same. If you have a mailing list, please distribute information about HealthFreedomUSA.org, our Citizen’s Petition, and our 6 Easy Steps to Protecting America from CODEX.

Put our questions and comments in writing, Dr. Scarbrough? Get written opinions from the US Government on why they are violating US law and supporting a standard which will lead to the death and preventable suffering of nearly uncountable numbers of people? Create a record of our objections to these illegal doings which REQUIRES an answer from the government?

YOU BET!

Thank you, Dr. Scarbrough.

Yours in Health and Freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation

P.S. And if you haven’t already, make sure to take action yourself on the 6 Easy Steps to Protecting America from CODEX.