Archive for May, 2008

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

My God! What Have We Done?

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

By popular request, below is a copy of Dr. Laibow’s eAlert from April 2, 2008, entitled: “My God! What have we done?” This post relates to Morgellon’s Disease and GMOs.
—————————————————————————-

IMPORTANT HEALTH FREEDOM INFORMATION.
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

Getting Health Freedom eAlerts?

If Not, Click http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187

My God! What Have We Done?

Think a moment about what we are doing to ourselves on this planet.

Have you heard of the nightmare condition called Morgellon’s Disease?
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=599

Victims experience unbearable sensations – all the time, day and night – of insects crawling under their skin, burning and itching so terrible that people have committed suicide to end the torture. To make matters worse, much, much worse, these unfortunate people, who range in age from babies to the elderly, have open lesions on their skin that produces sharp, thin red, black, blue and white fibers and black sand-like grains. The fibers appear to move as if alive and, incredibly, when placed in a Petri dish after removal, continue to move and grow!

The origin of this horror has been unclear since it was first named in 2001 by the mother of a 3 year old baby whose symptoms she described and documented on a website. Since that time, thousands of people have been identified with this condition for which the only successful cure has been that most potent (and safe) of all antibiotics, nano silver. But the nature of the condition, and its cause, have remained a mystery until now.

This Plague Brought To You By BioTech

When fibers from Morgellon’s Disease lesions from numerous patients were analyzed by competent scientists, they were found to contain DNA from BOTH a fungus and a bacterium used in the production of commercial Genetically Modified plants and animals!

Merging organisms that have totally separate DNA and characteristics for the sake of profit, regardless of the health or other consequences, the line between animate and inanimate has been crossed.

And we are all paying the price.

Like the fictional Dr. Frankenstein, who transformed the non-living into a living creature which escaped his control, the biotech industry has, we fear, created a real Frankenstein’s Monster: Franken Foods which are bringing new plagues on us and on the earth. The future of our planet is literally and truly at stake. That is why the Natural Solutions Foundation has taken on the task of educating decision makers about GM threats.

As our good friends and collaborators from the Ecological Options Network (http://www.eon3.net/ ) have noted on their website, “To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way. As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all.” Statement of 100 Nobel laureates on the 100th anniversary of the Nobel prize

That’s Our Table!

A majority of Americans already know that they do not want to eat GM foods but the FDA and other decision makers in the US and abroad do not necessarily get the message yet. After all, Big Biotech, like Big Pharma, has bought a seat at the Power Table – in fact, some say they have bought the whole table. Well, we, the “netroots” — the consumers, have a seat at the table, too – in fact, it’s our table! We want the food on it to be clean, wholesome and healthful. That’s why we need your help to make sure this message is heard at every Codex meeting and in the halls of power around the world.

As it happens there is a Codex meeting coming up this month in Ottawa Canada where labeling of GM foods will be on the agenda, once again. For almost 20 years the US has been trying to force Big Biotech’s Agenda down the throats (literally!) of the rest of the world. It has not been going well for the US.

The wonderful innovation in Codex proceedings that began at the last Codex Working Group on labeling of GM foods (Feb, Accra), when developing nations told the US that it can no longer dictate what happens to them and their health for the sake of the corporations who determine US policy (and who send advisors to sit on the US delegations of every Codex meeting), will be put to the test at the Codex Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL), April 28-May 2, 2008.

Natural Solutions Foundation will be there, reporting e very day to tell you what’s going on, straight from the shoulder. No other organization has the respect and cooperation of so many countries in the Codex community.

AFTER the CCFL meeting we will tell you all about the strategy meeting that we have helped initiate and its impact on the proceedings at CCFL. You can understand why we are not saying much about the who, what, when or where. The why is pretty clear: an emerging coalition of nations is taking their own power back to make it clear that their food and health- and yours, since so much US food is imported from the developing world – – is not for sale. The US FDA, EPA and USDA may be for sale, but these countries actually value the health of their people so much that they will not permit GM foods in their countries or will only permit GM foods if clearly labeled as such. It remains to be seen how effective the developing nations are in their coalition strategy. We’ll let you know!

The Natural Solutions Foundation will be there, supporting and assisting them and you’ll have a ring-side seat.

But this is an expensive endeavor. In a few days we’ll leave for Africa to meet with the officials in charge of food safety and our Agricultural Project to enhance crop production and nutrient density using magnets. Then, off to Benin where we meet with Father Godfrey Nzamuio, the Founder and genius behind the remarkable a UN Center of Excellence for Africa, the Songhai Center (http://www.songhai.org/songhai_en/), video at www.YouTube.com/NaturalSolutions our mentor on sustainable beyond-organic Zero Emissions farming for our Panama Santa Clara demonstration project – see: ( http://www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org ).

Next, we head to Ottawa for the 2008 meetings of the CCFL and the meetings around it that could change the course of Codex, then off to Panama to meet with people who are interested in becoming part of the Santa Clara Project. If you are interested in knowing more about the community To find out about how to become a participant, click ( http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NSF-Panama/join ).

After that, we are off to the Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting in Geneva where each Codex committee reports on its work and moves it forward (or not – that’s our opportunity!)

One of our supporters has generously donated $25,000 to cover the cost of airfare for the three members of the Natural Solutions Foundation delegation on this trip. That is a wonderful start and we are deeply moved by their support. The trip will cost a lot more.

The 545 people who donated to the Natural Solutions Foundation during the month of March have our profound thanks! Without you, we could not continue our work. Moving forward is becoming easier because our footprint is larger in the health freedom world and in the developing world. We have been asked by the Codex Contact Points of two countries to work with them to establish Natural Solutions Foundation organizations in their countries!

But there are both on-going and special expenses we need your help to cover . Won’t you make your tax-deductible donation –
( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189 )
right now to make sure that your health and freedom have the voice and the vision that they deserve? Small donations add up. Big donations are wonderful. Whatever you can give, give! And thank you! And if you donate $100 or more, we will count that as special help towards the funding of our documentary film on health freedom and the Codex agenda. Don’t forget that every purchase you make at our outstanding online store, www.Organics4U.org helps to fund us and helps to keep you healthy. And you get a 40% tax deduction of the total price, too!

We Are There For You, Wherever That Takes Us

The health freedom issues don’t stop at Codex. They are larger than compulsory drugging or vaccination. They go beyond medical privacy. They include forced toxification with dangerous areal sprays, for example, or taking kids away when their parents won’t medicate or vaccinate them.

When California and the EPA decided to spray for a non pest with chemicals which are not safe and whose long term effects are not known, but to spray every 30 days for 5 years none the less, the Natural Solutions Foundation was rght there for you. To donate, click here ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189 )

In fact, you can take a look at my comments and General Stubblebine’s at a meeting last month on the insane spraying of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) by visiting our webpage, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org or our YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/naturalsolutions where you will find more information on the California spraying plan for that mythical pest, LBAM. While you are there, check out the amazing Songhai videos!

GM: the Most Expensive Cheap Food You’ll Ever Eat

GM food is cheap. It is grown under conditions that turn lush complex ecosystems once known as “farms” into monoculture (single crop) deserts. The very concept of integrated farming, where one plant or animal uses the waste of another and sustains the first one (or yet another) is meaningless in monoculture. Vast industrial techniques and huge government subsidies make GM food inexpensive and chemical additives keep the prepared and fast foods so easily available cheap, cheap, cheap.

Foods “rich” in GM ingredients and chemical substitutes for real flavors and components are poor in nutrition. But when you pick up a box of this or that or drive through a fast food lane, you don’t tend to count the cost of that cheap food: cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, Morgellon’s Disease, potentially lethal allergies, infertility, depressed immunity, auto immune disease, poor school performance, depression, anxiety, worry about a loved one’s illness or your own, doctor bills, hospital bills, lost days at work or school, etc. The “food” may be cheap, but the price you pay for eating or serving it is enormous.

To read a summary of the health concerns associated with GM foods, click here ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=600 ).

While the US is dedicated in its support of the deadly technology which produces “food” then-President George H. W. Bush declared — without a shred of science to back him up — to be identical to natural food, other countries are beginning to fear that they have made a terrible mistake in embracing GM technology. While the rest of the EU, for example, fears GM foods and ingredients, Romania, concerned about the damage to the environment and health, is considering ending its approval of GM food crops.

Click here ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=598 ) to read more. While the US approves GM sugar beets to provide you with GM sugar ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=585 ) later this year, the EU has blocked approval of a GM potato ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=587) for this year’s planting.

Australia, whose last Prime Minister could not wait to get as many GM crops into the ground as possible is seeing things a little differently now. Strong agitation is pressing the government there to delay approval of GM crops ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=587 ) until their safety has been tested and fairly evaluated.

When you go to a market that sells real, nourishing foods (perhaps your local farmers market) you do not hesitate to bear the extra cost of organic and wholesome foods. You know the hidden cost of cheap, factory-made Franken Foods is the health of your family.

Staples like taro in Hawaii, rice in Asia, soy and corn in the US have already been genetically modified. Papaya, peas, potatoes, pigs, they are all fair game for the GM boys (and girls). Never mind that species besides the crop which has been genetically modified are being contaminated — for example, us, through Morgellon’s Disease. Insects, arguably significantly smarter than we are, have already figured out how to resist the super plants and their loads of super pesticides, becoming resistant and passing their resistance on to the huge levels of pesticide many plants are engineered to produce. In South Africa the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) has published trial results that indicate stalk-borer larvae have developed the ability to survive the Bt poison contained in GM maize [corn] plants. Click here ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=580 ) to read more.

But consumers who do not want to eat GM foods and do not want their word, or their bodies, contaminated by GM technology and its cataclysmic mistakes are on the march. In Hawaii, where taro is a staple food, consumers have gotten the State Legislature to consider a 10 year moratorium on GM taro ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=584 ).

It would be a good idea to make that march a quick step double time, too, because even the existence of clean food, certified organic, is threatened by the use of GM plants. That may be hard to imagine, but GM food spreads beyond its boundaries on wind and wheels and wings. The continued availability of components to make organic foods, which are grown without pesticides, artificial fertilizers, genetically modified components or other food-born toxins is in question.

Widespread contamination of U.S. corn, soybeans and other crops by genetically engineered varieties is threatening the purity of organic and natural food products and driving purveyors of such specialty products to new efforts to protect their markets.

Read more ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=588 ). This is particularly remarkable when you consider that although most countries allow a 0.9% contamination level of GM components in organic products, the US allows a shocking 10% contamination in certified organic foods. So if products which are 90% free of GM crops are increasingly hard to come by, what does that say about the urgency of the situation for those of us who do not want to undergo forced drugging by toxic components or Franken Foods?

Ready to Get Involved?

I hope you are now good and steamed and looking for an outlet for your outrage (justified) at a system which actively prohibits labeling of GM foods because it (the FDA) knows that you will reject GM foods so they make it a crime to tell you if your foods are genetically modified.

Join the Natural Solutions Foundation Say NO! to GMO forum and become part of a community ready for action. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-genetically-modified-food to become a member of the forum.

And, most importantly, get everyone you know to join as well. If ever netroots had a part to play in shaping policy, now is that time. And if ever the timeline before the tipping point into environmental disaster was close enough to take action without waiting any longer, now is that time, too.

We need to force the FDA to REQUIRE labeling of GM foods, not forbid it, to hold hearings on the safety (really, the lack thereof) of GM foods for the environment and for people, to make all corporate information submitted to the FDA about GM foods and non-food crops public, to find out what the USDA knows and does not know about the pharmaceutically modified crops it has lost control of, according to an internal audit of its Pharma modified crop test plantings, etc. And we need to do it quickly.

We need to get GM foods out of schools, hospitals, and off our tables, and we need to do it now!

GM is the problem, but WE, yes, WE! Are the answer…

Featured Film

Cindy Sage and the BioInitiative Report: Biological Standards for Microwave. Click
( http://blip.tv/file/597424 ) to view this important film. Be prepared to be shocked if you think your cell phone (or your kid’s cell phone) is safe to use!

We know there are a number of other health freedom issues that that excite your ire. Chief among these is the continuing story of mandated vaccinations. You can follow some of those developments at my co-trustee, Ralph Fucetola JD’s blog. Click here: http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/03/media-blitz-supports-big-pharma.html

There will be more about these issues in future eAlerts!

Natural Solutions Foundation:

We are more than just talk, and so are you!

Rima E. Laibow, MD

———
To receive the eAlerts, please join the list at:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187

Tags:,
Posted in The Law & CODEX | No Comments »

GSK’s Citizens Petition to Treat Supplement Weight Loss Claims as Disease Claims

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

Maybe you take weight loss supplements and maybe you don’t. But protecting them, and the claims that the FDA recognizes are appropriate for them, has become a matter of urgency since GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK)has attacked the entire supplement industry through direct threat to our supplements and the entire supplement industry. GSK is using two arrows aimed at the heart of the supplement industry. A copy of the GSK attack is reprinted below this blog entry.

Two Pronged Assault

1. Restrict the information that helps people understand what a product does for them (and cripple the First Amendment while you are at it) and

2. Medicalize a category of concern for people taking the supplement and then make sure that the health indications and claims, as well as the supplement are “oozed over” into the drug category, raising their prices and driving their manufacturers out of business while more expensive drugs take their places in the customer’s shopping cart.

In my lecture “Nutricide ” ( http://tinyurl.com/2kvnvt ), I defined Nutricide as

1. The death of the body of knowledge of the relationship between health and food and

2. The death of large populations through the manipulation of the food supply.

GSK vs. The People

GlaxoSmithKlein, a large drug company, has decided to use the powerful tool called a “Citizens Petition” to attack both free speech and the supplement industry. The Citizens Petition is the same type of document that the Natural Solutions Foundation has filed twice with the US Government).

Sign the first Citizens Petition here ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=184 ) to demand the FDA stop illegal “HARMonization”. Our second Citizens Petition, like the current GSK one, has not been assigned a Docket Number (and, for that matter, has ours?) so you cannot comment on it yet. We will tell you how to do that shortly.

(By the way, if you are a supplement manufacturer and you are not very happy with the lobbying representation you are getting on Capital Hill, send us an email (ralph.fucetola@usa.net) with “PROTECTION” as the subject line to join the Health Freedom Alliance, a Wellness Industry 501 (c) 4 organization we have created just for you!)

By asking the FDA to define weight loss products as disease claims, they are protecting their failed over-the-counter weight loss product, alli , while striking a blow at the continued existence of the entire supplements industry. Once weight loss is a disease, not a condition, it will be treatable only through the use of tested drugs. Will insurance companies increase your rates if you need weight loss products? Possibly. After all, we understand that many insurance companies are co-owned by Big Pharma. More diseases, more drugs. More drugs, more profits.

Click here ( http://tinyurl.com/4txv62 ) to let Congress know your right to free speech and information about the relationship between health and supplements are important to you!

(If you want a copy of “Nutricide: the DVD”, click here ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=156 ).

Supplements Under Attack – Again!

GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK) makes drugs like Paxil and Avandia, the highly questionable diabetes drug which the FDA knew nearly 5 years ago increases heart attacks by nearly 43%. Covering itself, the FDA recently issued a warning to GSK about supressing data about the dangers of this supposed “block-buster” drug. Not long before that, the Senate Finance Committee found that GSK intimidated and coerced a well-known critic of Avandia to silence him from speaking out against it. And not long before that, there were serious allegations that GSK had supressed data on Paxil-related adult suicides.

GSK is also the maker of alli, the first over the counter weight loss drug. Alli has been associated with the development of aberrant crypt foci, widely believed to be associated with the development of colon cancer. It is also associated with fecal leaking, “wet gas”, diarrhea, and a sudden event where you could at any moment have an uncontrolled accidental bowel movement. Natural products are not associated with these hazards. So it would seem that anything GSK could do to silence the natural competition and grab a new market share would be welcome to its management and its shareholders.

In fact, here is what www.FDAlawblog.net has to say about the GSK Citizens Petition:

“the Citizens Petition asks the Agency (i.e., FDA, ed. ) to prohibit structure/function claims for dietary supplements that expressly or impliedly reference weight loss. In addition to claims that expressly reference weight loss, the petition contends that the following categories of claims should be prohibited: energy expenditure, modulation of carbohydrate metabolism, increased satiety or suppression of appetite, increased fat oxidation or reduced fat synthesis, and blockage of fat absorption. The petition acknowledges FDA’s longstanding position that weight loss claims are permissible structure/function claims. However, the petition urges FDA to change its position on the ground that: (1) recent evidence establishes that overweight is a risk factor for disease; (2) consumers believe that there is a relationship between weight loss and a reduction of risk of disease; (3) claims that a product will reduce a risk factor for disease are disease claims; (4) the use of ineffective therapies can divert consumers from safe and effective therapies such as GSK’s weight loss drug Alli; and (5) manufacturers of weight loss supplements should be forced to substantiate their claims through health claim petitions before going to market. Although the petition targets dietary supplements, the action it requests also would affect conventional foods.

The potential marketing value of the weight loss market and the food and dietary supplement industries’ major investment in weight loss products ensures that the petition will receive strong drug industry supported and vigorous food and dietary supplement industry opposition. Although the petition contends that the requested action will not require rulemaking, there are arguments that would support the need for rule making given FDA’s longstanding position that weight loss claims, as opposed to claims to treat obesity, do not imply disease treatment or prevention.”

Taking advantage of the tremendous power of the Citizens Petition, GSK is asking the FDA to classify weight loss claims made for dietary supplements as disease claims. While the distinction may seem small, what it means to your supplement access could be very bad, indeed. If the FDA finds for GSK, it will make it much easier to classify nutrients as drugs and much harder to make truthful and honest statements about the health benefits of supplements.

This is just another thrust to find yet another way to destroy the supplement industry NOT because it is bad or dangerous, but because just the opposite is true: drugs are dangerous and kill people. They are also very expensive.

Supplements are relatively cheap, very safe and do not kill people. They are, however, the greatest economic competitior to drugs and therefore the drug companies want them to disappear. They are, of course, very willing to help them do just that!

The rapidly growing weight loss sector of the supplement market in the US is about $1.3 Billion, or about $1 of every $25 spent on supplements and herbs annually. Many supplement companies depend upon these products for significant sales and staying afloat in a challenging market place.

I find it hard to see it as a coincidence that the alarming ” Trilateral Cooperation Charter ” ( http://www.fda.gov/oia/charter.html), signed February 27, 2004 fusing

* Health Products and Food Branch,Health Canada

* US Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services

* Federal Commission for the Protection from Sanitary Risks, Secretaria de Salud, Mexico

has decided that one of its very first priorities is eliminating so called health fraud by “enforcement action on Fraudulent weight loss products” ( http://www.fda.gov/oia/charter.html#appendixc ). The Trilateral Cooperation Charter defines fraud as “the false, deceptive, or misleading promotion, advertisement, distribution, sale, possession for sale, or offering for sale of products or provisions of services, intended for human use, that are being represented as being made safe and/or effective to diagnose, prevent, cure, treat, or mitigate disease (or other conditions), to rehabilitate patients or to provide a beneficial effect on health.” If you are hearing that as an invitation to destroy the supplement industry in the US, Mexico and Canada (also known as the North American Union/Security and Prosperity Partnership), you are hearing right.

Given the battle raging a round the right to make true and honest statements about the healing benefits of foods or food components, it would appear GSK’s attempt to silence its competitor is simply more of same. Codex wants to classify sharing any information about the health benefits of food and food components as “advertising”. The FDA wants to stifle the same information by calling it “health claims” or, in this case “disease claims”. The net result, if we allow them to have their way? Regulatory duct tape over our collective mouths if we dare to share information about how to get well and stay that way with natural products. Not today, not tomorrow and not any time after that!

Opportunity

Did I mention that the Natural Solutions Foundation is gearing up to go to the Codex Commission Meeting in Geneva in late June? Not only will we be there, but we expect to serve as advisers to a coalition of health friendly nations who have been preparing for the “push back” against the US on the issue of mandatory, species specific GMOs labeling.

As you know, the US forbids – FORBIDS – labeling any GM Foods. Most of the rest of the word is fiercely determined to have such labeling. The health friendlies are on the march!

We need your help to get there, though. Take a few minutes to send us forward to Geneva for the Annual Codex Commission meeting.

Click here to make your tax deductible donations ( http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189 ).

Thanks for your continuing support! We are the largest and most effective health freedom force in the English speaking world! We make a great team!

Posted in Disinformation, Legislation to Oppose, Miscellaneous | No Comments »

NSF on the Road: Days 15-18, May 1-4, 2008

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Day 15, May 1, 2008
We are here in Ottawa during a free day when nothing formally related to Codex happens. The Codex Committee on Food Labeling has concluded its work for this year and what happens next is that today, Thursday, is the day that the Codex Secretariat spends preparing a report which will reflect (supposedly) what happened at this meeting. This report will be available tomorrow at 8 AM for everyone to read and then, from 9 AM onwards, the fun starts.

Since the Secretariat has compiled all of the dialogs and proceedings, amendments and corrections (remember, this is a commission that will spend hours fighting over the insertion of a comma – literally) into a draft report, countries and organizations which take exception to what the report says or what it does not say, or how it says it, or the innuendos of the way something was written, or whatever, have the opportunity on Friday, May 2, to go over the report in deep detail. DEEP detail.

Usually, this is simply an exercise in pedantic “place holding” but when the issues are hot and there has been no consensus, despite the assurance by Chair that “I believe we have reached consensus” on the issue, this final session of each meeting gives the participants a final opportunity to play a round of psychological and legal chess by creating a document more to their liking than the discussions may have been or, sometimes, more in keeping with the reality than the report is!

I have spent the day feverishly trying to catch up on emails (I now have 5329 unopened emails in my private email box – none of them spam!) and other issues which require my attention (like laundry!) but have been ignored because of the pressure of events, including reading the huge amount of documentation produced at a Codex meeting. Late in the afternoon, with Canadian Springtime beckoning outside my window, General Bert and I walked over to the market area behind the Rideau Conference Center where the meetings are held each day. There, in a rebuilt market building I saw a group of magnificent hand painted silk blouses, jackets, scarves, etc., in all the colors I love. Alas, unlike the years when I had an income because I was the Medical Director of a successful drug-free medical practice the wonderful textiles were out of reach for me. In years past, I would certainly have bought some of these marvels to take with me. General Bert and I have given up our home, our practice, our income and our personal comfort to become warriors for that most precious of possessions, freedom, specifically, health freedom. And when we have a week like we had this week at this meeting, with real forward movement for a life and death issue like the mandatory labeling of GM food, it is clearly worth it. In case you did not catch it, you might want to take a look at the Press Release that the Natural Solutions Foundation issues about the heavy handed (and, in the end, unwittingly productive for our side) imperial behavior of the US. Here it is: http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm.

This atrocious attitude on the US’ part led to a strong determination of the African countries to develop their own requirements without waiting any longer for Codex to give it to them.

Once other countries start demanding mandatory labeling, we can, too, because our manufacturers will not want to have two labels, one for the US and one for the rest of the world, we will have a much better shot at getting our food labeled, too. Remember, this will be a BIG battle since the corporate friendly FDA has made it clear that they know consumers reject GM food (with good reason!) and will try to keep it from being labeled. That’s the situation now: it is illegal to label food with GM components!

The tide is turning and, if we ride it right, we can ride it in to a safe harbor where our food is clean, safe and labeled! But we have to start now. When the campaign begins, it is essential that we are not hundreds of thousands strong, but millions strong! You know that this is true for every one of our issues – no forced vaccinations, medical privacy, the right to truthful health claims backed by science, the right to know what our food contains and has been exposed to (e.g., pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, irradiation), the right to food that is clean and unadulterated, etc.) – the more of us there are, the more impact we have, not just in a linear motion, but an exponential one!

Therefore, I am asking each person reading this to take a few moments and send an email to your friends, neighbors, contacts, etc, and ask them to visit our website, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and ask them if they will join the free, secure distribution list for the Health Freedom eAlerts by clicking on the orange tab on the upper right hand corner and filling in your information (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187).

And while we are on the topic, let’s talk about getting here and to the next place and the next one after that, having the resources to do this work and keep on doing it.

General Bert and I take no salary or compensation of any kind for the work we do. We devote our selves much more than full time to defending your freedom and ours. When there have been short falls, we have made them up so that our reserves, retirement funds, etc., have gone into this battle as well as our skills and capacities. And we have, in fact, built the largest health freedom organization in the world. More than that, we have created alliances inside the US and outside of it to bring about the structural, legislative, awareness and social changes which will defend those freedoms from the massive forces threatening them.

But that is expensive. Let me be frank: this meeting, at which we have been an important part of the forward motion (unintended by the US and its corporate and globalist allies, of course, was one which we would not have been able to attend for you if we had not received, pretty close to the last minute, a generous donation which covered our airfare. Well, a pledge, really, since we have not yet received the money, just the verbal assurance from people we trust that the money would be transferred to us soon enough so that we could pay for this trip. Since the donors are honorable people, we trusted them and bought our air tickets and booked our hotels on the basis of their pledge.

This constant worry about where the money is going to come from to keep your freedoms – and ours – protected diverts energy and time from the battle which needs to be waged. Many of you are generous supporters, giving what you can give and giving it more and more through a recurring donation. We appreciate your support enormously and it is the only reason that we can do what we are doing. The larger the list, the more effective we are at getting heard. And the larger the list, the more effective we are at raising the funds to make all of this possible. Very simple, very elegant, very real.

If you are already a supporter making a regular recurring donation, THANK YOU! If you are an occasional donor, thank you, as well, and won’t you consider making another donation today or turning your occasional donations into a recurring one. And if you are one of the folks who has not given your financial support, large or small, to the Natural Solutions Foundation, now is the time. Click here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to make sure that the most powerful voice in health freedom, yours, is there to speak for you in effective and on-going ways!

I cannot think of many times in which such an effective battle for freedom has been waged by so few with so few resources with such high impact. Keep it going! Please! Donate generously. Oh, did I mention that all of your donations are tax deductible? They are! Act now for us all!

Day 16, May 2, 2008
Travel day today, but first I attended as much of the Report session of the CCFL as I could. The draft reports are distributed at 8 AM and then the discussion starts at 9 AM. This time, when the discussion of Agenda Item No. 5, Labeling of GM foods, began, there was blood on the floor. Although the rule is that no new information or discussion can take place and that this process is only to assure accuracy in the final report when there is a hotly contested area of debate, this is another fertile ground for getting things to read the way you want them to read.
The amount of backing and forthing, corrections and dissections this topic aroused was remarkable, just remarkable. There was a prolonged discussion in which the exact wording of a sentence about how the co-chairs of the Ghana Working Group on labeling of GM foods had presented their reports which went on for close to an hour. And it went on and on and on and on.
Finally, I had to leave because we had to catch a plane (I had allowed several hours extra to make sure that we would be present for the full report session, never imagining that it could possibly take as long as it did!). Three hours later, we learned from another delegate who also was leaving to make a plane that the discussion was still stuck on the same section!

Although this seems absurd, the reality is that it is very, very good news for our side.
After all, it means that people are not being bullied. Of course, the US was fighting for every comma, period, jot and tittle of territory it could find to make sure that the strength of the pro-GM labeling folks was mitigated. But our side was doing a good job of playing the same game to mitigate the US position to prevent labeling, as it does so effectively in the US.

More to follow!
Now we are flying to New York to take a plane very early in the morning to Panama. We will hook up with Ralph Fucetola, one of our trustees, and with Tyson Phillips, a member of our team, to fly to Panama for a meeting with people interested in becoming participants in the demonstration project there. If you are interested in that project, which is part of the Natural Solutions Foundation’s International Decade of Nutrition, visit www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org.

Day 17, May 3, 2008
We left JFK (New York) at 6:31 AM (which meant we had to be there at 4:30 AM – YUCK!) and arrived in Panama at about 10:35 AM. We took a taxi to the Country Inn and Suites Hotel and learned, to our pleasure, that our reservations were being honored. This has not always been the case here, I can tell you! So we took our bags up to the rooms and started planning for this week coming in which people will be gathering who are interested in the Santa Clara project.

After we got settled in, we met with our Panamanian lawyer and had a very good meeting lasting several hours in which we asked all of our unanswered questions and got knowledgeable and useful answers. We are very much encouraged about how this project can be put together from the legal and regulatory point of view.

This was a lunch meeting that went on for several hours so none of us were particularly hungry. But all of us were desperately tired and wound up wishing we were asleep long before we were!

We could not go to sleep, however, because we were in the midst of a very interesting meeting shortly after the first one ended. We met with an architect who is VERY concerned over organic and natural issues and is highly supportive of our project. She works for the Government and knows exactly whom we need to talk to and what we need to do. That is great news. Even better news is that she feels that the project as we see it is exactly in line with what the Panamanian Government wants to encourage and that we will not have any difficulty with setting it up from the regulatory point of view.

The Panamanian Government will conduct the Environmental Impact Statement we need and she suggested that we should work with Panamanian Universities to get a great deal of what we need done. We had not thought of that but were very grateful for her suggestions. We will certainly stay in touch with her! Good meeting. By the time it was over, though, all of us were moving through a fog of fatigue which we could barely see through. My bed was sweet to lie in!

Day 18, May 4, 2008

Tyson, General Bert, Ralph and I spent the entire day conferencing on Natural Solutions Foundation issues until Tyson suggested, wisely, that we needed a handbook for the people coming down for the Santa Clara Project. We realized that he was right and set to work to produce one. (Members of the NSF-Panama Forum can see it under “Files” in electronic format). We raced off to the nearest mall to get copies made and bound and got back just in time to meet with two of the people who had come to Panama for the gathering, had dinner with them and then raced back to do the Sunday Conference Call for the Santa Clara Project.

The ability to demonstrate and teach sustainable agriculture and to create a community around that agriculture is an important part of the concept of reclaiming the production of food and the Natural Solutions Foundation is proud to be creating this community as part of its health freedom work. Interested? Send an email to Ralph Fucetola at ralph.fucetola@usa.net with “PANAMA” as the subject line and ask for an invitation to the NSF-Panama Forum. We’ll send an invitation and you can join the discussion to become a part of this amazing project.

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedomUSA.org
www.Organics4U.org

Posted in About Codex Alimentarius, CODEX Consequences, CODEX Industries, GMOs, International Decade of Nutrition, Medical Hazards, Organics | No Comments »

US Bullies Africa on GM Labeling, Africa’s Had Enough: Codex Committee of Food Labeling Report, May 2008

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

The US outdid itself at this Codex meeting. It actually bullied another country into withdrawing its submission because the paper South Africa submitted in favor of Mandatory GM Labeling was so strong and under cut the US position that no labeling should ever be permitted. South Africa is a sovereign nation, with its own concerns, laws and issues, but it was forced by US bullying to rescind its submission because of the international tantrum that the US threw. Read about it here (http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm).

The US DOES NOT want anyone to know if there is GM food in what they are eating under any circumstances. Once the US became aware of South Africa’s paper (apparently before it was generally available to the rest of the meeting), they jumped all over them electronically. This was a major affront to national sovereignty, African and the concept that Codex is anything but a mouth piece for the multinational corporations which the US represents! Africa, however, decided that they have had enough!

Although I am very sorry for the personal and national humiliation which South Africa has been subjected to by the outrageous hubris and imperialism demonstrated by the US, the US may actually have done the world an unintended favor. Their behavior appears to have galvanized the African nations, who have been demanding that Codex supply them with Mandatory GM Labeling for over 15 years, and now see that Codex is not going to do that for them so they will have to do it for themselves. Swaziland, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Sudan, Nigeria, South Africa and a host of other African countries came together to express their determination to emerge from CCFL with progress at this meeting for a Codex requirement for Mandatory GM Labeling of foods. South Africa’s submission was part of the discussion.

Once the Agenda item came forward, however, Mama Duck US and her usual band of ducklings following right behind (Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.) quacked the same old song: These items are safe because they have been exposed to extensive safety testing (not true – see Attachment II of our Press Release (http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm) to read the FDA’s official position refusing to consider or conduct any safety testing of GM products), that Codex is not about consumer health and safety anyway (not true – see the first Codex mandate (http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp), that this issue has already been on the floor for many years and no forward progress was possible so it should be dropped (not true – see the report of the Oslo and Ghana Working Groups (Click on CX/FL 08/36/8 on web page http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/current.jsp?lang=en) to see the proposals which emerged for forward movement on this issue).

The African nations were unanimous in their support for mandatory labeling. Japan, EU, Switzerland, Norway and other countries once again stated their commitments to Mandatory GM labeling. The CCFL discussion concluded with an agreement to scrap previous labeling documents which were at an early stage of the approval process and instead substitute an appendix contained in the report of the meeting in Ghana on this issue. Although this is a very weak document as it stands now, it does offer the opportunity to keep working on the issue and was thus opposed by the US. This strategy was nonetheless adopted by the CCFL.

Astonishingly, the next morning, AFTER the discussion was completed, the South African paper was withdrawn on the direction of the South African government because of the extra procedural shenanigans of the US through its pressure on South Africa!

That over reaching act of economic imperialism may be the beginning of the end for unlabeled GM foods and crops! The pro-labeling nations of Africa – all of them – were SO incensed that they called another meeting again and determined that they would create their own requirements and adopt them en bloc with, or without, the permission of the Codex Alimentarius Commission! The Natural Solutions Foundation has been asked to continue to provide technical and scientific support, which we will, of course, be very happy to do, as you may imagine.

We are deeply gratified that our work of the past 3 years in Africa and at Codex urging solidarity is coming to fruition. We believe that this change could spread throughout Codex. Apparently, so does the US which has been telling delegates not to speak to us! Imagine! The US has nothing better to do than warn pro-health delegations off listening to us. Could we imagine a better confirmation that what we are doing is having an impact?

Of course, we continue to need your support to make this happen. Please make a tax deductible recurring donation (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to keep health freedom moving forward. Natural Solutions Foundation is the most effective voice of health freedom and it speaks for you.

Thanks for your help and support!

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.Organics4U.org

Posted in About Codex Alimentarius, Activism, CODEX Consequences, CODEX Industries, Food Crisis, GMOs, Medical Hazards | No Comments »

NSF on the Road: Days 13-14, April 29-30, 2008

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Day 13, April 29, 2008
Today was a day that could, ultimately, turn out to have changed the course of Codex and perhaps the history of the world. And we owe that to South Africa’s courage and determination. You can read the story here (http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm)
Virtually every one of the African nations has a policy of extreme caution, or downright rejection of unlabeled GM organisms. So does Norway, Japan, Russia, and the entire 27 countries of the EU. And with good reason. Look at the second attachment to the press release above for a quick compendium of horrors associated with GM food. Then consider why, here in the US, of course, our policies are so corporate friendly that we support them to the death (perhaps ours) while we eat unlabeled GM food.

A good deal of the rest of the world is quite convinced that IF you allow GM food, you MUST label it.
South Africa put her excellent paper in to Codex today. http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm. This paper lists several compelling reasons that Codex MUST have mandatory labeling of GM foods, unlike the US which prohibits any mention of GM ingredients. You can read her excellent paper as the first attachment in this press release:

Early in the day, at 8 AM, the African nations met to work out their policy on this issue. There was total agreement that they would stand united against the US policy of unlabeled GM foods and united for a policy of mandatory labeling. After all, they said, we do not have the laboratory capacity to test these foods at our border and labeling is the only way we can have some protection from them and give our consumers the choices they need and deserve.

But the US does not play fair – it plays big. Read on.

Day 14, April 30, 2008
South Africa withdrew its document, CRD 21 today at the start of the meeting. How did that happen? Where did the sovereign rights of another country to express its views if they differ from those of another country? How about the fact that Codex is not supposedly about one country bullying all the others to get what they, and they alone, want?

Pshaw! Of course it is. At least up until now. On issue after issue after issue, that is EXACTLY what Codex is about. For the past 3 1/3 years, General Bert and I have been traveling the world to deliver the Codex Two Step (http://youtube.com/watch?v=6QNg3MD6BxM&feature=PlayList&p=BF9BBB69479D44EC&index=5)
and the message that only by uniting and standing together can the developing world protect its food, its health and its people – to say nothing of its freedom.

This process took another step forward today when the African countries, having had a meeting yesterday in which each one declared that they are adamantly determined to have mandatory labeling on GM foods held yet another meeting this afternoon. This one was to say, “Let the US say what it wishes, Africa WILL have mandatory GM labeling. And we will do it by determining what is important to us and adopting it en bloc, all of us!

Sweet fresh wind blowing! Sweet words! Of course the Natural Solutions Foundation will provide its support, scientific and technical capacities. Of course, with your tax deductible support (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189), we will be at Codex in Geneva to help move that process forward. Of course, being here is critical to the forward motion of the process. There is no possible way we can have the impact we are having unless we are here and on the home turf of the countries involved to meet their decision makers, stay abreast of their developments, etc. And the ONLY way we can do that is with your generous participation through, 1. Donations (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) and 2. your joining the ranks of the Mouse Warriors.

To do that, you need to make sure that you are on the Health Freedom eAlerts distribution list (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187) and enlist as many people as you can to get involved as well. That last item, enlisting other people, is absolutely key since each person taking our action steps adds strength to that voice we are raising to speak truth to power!

Speaking of speaking truth to power, this evening I did a 1 hour radio show hosted by Steve Shenk. We’ll be putting up the link shortly! Watch for it.

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthStrategy.org
www.Organics4U.org

Posted in About Codex Alimentarius, Activism, CODEX Consequences, GMOs, Medical Hazards, Organics, The Law & CODEX | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »