Day 22: July 3, 2006 Thrilling Day at Codex!

July 4th, 2006

Today was a thrilling day here in the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) meeting in Geneva. Several developments took place which, if properly exploited, can be of major significance for our side. For some real fun, read all the way down to the end of the post: things you will really find fascinating took place today.

The day did not start off so well, though. The first item we were hoping to see go our way was a move by the health freedom coalition nations to move the discussion of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (GS) up from last on the agenda to much earlier to allow significant discussion. You may remember that at Dr. Grossklaus’s Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU, Bonn, Germany) last November that item was moved by the Chairman from item No. 2 on the agenda to item No. 11, the last item. It was carefully allotted no meaningful time and therefore there was no discussion about it at that meeting.

The same tactic is being used here: although Codex is required to come up with a strategy for global implementation of the GS at this meeting (based on national comments given since the last CAC meeting (Rome, Italy, July 4-9, 2005) and the discussion that the item was supposed to receive at CCNFSDU and Codex Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL, Ottawa, Canada May, 2006). You may recall that South Africa introduced their excellent pro health strategy consisting of 11 points for the implementation of the GS and it did receive discussion although the US spoke out against including optimal health as a goal and against banning the advertising of junk foods, known to increase life threatening diseases and death, to children. But SA fought and managed to get the 11 points back into the final records so they are on the docket for discussion.

A report made available by the World Health Organization and the FAO on the discussion so far, by the way, was handed out yesterday. SA’s excellent points were sort of in there, kind of, a little. Basically they were buried and nearly invisible so any pro health advocacy for them will have to wait until there is a discussion, IF there is a discussion, of course! We are already running at least 1 hour behind time and we have only had one day of proceedings.

No one spoke for moving the item earlier in the agenda, however, and the proposed agenda was adopted without demurral by the entire CAC.

But there was plenty of fun, none the less!

Early on, when the obligatory opening remarks were being given it was noted that “several Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have applied for observer status which shows growing interest in Codex. Codex is doing well, certainly better than in the past” and “in light of the joint WHO/FAO consultation [that’s the one presented at CAC 2005 that said ’18. Codex should determine whether it has a relationship to nutrition and, if so, what that relationship is.] Codex is becoming an organization which can continuously review and update itself”. In those same remarks, it was noted that “it is necessary to adapt the mandate of Codex to make Codex more efficient.” FAO noted with pleasure the steps which Codex has been taking to bring about improved efficiency and noted an “important reorganization” despite budget cuts within FAO. In fact, FAO noted, Codex had received a 4% increase in their allocation from FAO. It is not clear that the same was true of WHO’s response to Codex and it was WHO which last year chastised Codex so heavily for its failure to produce a benefit to human health during its existence. (That statement by Dr. Kirsten Leitner, by the way, appears to have been edited out of the audio record available on the internet of last year’s CAC meeting. Somebody REALLY didn’t like that bit, it would appear!)

Now that seems to me a really fascinating statement. I will leave it to you to ponder why the world’s food standard setting body needs to worry about its rep. Could it be that the awareness is growing among its constituents, the nations of the world, that Codex is a troubled, perhaps even an invalid, organization and process? Could it be that the damage which standards and Guidelines based on poor science and multinational corporate agendas, not health, are beginning to attract enough attention to tarnish that rep? It certainly looks like it to us as we go from country to country and make friends with the regulators and responsible persons of a wide swath of countries.

Then things got really interesting. Along the way, Dr. Claude Mosha, the CAC Chairman (yes, the very same Dr. Mosha who wrote a letter to an African National Department Head prohibiting the Codex participation of a pro health Codex Delegate under our sponsorship who is, by the way, NOT here) reporting on the deliberations and activities of the 57th Codex Alimentarius Commission Executive Committee session noted the importance of the “Use of Codex standards and texts at national and regional levels… to increase cooperation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and increase the use of Codex standards at national levels”. Read that as “Codex is trying to compel every country in the world to adopt Codex standards and Guidelines as their national laws.”

The position of the Natural Solutions Foundation is that every Codex standard or Guideline which is based on junk science and which will degrade health through widespread and comprehensive contamination of the food supply and mandated under nutrition through the impact of the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline and the companion definition by the WHO Workshop on the Application of Risk Assessment to Nutrients of an adverse event which is defined as “any change in a bio marker”. Did you notice that it is ANY change, not just changes in the wrong direction?

In his report on the 58th Executive Committee Meeting (the EC meets twice each year), the Dr. Moshe repeated the fact that “Codex has embarked on a series of reforms based on the WHO/FAO consultation”. You may recall from our reports from last year’s CAC that there were 20 suggested reforms in that report. Our unconfirmed, but reliable, information is that the joint Consultation they are talking about originally came back suggesting that Codex be killed. Industry got into the swimming pool and the result was 20 deeply watered-down recommendations. Number 18 (referred to above) was about nutrition (the only one which dealt with it, by the way) and, as soon as it was reached, Dr. Slorach, last year’s chairman abruptly cut off discussion saying that the CAC was out of time. So what the reforms dealing with nutrition might be are unclear to us here at the Natural Solutions Foundation.

Moving right along, however, the Secretary wanted to determine if there were a quorum present to take care of a procedural item. In this fancy, state of the art Swiss conference center the only way he could do that, despite the fancy microphones, lights, translation devices, etc., was to ask the national delegations to hold up their country signs and count them. We found it interesting that there were a bunch of countries that, while present, obviously did not hear the instructions and failed to hold up their signs. When the Secretary counted, there was no quorum and the matter was deferred until tomorrow, Tuesday, since not enough country flags were held up. It was noted that there were a lot of countries here at the CAC on Codex Trust Fund “scholarship” or support (the Trust Fund is designed to support bringing the developing countries to the meetings) were not present. That is apparently often the case.

Now for the really interesting part:
When the next item came up in which words were being deleted from the Codex Committee on General Principles (CCGP) regulations which clarified that Codex texts (i.e., standards and guidelines) were completely advisory what happened next might be seen as early shots in a CAC revolution.
Malaysia noted that it was not comfortable with the deletion. Singapore joined Malaysia in objecting to this change saying “Every country is supposed to go through risk assessment for appropriate levels of consideration. But CCGP is trying to force mandating of these standards and guidelines…. A Codex standard is no longer advisory.” Both made it clear that they did not want to adopt the proposed language adopted since the changes under consideration made the adoption and use of Codex texts compulsory.

To the distress of us who are here representing the Natural Solutions Foundation and health freedom advocates everywhere the United States’ Dr. Ed Scarbrough (our Codex Manager) spoke strongly for the change. Why not? The US, continually abdicating its responsibility to protect consumer health and health freedom, supporting all of the multinationals’ trade and commercial interests, once again embarrassed us and showed what its colors actually are: green, not red, white and blue. The EU, whose money may be different colors, but whose interests are just the same, followed like a baby duck after its momma duck.

But there was quite a response: the ordinarily placid, polite and calm delegates began to speak in strong terms to oppose the US and EU. Singapore and Malaysia’s strong opposition to the change were joined by
Egypt who said they “Have to register strong reservations over the amendment.” and concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
China concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Nigeria concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Bhutan concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
India concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Indonesia concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Natural Health Federation, the only other health freedom advocate organization (and an official Codex Observer) here, concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Philippines concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Sudan concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU

Dr. Mosha, the CAC Chairman, clearly tried to quash and quell the revolution by suggesting that the issue be sent to CCGP to deal with.
Singapore came back into the debate swinging, stating that “Codex should not transfer the review [of this matter] to another body”.
Tanzania, despite the fact that Dr. Mosha is from Tanzania and the Tanzanian representative had told us when we visited him in his own country that “Tanzania would not do anything to conflict with or embarrass the Chairman since he is from our country” apparently forgot its resolve to note “Tanzania supports Malaysia and Singapore” [!]
Comoros noted that they concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Uganda concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Iran concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU
Ghana concurred with Malaysia and Singapore against the US and EU

Other than the Great Parmesan Cheese Debate which had raged for a decade until Singapore called for a vote at the 2005 CAC and the whole thing was dropped, such sustained dissent is unheard of. Country after country participated in what amounted to nearly a role call vote AGAINST the change.

Next, the Secretary of Codex was said by Dr. Mosha to “have a new idea” [sic]. He was given the floor by Dr. Mosha and said, “No sentence provides that Codex standards and related guidelines are mandatory, and this is especially true after acceptance of standards [we presume that he means after acceptance of standards by countries which adopt revised standards which differ from those of Codex — this is our position exactly, and what we have been telling countries around the world to help them focus on how to protect themselves from Codex’s damage to their people’s food and nutritional security and to their health. You can imagine how thrilled we were to hear this “clarification”!]

The Secretary went on to say “Every thing the [Codex Alimentarius] Commission is adopting is a recommendation to the governments. Everything is advisory and there should be no distinction between standards and other texts [e. g., guidelines].” He mentioned that this equivalence of standards, guidelines or other texts as a change which WHO and FAO supported and which was brought about in the last years. This is a strong endorsement of the Natural Solutions Foundation template which was developed in collaboration with the Citizens’ Codex Working Group and others. You can see how it applies by downloading the Codex eBook which elaborates the process as it applies to the restrictive and deadly Vitamin and Mineral Guideline ratified, as you know, with such strong and, to us, distressing, US jubilation one year ago today at the 2005 CAC meeting in Rome.

Now for the kicker: Dr. Mosha, the Chairman who refused to meet with us in Tanzania before the CAC because he wished to remain “neutral and not be pressured by any group [sic] on any position”, the same Dr. Mosha who bullied a National Department into not allowing our sponsorship of an experienced Codex delegate to represent his country’s health interests, that same Dr. Mosha said, “the change is adopted by consensus [!!!!] with the reservations of those countries noted who have expressed them!”

What that means is that this “neutral” Chairman sided with the US and EU despite heated, sustained and articulate opposition to it. What that tells you is that although we are beginning to have an impact, the fight for health is an uphill battle which is going to take time, resources and sustained effort. And we will be here for this battle as long as you want us to be here.

By the way, if you want to understand what Codex is really all about, and why it acts as it does, get a copy of “Nutricide: the DVD” and find out why, how, and by whom Codex was born. If you don’t already know, it will certainly attract your attention, I can promise you!

And now for the very best: While the cadmium standard for rice and mollusks was being discussed again, while the standard was being raised for this very, very dangerous heavy metal from 0.01 (a common national standard), 0.02 ppm (the current US standard) to 0.04 (an industry-friendly standard which allows industrial sludge to be used as “fertilizer” thus saving companies a great deal of money they would otherwise have to spend in expensive appropriate disposal). Last year at the CAC, Kenya and Malaysia noted how many children would die from kidney disease if the cadmium standard were doubled in their staple food, polished rice. Kenya noted that at least 65,000 children would die PER YEAR in Kenya alone if the standard were double. Well, somebody got to Kenya (can you guess whom that might have been?) and this year Kenya, sweet as butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-your-mouth, spoke in favor of 65,000 kids dying for somebody’s profit: “Kenya supports the 0.04 ppm standard.” Bye, bye kids (or perhaps that should read “Buy buy!”

Nigeria was not about taking it any longer. Nigeria, one of our friendly countries that we successfully and extensively visited during our most recent African trip, articulated what we intend to make the rallying cry of Codex countries who value health more than they value corporate interests: the Nigerian Head of Delegation said that “Codex should please consider the issues of health as opposed to the issues of trade!” YES!

Oh, yes. One more thing: In discussing the trade of radioactive food which has been contaminated by a radiation accident (or fallout from a non-accidental source): Codex proposed a table of standards for amounts of radioactive particles (“radionuclides”). The usual suspects thought that was a fine idea. Sure. You’ve got radioactive food. Just dilute it or wait a bit and then sell it internationally. Great idea. Of course, radioactivity is NOT labeled. Health? Consumer protection? Consumer choice? Fuggedaboutit!

However, Indonesia said that it was completely unacceptable to sell radioactive food. Sudan, Egypt, Singapore strongly objected.

Don’t be surprised that IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Commission, which attends Codex (think about that: why do they need to be here? Because of the mandated irradiation of internationally traded food, that’s why) said, “Mr. Chairman, we have had guidelines on radionuclide contamination of foods since 1989. Codex uses the same standards.” Somehow that was supposed to make it all OK.

Apparently it did for the Chairman who declared that that the radionuclide standard advanced by Codex was adopted noting the strong reservations of Indonesia, Singapore, Egypt and Sudan. Well, given the fact that Codex has declared itself to be advisory only, if every country in the world had advanced laboratories that they use to detect radiation in every single lot of food coming into their country, and if they have the international trade muscle to demand changes in the food shipped to them, then any country in the world can protect its people against radioactive foods. Yeah. Right. If you believe that is a meaningful solution, there is a bridge I am sure you would be interested in.

There’s a lot of work ahead of us but you can see that there is a growing body of vigorous discontent and dissent representing world-wide opinion and interests, not just the multinationals any longer!

More tomorrow. This promises to be a lively session and we will keep you closely posted. After all that’s why we are here.

By the way, if you like what we are doing, how about making a contribution on an ongoing basis to keep us doing it?

Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD

Posted in CODEX Consequences, CODEX Industries, Events, International Cooperation, Medical Hazards, Miscellaneous, Promising Developments | 1 Comment »

Day 20-21: July 1 and 2, 2006

July 2nd, 2006

Day 20 and 21: July 1 and 2, 2006

I have combined both days because they are pretty much the same: inside the hotel room on the internet planning our strategy for the upcoming meetings. We have produced a Codex White Paper which we will be making available after the Codex meeting concludes next week because it is a supporting strategic document for our work here during the meeting and it would be premature to release it now. One of our lawyers was willing to take the time to write a mini-brief on international requirements for national choice in electing to adopt modified Guidelines which are different from Codex’s Guidelines by a country which does not wish to see the health and nutritional security of its people degraded for someone else’s benefit.

You can see how this process works when applied to the restrictive and destructive Codex Vitamin and Mineral Guideline by downloading the highly informative Codex eBook which not only contains a pro health Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline side by side with the Codex one (pro health on the left hand side, pro death on the right hand side) but a legal summary of the reasons that our “Codex two step” as I call it, is protective against WTO sanctions and a model legislation which is based on the US law that treats nutrients as foods which do not require upper limits, the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act, better known as DSHEA.

DSHEA is a unique piece of legislation since it makes the US the only country in the world which allows consumers — you and me — to access nutrients exactly as we want to and as the market allows. We can take as much of whatever nutrient or herb we want as long as we can find it.

What this grand experiment of billions and billions of doses of all kinds of nutrients and herbs means is that we now have documentation of the absence of nutrient dangers. America looses 1,500 or more people EVERY YEAR to aspirin, a supposedly “safe” over the counter (OTC) drug. We loose more than 100,000 people EVERY YEAR to properly prescribed drugs used under doctor’s supervision in hospitals (according to the Journal of the American Medical Association) and who-knows-how-many hundreds of thousands more on an outpatient basis. The estimates range up to 400,000+ or more — and those are the estimates by mainstream doctors, not people like me who do not use drugs in practice because of their dangers and the fact that there are better ways for treating just about anything that is not acute and immediately life-threatening than with drugs.

But the numbers of deaths from these multibillion doses of nutrients? Find me 100 over the past decade. Find me 10. Find me 1. In fact, even the much vaunted “ephedra deaths”, when examined by the United Stated General Accounting Office (GAO) in a 2 volume document looking at more than 160 deaths supposedly caused by that substance found that not one death could be conclusively linked to the maligned herb. Not one.

And if you want to talk about the 8 supposed kava kava liver failure deaths, I believe firmly that you will find the same pattern: any time, ANY TIME, there is a death which could be linked to a nutrient or an herb, despite the fact that other much more deadly factors are involved (like dangerous legal and illegal drugs, extreme illness, dehydration and extreme activity, etc.) the death is linked not to the reasonable risk factors but to the unreasonable one: the nutrient or herb. And the press, of course, has a field day. The same field day they routinely take whenever anyone suggests that there are dangers in nutrients and herbs. The dangers, are, of course, ill considered and unscientific, but that’s not what you hear from the pharma-fed press, of course.

In the Codex eBook you will also find a detailed and highly referenced essay on the safety and importance of nutrients in public policy and health as well as specific well-researched sections showing the excellent scientific basis of nutrition for treating (not just preventing) 3 of the major public health problems of both the developed and the developing world:
1. Wound healing and trauma (including surgical wounds)
2. Cardiovascular disease and lipid control
3. Diabetes and glucose control.

If you are looking for health information for yourself or others, or perhaps looking for scientific documentation with which to educate your allopathic doctor, this essay is a great science-based resource.

It will also give you a look at what the US will loose if the attack on DSHEA is successful and we “HARMonzie” with the disastrous Codex Vitamin and Mineral Guideline.

The Codex eBook is a template for how any Codex Guideline can be changed. The White Paper (soon to be exclusively available on the Natural Solutions Foundation website, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org) lays these principles out in detail and I know that many of you will want to read it for yourselves. Once the Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting has concluded we will mount it and let you know how to access it.

But wait: there’s more! You probably remember that the Chairman of the Codex Commission has directly attacked a part of our Codex strategy of bringing an articulate and experienced Codex Delegate to the CAC meeting under our sponsorship. Well, we got word today that another country we visited and worked with has intensively decided at their Codex Committee meeting (after we left) that they WILL support us and our strategy in the meeting.

It’s sort of like a fencing match: thrust, parry, counterthrust, parry and thrust again. The fencing ground is the planet’s food supply and nutritional security.

For those of you who have responded to our requests for financial support, thank you. For those of you who are thinking about it, right now is a great time to click and give. All support is now tax deductible so you can do well by doing good, as they say!

To those of you who enjoyed our description of our activities here in Geneva (including the menus), glad you liked hearing a bit of the human side of the battle. For those of you who did not want to hear about it, sorry about that. We try to include a bit of everything along with the war reports.

Yours in health and freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation

Posted in Activism, CODEX Consequences, International Cooperation, Miscellaneous, Promising Developments, The Law & CODEX | No Comments »

Day 16-19: June 27-30, 2006

June 30th, 2006

First of all, let me thank you for your warm response. You have donated nearly $2000 since my last email. Please keep your health freedom battle which we are fighting in mind and, if you haven’t done so yet, support the Natural Solutions Foundation generously. This is your battle, too, if you care about your health and your natural health choices. When was the last time you could fight the good fight and get a tax deduction on it, too!
Dr. Rima

Day 16: June 27, 2006
Today was an email and phone day: since I could not use my cell phone (stolen or lost last weekend) to get emails or make calls, I used the hotel facilities to confirm and solidify our pro health strategy for the Codex meeting. What that meant was internet at more than $10 per hour and phone calls to Africa, Asia, etc. and the US at European hotel rates! Whew! But the reason for the calls and internet connection is a very positive one: we are in the process of making sure that our pro-health allies from around the world are consolidated and coordinated, ready for action at the Codex meeting next week.

You know, some say that Codex cannot be changed from within. But they are wrong. I anticipate that Codex and the Bigs will respond to us if we are effective. I doubt that they will say, “Why thank you! How very nice of you to put things in perspective for us so that we can see how poorly we are serving health!” Rather we can expect some sort of vigorous and unpleasant response. After all, they have the money and have bought themselves the alliances which have allowed them to get this far. But as one of our legal team put it, “People with inconsistent values do not prevail. It is the ones whose values are more consistent who prevail. And the Codex forces want to appear to serve health and human well-being while not doing so. We want to serve those values in a consistent way and so we will prevail!” He is right. But our side is building momentum so we can expect a response which we will have to counter. We don’t know what it will be, but we know that it will come if we are effective.

On a personal note, it is hot and sunny here in Geneva and we found a great Swiss restaurant right next to the ancient armory in the Old City which lies in the middle of Lake Leman (Lake Geneva to everyone but the French). We had Swiss food in a Swiss outdoor bistro (at Swiss prices, I am afraid) and the experience was delightful.

Geneva is home to hundreds of international organizations so the population is richly mixed with people from all over the world enjoying the same lovely atmosphere and physical delights while speaking every imaginable language and wearing every sort of dress. Only 34% of Geneva’s population is ethnically Swiss these days so the city is remarkably cosmopolitan. When I was here 30+ years ago that was not the case and the change is fascinating.

Our hotel is, in itself, a small version of the global community which Geneva serves while a walk around the block takes you past the Kuwaiti, Canadian, Korean, Russian, Croatian permanent missions, headquarters of the WHO, International Labor Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, UN High Commission for Refugees, the International Red Cross and dozens more. Breakfast (included as it usually is in European hotels) is totally, thoroughly and completely Swiss, though. There is muesli, eggs and meats, cheeses and about a zillion types of bread plus fruit and yoghurt. Every day.

Day 17: June 28, 2006

OK. I’ll admit it. We took the day off. After only 3 hours devoted to phone and emails, we went on a tour of Monteux and the Castle at Chillon made famous by George Gordon, Lord Byron (“My head is white, but not with years, Nor grew it white in a single night As men’s have grown from sudden fears….”

Chillon, built on the site of an older castle by the Bernese a very, very long time ago, does contain a (rather sanitized) dungeon where Byron carved his name in a sandstone pillar and a gallows. It also provides a breathtaking glimpse of military dominance in a rugged and difficult country since it was placed to defend its position from both the lake side (the Bernese had longboats with 110 rowers which could load more than 600 fighting men) and the mountain side and succeeded in doing both for many hundreds of years until the Bernese simply decided not to defend their position any longer and left, freeing the prisoners and departing Geneva forever. Perhaps that’s a model we could suggest to Codex but somehow I don’t think they are quite ready to take it.

Just as the Bernese left Chillon only when it became clear to them that they were presiding over a crumbling and grumbling empire for the order to change radically, the Natural Solutions Foundation is helping those who value their food and health freedoms to become an effective force for change. In the US we are supporting the development of a legal and an intellectual challenge to a contaminated food supply. Internationally, we are helping nations to apply protective strategies to the serious health problems posed by Codex.

The Bernese didn’t leave without a struggle but today Chillon (and this part of Switzerland) are no longer occupied territories. The Prisoner of Chillon, Francois Bonivard, was thrown into prison for speaking his mind and then freed by the Bernese in 1536. We need to be freed, too, so that we can pursue our own paths to health and make our own choices in how to stay there. It’s a matter of health and of civil liberty as well.

Day 18: June 29, 2006

Well, don’t say I didn’t tell you to anticipate it! Today we learned that a brilliant voice for health, the environment and freedom has been personally blocked by the hierarchy of Codex from coming to the Codex meeting here in Geneva next week!

Corporations sponsor delegates all the time. For example, all three of the delegates from India to the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) last November in Bonn, Germany, were sponsored by the Nestle Corporation. They represented India but they were heavily influenced by their sponsor’s views on the baby food and formulas of which Nestle is a major manufacturer. IBFAN, the Non Governmental Organization (NGO) focusing on breastfeeding and infant breastfeeding substitutes sponsored delegates to the same meeting who were influenced on the opposite side of the fences to be dealt with at that meeting.

So sponsorship of delegates from countries with limited funds to participate in Codex is an accepted practice and an excellent way to make inroads at Codex since only national delegations have an effective voice. True, NGOs (which may be either industry or civil organizations), if recognized by Codex, may speak, but their voice is very small compared to the voices of countries. Only countries may introduce items, and only countries may call for a vote or carry out other important procedural maneuvers. So friendly national delegates are very important to change occurring.

Thus, we were delighted when a leading African scientist with a long history of fearlessly speaking out for health, the environment and consumer choice agreed to accept Natural Solutions Foundation sponsorship to attend the Codex meeting next week. We were even more delighted when the head of the department for which he works agreed to allow him to attend as a sponsored delegate.

And we were shocked, but not surprised, when we learned today that an absolutely unprecedented event had occurred: the 2006 Chairman of the Codex Alimentarius Commission had written a personal letter to the scientist’s Department Head and FORBIDDEN him to allow the scientist to come as a sponsored delegate since the Natural Solutions Foundation was his sponsor. That means several things:
1. Bulls eye! We are definitely having an effect and our strategy is the correct one. Otherwise there would have been no need for the hierarchy of Codex to try to interfere with it. We are clearly on the right track. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, for that confirmation.
2. Codex has just publicly declared itself to be precisely the repressive, autocratic and pro-illness organization the Natural Solutions Foundation has identified it as being. It strikes out to thwart moves to change its direction toward a health-supporting one using primitive and heavy handed interventions and attempts at limiting both debate and information. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, for that confirmation.
3. Codex plays dirty. Debate and discussion are not what it wants. Therefore, debate and discussion are most valuable tools. Sharing information inside of, and outside of, the confines of Codex is extremely valuable since it is what Codex fears most. The Natural Solutions Foundation has been providing options and accurate information to decision makers and grass roots in the US and abroad. This is a strategy which builds the constituency for health and health freedom at the national and at the international level. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, for that confirmation.
4. We had, of course, Plan A.1 (and have Plans B, C and D) in our vest pockets, so to speak. We anticipated that, if we were on the right track and our Estimate of Situation were correct, Codex would strike out to try to limit or eliminate our effectiveness. Codex has shown us how very important strategic planning and adherence to the Principles of War are (and will be) to win this health freedom campaign. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, for that confirmation.

We will miss the intelligent, articulate and consistently audible voice of our scientist friend at this meeting. He is a fearless leader and a deep thinker. His absence will leave a hole. However, we have other delegates who are alerted to the issues and prepared to speak with equally compelling and intelligent voices. Mr. Chairman has not been able to stifle dissent so easily. What each country does remains, like a jury trial, a crap shoot. But we have worked diligently to help build the constituency which can back pro health options inside Codex and beyond. Next week will be another set of milestones in the health freedom battle but this battle will continue regardless of the direct intervention of the Codex hierarchy.

Revolutions are like that. There is a prisoner waiting to be freed here in Geneva. The day? July 4. or thereabouts. The name? Miss Freedom, Miss Health Freedom, to be precise. Let’s wish her well and support the struggle for her freedom all over this green world of ours, shall we?

Day 19: June 29, 2006

This was a strategy day with hours and hours and hours of tactical implementation to support next week’s Codex meeting from our side. After a hard day at the computer and on the phone, we took a walk to the edge of Lake Geneva for a bite of dinner: an interesting amalgam of Swiss and Chinese food concepts rolled into one Peking Duck. It was really very good and quite interesting and made a welcome change from a day inside the hotel room working on documents and options for next week and beyond.

Yes, whatever happens next week, there will certainly be a beyond! Codex is complex and health freedom is even more complex. So the Natural Solutions Foundation will be working on pro-health issues and options for a long, long time to come.

Day 19: June 30, 2006
Today was the start of the Montreux Jazz Festival and, since it is only just a few miles down the lakeshore, I had hoped we would have the time to get there today for some local experiences and some music. However, the actions of the Codex Chairman required a good deal of planning and effort so we did not have the time to get to the opening festivities today. Phone, email, creation of documents, contact with colleagues and more of same. The issues are just too important to leave to chance!

We did go out for dinner to a Singapore restaurant, though, quite close to the bus station. Across the street, next to the bars and bistros, is “The American Market” which sells all the foods we have exported to a receptive world: chips fried in fake and poisoned oils, sodas, endless artificial drinks in colors food never even thought of being, dozens and dozens of candies and cookies and cereals devoid of absolutely any nutritional value and an endless array of other food fakes. And all at a premium since they are high status “foods”. The place was packed with fast food (aka fast death).

Pay the price to eat this stuff and, in the end, you will pay the price of having eaten this stuff.

And who benefits? Why, the people who brought you the fake food and the people who are right there to collect the immense profits your preventable illness and death brings to them. You know their names: I don’t have to tell you who they are.

“The American Market” is, in fact, a prelude of things to come for the entire world’s food supply if Codex wins. That’s why we won’t let it win.

Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

Posted in Activism, CODEX Consequences, Medical Hazards, Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Days 12- 15: June 23 -26, 2006

June 26th, 2006

Day 12: June 23, 2006
Today we had another full day of meetings and had the same level of success at each of them in this bustling African commercial capital. What a day! For reasons that you will instantly understand, we cannot tell you exactly where we are but you can be assured that it is hot, difficult to arrange anything, complicated and thrilling. Today, in addition to the editors and reporters from two of the largest newspapers in this country we have seen people who know either nothing or quite a lot about Codex but who have not thought about it from our view point. Each one listens with great interest since each one appears to genuinely care what happens to the nutritional status of his or her countrymen. This is a unique and thrilling aspect of these countries: there are problems which we in the US cannot even begin to comprehend, poverty at breath taking levels, corruption in many places at a level we almost never contemplate and yet civil servents and public advocates, activists and business people, Members of Parliament and Ministers of Health are truly interested in listening to what we are saying and in making changes to further public nutrition!

Of course, we shall see what the actual actions their delegates take are during the Codex meeting. At this level, however, we are dealing with people who genuinely seem to want their countries to do the right thing. We think American can learn a thing or two!

Day 13: June 24, 2006

A major newspaper in this country runs a full page story on the importance of our stand on Codex and health freedom! We will scan it and share it with you AFTER the Codex meeting. It urges the country to take care to protect its access to healthy and natural options! In color, no less!

Then we get word that a major African country has apparently shifted its position to support South Africa’s superb initiative for the implementation of the WHO Global Strategy at Codex. Again, we shall see, but it would appear that the shift is because of the work that we have been doing! We are thrilled: hot, tired, exhausted but thrilled!

I have gotten bitten by at least 3 mosquitoes (all of which are presumed to carry malaria) and so I begin taking Artemesia annua and ionic silver to prevent the development of malaria. No one else got bitten who was near me. That’s the way it usually is, by the way.

Then a large and festive meal with our supporters in this country and off to the airport for a flight to Geneva.

Day 14: June 25, 2006

The flight started out fine but sometime during it I became sicker than I have ever been. Every orifice which could empty itself did so repeatedly. And then again and again. I assume that the problem was food poisoning since I recovered after many, many hours of sleep both in the airport waiting for connecting flights and then in the hotel room. UGH! Bert was fine. Go figure.

Oh, by the way, someone stole my Blackberry from our hand luggage so if you wanted to call me, you can’t!

Day 15: June 26, 2006
After some more extended recovery (that equals sleep), we had a leisurly day during which I went through several thousand emails. If I have not gotten to you, please be patient! We are preparing a White Paper on the Codex issue of national options to hand to the delegates whom we will be continuing to meet with with the help of our outstanding legal team.

Let me tell you, even sitting in a hotel room in Geneva is easier, but the work that we have done in Africa has gone so well that I would gladly do it all over again! Thanks for your letters of support and your donations.

This is a very expensive proposition and if you have not given generously yet, please, please do so.

We have a lot to do before us, but what we have done so far on this trip can, just possibly, change the world!

Yours in health and freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

Don’t forget to sign the Citizen’s Petition and visit www.EatSafeEatSmart.com! REL

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BINGO: Africa Journal -Days 4-11

June 23rd, 2006

Day 4: June 15, 2006

Today we are in the commercial capital of this bustling city meeting with government officials. We meet the Food and Agricultural Number 2 man (who comes from this country) and watch his body language: “I need to entertain these useless people because my boss is too busy to do it. Let’s get it over with!” We listen to his take on Codex (“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful”) and wonder whether he really does not think about the policies he participates in implementing or if he is masking his reality with balsamic platitudes. It is hard to tell since he is closed emotionally and verbally.

None the less, we plunge ahead and tell him what we believe Codex has in store for the land that he loves. We tell him about the results of an adulterated food supply and the impact of chronic under nutrition on the already nutritionally vulnerable people of his country. He is shocked and argues with us saying that is not what HIS Codex will bring. Citing specific examples we note that his body language and verbal language as well have changed: he is now leaning forward in his chair seeking more information and asking probing questions. His forehead is deeply furrowed now where before it was smooth. His expression is deeply concerned, too, where before it was smug.

By the time we leave, Mr. FAO is asking how he can help us to protect his country. We give him a hard copy of the Codex eBook (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/resources/books.shtml) and a copy of Nutricide: the DVD (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/aboutcodex/dvd.shtml) and leave with his fervent handshake and promise to spread the word in the government and FAO circles he works in.

Next, the head of the Codex Committee of this country. He is also the head of the Bureau of Standards. He is going to Codex but he does not care about it. He listens to our presentation while looking at his watch, accepts our materials (still looking at his watch) and makes it clear that he is not really interested in much of what we have to say. He will be the Codex Delegate from his country at the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) meeting coming up in Geneva next month (July 3-7, 2006). We leave. He is relieved. So are we.

That afternoon we visit the head of a major humanitarian Foundation in-country who is also a significant cattle rancher and farmer. Codex, food purity, domestic and international standards are of great significance to her. We discuss options and receive her enthusiastic support for our program. She suggests high ranking people whom she will contact on our behalf.

Our guide and networking support person (a beautiful, talented young woman who is working on transforming both women and her country in an inspiring way), tells us that a scientist whom we met at Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (November, 2005, Bonn, Germany) and whom we admired for his intelligence and determination to make his points despite the hostility and intimidation of the Chair) has agreed to meet with us over dinner.

This gentleman had previously not replied to any of our emails and we had given up hope on having him as an ally. When we meet with him that evening he tells us that he was watching to see what we could accomplish without his help. Now that we have made major strides in our goals, he is willing to work with us.

In fact, not only is he willing to work with us, he is willing to bring together a team of countries to support our positions at CAC! And he is in the process of doing just that! Day 4 was a breakthrough day.

Day 5: June 16, 2006

We fly to South Africa to visit with a dear friend and catch up. Dinner, loving conversation, a home cooked meal. Life is good tonight!

Day 6: June 17, 2007

More catch up and dinner with a South African doctor and his lovely wife who believe that Natural Medicine is the answer to his country’s major health problems. He has formulated a spectacular meal in a pouch for HIV positive patients with outstanding results. However, the unscrupulous activities of a German MD in South Africa have made any natural health option highly suspect and his effort is meeting with knee-jerk opposition to its deployment. We discuss possible strategies for developing his advance in clinical nutrition and the significant threat to the needy that harmonization with Codex (for example, the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline) would mean to his people.

Also at dinner: a microbiologist and her husband. Her work is on the benefits and importance of probiotics and we discuss her struggle to get recognition for their central role in health and recovery from illness. She, too, has developed a remarkable set of products and we talk about how important these two advances are for all immunocompromised patients, HIV/AIDS and other and, as usual, the impact of Codex on them internationally and, through harmonization, within South Africa unless both are modified.

Our materials leave after dinner in their hands and it is clear that we have new allies in the health and health freedom struggles! And they are people you really want to have dinner with!

Day 7: June 18, 2006

Another dinner, this time with a husband and wife who are representatives of a very large, very influential Chinese nutrient company. We discuss in some detail how their company and our Foundation see our challenges and opportunities with Codex and realize that we have very close alignment. The Chairman of this company will now receive our materials and will be informed of how close our visions and issues are so that we can talk together about developing a common communication strategy either by our going to China or by our coming back to South Africa if his visit and our schedule coincide. Another set of materials walks out the door and we have new comrades in arms (and dinner companions for the future, too).

Day 8: June 19, 2006

We wake up at 4:30 AM to leave the house so that we can catch a very early flight to Capetown, South Africa. We make the plane but the plane doesn’t make the landing. Hours later, we have circled long enough to use up our gas and landed to refuel because Capetown sits in a bowl surrounded by steep mountains on all sides but the sea and, although the surrounding area is totally clear, Capetown is socked in by thick fog. I fell asleep during this circling in a holding pattern and woke up when we landed. I asked where we were and the lady across from me said, “East London”. I was terribly confused: How could I have been asleep long enough to fly to the UK and not know it? No, no! East London, South Africa, only halfway back to where we had taken off!

More fuel, more circling and then we are in Capetown, only half a day late along with 12 other plane loads of people who could not land until then, too. Bags? Luggage carts? Not easily had.

Finally we emerge with our luggage and meet the people who have come to collect us: a farmer with a passion to feed his country with supplemented, healthy, clean food and a highly influential traditional healer who is also an MD (or perhaps an MD who is also a traditional healer).

We detail exactly what Codex is and what it means to them and their people. They are appropriately concerned and, material in their hands, the day ends with new friends and new allies. These are influential decision shapers and are important in our efforts to spread the word about health and health freedom into new communities. Both understand that Codex is a threat to nutrient based health strategies and are willing to work hard to protect their people and their families. And they are a delight to have dinner with, too!

Day 9: June 20, 2006

We are still in Capetown and we are picked up from the in-town home of the farmer by a brilliant analytic chemist who is also an MD (or is it the other way around?). He is an expert on the precise evaluation of food components which are related to allergies like genetically modified DNA from GMO foods and we have a tour of his lab and meet his staff. Over lunch we discuss Codex and its allegedly “Science Based” standards and guidelines. We agree that under nutrition and an adulterated food supply are major health threats presided over by Codex although we also agree that there are aspects of Codex which can be utilized to help humanity (which as the appropriate upgrading of lab standards and facilities).

The proprietor of the lab drives us to the airport and agrees that he, too, needs to spread the word of what is happening to health freedom. This time the air portion of the day is uneventful.

We are met by the representatives of the Chinese company from two days before and returned to our host’s home bone weary, but enlivened from the excellent conversations and commitments we have participated in.

Day 10: June 21, 2006

We fly to a huge, populous and highly influential African country where we are met by a physician whom we came to know only 1 month ago at a seminar in New York! He said that he would bring us to members of the Government of this country who would take our cause up in Codex and make a difference. In this case, we are deeply concerned about the importance of implementing the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health in a manner consistent with South Africa’s 11 principles for doing just that.

We hope for the best and get nearly no sleep because we have to leave the hotel long before dawn to fly to the capital city to meet with ministers and other high ranking officials tomorrow.

Day 11: June 22, 2006
BINGO!!!!! Ministers, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives meet us. Codex representatives who work for the Food and Drugs Board but who believe in natural medicine as essential to national health meet us. The Chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on Health and Public Health meet us. The most powerful politician in the government meets with us. Virtually all of these men are physicians who, surprisingly to those of us from the US, really understand the crucial role of nutrition and are duly horrified by what Codex can mean to their people.

The Consumer Protection Agency Director General (who reports directly to the highest authority in the country) meets with us along with her legal advisor and really, really get it! They are members of the National Codex Committee and promise to bring our material and our information to that body.

We give them each of them our materials and they all willingly promise that they will take the Global Strategy very carefully at the Codex Committee Meeting prior to the CAC next month. They were unaware of how important the Global Strategy was to them and promised to examine that very carefully.

Then off to the airport to fly back to the commercial capital of this country from its political capital. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. Hours and hours later, we get on the plane (dinner? lunch? breakfast? Don’t be ridiculous! I was packing a few power bars and we shared them as we dashed from one fabulous meeting to another. )

We wait and we wait and we wait. And we sweat. It is unbelievably hot and humid. I hate heat. I hate humidity. It does not really matter. We need to be here doing this and I can get cool next January, if I am lucky, I suppose.

General Stubblebine is wilting, too, in business attire. Hot, sticky, no air conditioning, no food, but a day of nearly unbelievable success.

We get on the plane at last and there is no air-conditioning. In fact, there is no air moving at all. We sit there dripping and wondering what is going on when the pilot cranks the engine. RRRRRR, RRRRR, RRRR, RR, R, no power and the engine dies. More brutal heat and humidity, another series of unsuccessful cranks and, wonder of wonders, it catches. Let me tell you, flying on a plane under those conditions made us all sweat even when the temperature cooled down.

We land, stagger off to our hotel for a few hours’ sleep and begin again: we are up very, very early because we have an interview with the first of the two leading newspapers in the country. We do an interview and the editor and reporter are mesmerized and promise to run the story right away.

(Breakfast? Did I mention breakfast? No? Guess why!)

Then off to interviews with highly significant people (including the Codex Point of Contact of this nation). Her body language (like that of the FAO man in another country) was closed when we began but, by the end of our several hours together, we were laughing, considering, and working together on a profound redefinition of the problems posed by Codex which had never presented themselves clearly at this level because the problem areas are so beautifully wrapped up in shiny gift wrapping with “Science Based, Science Based” printed on it. They are tied up with a bow tied by the PR skills of the multinational interests but, pulling on the strings, we show what is inside and neutrals and enemies reorient to become friendlies and allies.

Tomorrow we fly off again. Stay tuned. Codex will, this year, be attended by national representatives who just might act as a coalition and make a difference that can benefit every man, woman and child on the planet!

Stay tuned! There’s a lot more to come!

Yours in health and freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

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