Codex Alimentarius - International threat to our Health Freedoms

By: Maureen Kennedy Salaman

August 2003

Join our battle against an international threat, new CODEX guidelines which, under the guise of the United Nations, threatens to supersede both the U.S. Senate and the Congress and bring about a prohibition on vitamins.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Codex Alimentarius is a set of international trade standards for food quality and safety established to "protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade." At least that's what they want you to believe.

A Codex Commission was established by, and works in coordination with, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) - since 1963.

Various commission committees were created to develop standards. One of the assignments of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) has been to create "Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements." These guidelines will dictate which nutrients are deemed safe, the maximum and minimum amounts allowed in a product, and packaging and labeling standards.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO OUR RIGHTS?

Sponsored by international pharmaceutical interests, CODEX intends to circumvent both our Congress and Senate, and bring about a prohibition on nutritional supplements.

The greatest deterrent to knowledge is the illusion of knowledge. The establishment is giving false information in order to influence others against supplements, taking away your rights and freedoms with lies and falsehoods. Government representatives, the people who should be representing your rights, interests and needs, are instead betraying you.

The Codex Committee reached consensus in November of 2001 that the Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements would establish maximum levels for nutrients. This means an individual nutritional product cannot contain more than the maximum level set by the guidelines. In keeping with their narrow minds and self-interests, the committee did not start with whether or not limits should be set, they started with what the maximum limits would be.

The delegates that make up and decide on the CODEX mandates are 90% members of giant multi-national pharmaceutical corporations - the drug companies who want to monopolize and create pharmaceutical versions of the natural health food and nutrient business throughout the world. An example of the consequences: possession of DHEA is now a felony in Canada with the same penalty as that for possession of drugs. You could go to jail for having DHEA in your house.

The pharmaceutical model calls for an end to the use of dietary supplements for preventative use, the adoption of potential limits set by CODEX for implementation in all member countries, and CODEX approval of all dietary supplements.

What this really means - as Norway, South Africa, Ireland and Chile discovered, all of which have adopted elements of these approaches - is the control of supplements as if they were drugs. Prescription control of natural nutrients means only one thing: their removal from the marketplace where they pose a huge economic challenge to the drug pushers.

When the Codex Committee uses politics, self-interest and fear to undermine the value of nutritional supplements it rejects the valid science proving the life-saving value of higher doses and our rights to use them as such.

Another fear is that Codex could gain political and economic leverage to force the U.S. to modify our laws that currently provide U.S. consumers personal access to dietary supplements.

NOT SUPPORTED BY CONGRESS

The official U.S. delegate for Codex, Dr. Elizabeth Yetley, comes from the Food and Drug Administration. Despite protests from members of the U.S. Congress, she tries to sway the Codex Committee with convincing but wholly inaccurate arguments that are wrong because she is using junk science.

Not only is the "scientific knowledge" flawed regarding the minimum amounts of nutrients our bodies need to be healthy - the U.S.'s RDAs are notoriously too low - but limiting the amount of nutrients a supplement can have effectively prohibits its use therapeutically - not to mention driving prices up as consumers have to buy more to get higher doses. As consumers are forced to buy more to get higher doses, the cost will rise an average 7,000 percent, putting nutrients in the stratospheric cost of pharmaceuticals we will be forced to pay if this goes through.

NEXT CODEX MEETING CRITICAL

Some guidelines have been structured and finalized, but a number of important issues will be decided at the November 2003 CCNFSDU session in Germany. They include setting minimum and maximum level of nutrients in vitamin and mineral supplements, and deciding on a basis for establishing safe upper limit for vitamin and mineral supplements.

Once standards are fully finalized and approved, all member nations must abide by these Standards or face economic sanctions by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

If finalized and enforced, these "guidelines" would take away the American public's access to vitamin and mineral supplements.

JOIN US IN THE FIGHT

As self-serving interests attempted to influence international laws and regulations to restrict access to beneficial supplements, only the National Health Federation has been there to stop them.

Last year NHF attorney Scott Tips attended the Codex meeting in Berlin. It was only due to his diligence and attention that the committee did not ban vitamins and minerals for sale to the consumer. He was almost unable to attend as he had to circumvent Elizabeth's Yetley's attempt to deny him permission. Later, in a private meeting, he warned Yetley that the NHF would tell the world about her attempts to seek the banning of nutritional supplements, and she backed down.

Scott Tips, representing the National Health Federation on your behalf, was the lone voice in a sea of ignorance and misinformation. He was the only person there who represented your freedoms. Without the NHF on your side you won't have the freedoms you enjoy now.

The NHF is your government servant. Your only representative, Scott Tips, is your only hope. The NHF represents you, but it cannot exist without you and may be lost if you don't help now.

Freedom is all of our responsibility, and the price remains eternal vigilance. Support your freedom by becoming a member of the NHF or making a donation to help us defray the cost of mounting a defense against the Codex guidelines. Nothing else will take your dollars further or make such a lasting impact on your life and the future of your loved ones.