HEALTH FREEDOM HERO OF 2004

December 2004
 

Recently, the National Health Federation Board of Governors unanimously voted Mrs. Antoinette Booyzen of South Africa as our "Health Freedom Hero of 2004." Mrs. Booyzen is the Assistant Director of Regulatory Nutrition in the Food Control Directorate of the South African Department of Health in Pretoria, South Africa.

Scott Tips  presenting to South Africa's Codex delegate, Antoinette Booyzen,

the NHF 2004 Health Freedom Hero Award

You will remember Mrs. Booyzen as the head of the strongly pro-health freedom South African delegation to the Codex Alimentarius meetings on food and nutrition in Bonn, Germany. Year after year, she has staunchly and repeatedly stated her opposition to the harsh restrictions on food supplements being sought by the European Union and others at these meetings. Of all the delegations at the meeting, only the NHF has consistently supported the South African delegation.

In a very positive move, at the latest Codex meeting, Mrs. Booyzen was able to retain for South Africa the important chairmanship of the working group that will be setting the new international Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs). In doing so, the South African delegation will coordinate the establishment of the scientific basis upon which the NRVs will be set, which nutrients are to be included, and the criteria for their selection.

The NHF commends Mrs. Booyzen and her delegates for their fortitude and perseverance at Codex over the last several years in expressing their health-freedom views and for recently drawing support from other countries, thereby forming a more solid base of delegates at Codex to speak out for health freedom.