Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Codex Alimentarius (CA) Threatens Human Health


By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 1 of 5 page(s)
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Codex Alimentarius (CA) Threatens Human Health - by Stephen Lendman
On its web site, CA (Latin for food code) says:
"The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN) and WHO (World Health Organization) to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations."
Whatever its founding purpose, CA is much different today because corporate interests control it - global pharmaceutical, food, and banking giants in league with complicit UN and government agencies to promote GMOs over healthy foods, and drugs over natural remedies by restricting or banning vitamin and dietary supplements, except ones they control. Organic food as well by irradiation and hidden synthetic additives or ingredients.
If CA's standards and guidelines are adopted, they'll establish binding global rules, effectively overriding sovereign national laws. GMO foods and drugs will proliferate. Labeling will be banned. Food and drug giants will decide what will and won't be sold. Governments will be prohibited from countermanding them. Everyone's health and well-being will be jeopardized.
Since its 2004 founding, the Natural Solutions Foundation has been involved in "discover(ing), develop(ing), demonstrat(ing) and disseminat(ing) natural solutions to the problems facing us and threatening our health and freedom." Its goal is "to support advanced healthcare and health freedom" globally, not a system promoting corporate interests at the expense of human health and well-being.
It explains that CA has "absolutely nothing to do with consumer protection." It's a corporate-run "Trade Commission" created to control "every aspect of how food and nutritional supplements are produced and sold to the consumer." It's about profits, not human health. It wants to ban natural remedies and promote unsafe drugs. It's "unscientific because it classifies nutrients as toxins and uses 'Risk Assessment' to set ultra low so-called 'safe upper limits' for them." It wants to prohibit everything not explicitly permitted and controlled by them.
Under the 1986 - 1993 GATT Uruguay Round, its 110 member countries agreed to harmonize their domestic laws to conform to international standards. In January 1995, the WTO replaced GATT, and as of July 2008, its membership included 153 nations.
Its Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade was established "to ensure that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures do not create unnecessary obstacles. It specifically refers to:
-- ...."the important contributions that international standards and conformity assessment systems can make....by improving efficiency of production and facilitating the conduct of international trade....;" and
-- the importance of "develop(ing) such international standards and conformity assessment systems."
It states that "Members are fully responsible under this Agreement for the observance of all provisions of Article 2" - pertaining to the "Preparation, Adoption and Application of Technical Regulations by Central Government Bodies;" under them, "Members shall formulate and implement positive measures and mechanisms in support of the observance of (Article 2's) provisions by other than central government bodies."
This means that WTO members are legally bound under global guidelines, including CA standards if adopted, that override currently in force national laws. Under WTO rules, failure to comply may bring punitive fines or crippling trade sanctions.
At its July 2005 session, the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU), drew up guidelines that set restrictive upper dosage limits on popularly used vitamin and mineral supplements and nutrients. They prohibit the sale of all curative, preventative, and therapeutic supplements without a doctor's prescription, most now accessible over-the-counter at health food, other stores, or by mail order.
Twenty-six other committees are tasked with setting global standards for different areas of the global food and drug trade, including:
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