The Truth Behind CODEX

Here is an article I wrote for "The Vine", a Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine student publication, which was pulled by the CAND through the NSA so was never published:

I don’t know about you, but personally the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CODEX), the vehicle through which the World Trade Organization (WTO) is working to “harmonize” food and safety regulations of WTO member countries, is really making me nervous. What else is making me nervous is how I haven’t really heard much of a buzz or concern about it in the Naturopathic Community. Are we all too busy trying to heal the world that we haven’t had time to get informed on the issue?

Well let me tell you here: CODEX is a big deal and has the potential to affect our entire careers. With urgency in my voice, we really need to start paying attention to this looming issue.

Let me do my best to try and explain this complex situation. I don’t have all the answers yet, but we need to push our noses in these sneaky dealings and fast.

We are facing severe restrictions in health freedom and dietary supplements in this country and other WTO controlled countries such as the United States. Many countries in Europe have already fallen prey to these regulations.

I must say here that the information recently released by our own CAND is unfortunately touching on only the superficial layers of Bill C-420, which may be able to protect us from Codex under WTO rule. Understandably, the CAND has worked hard to make gains for our benefit, some of which may be lost if indeed this bill is passed. However, not supporting this bill gives us a far more dangerous situation than a few lost victories. It also seems the CAND has been misinformed by Phillip Waddington, Director General of the Natural Health Products Directorate, and was told that the Codex guidelines are voluntary and apply only to those items listed as “foods”. So far everything that I have researched says that Codex applies to items listed as “drugs”. At this stage of writing I am still confused about this and I see there is much double-speak going on. This issue is deep and contains many layers of deception and we must make sure to get more informed. “Although Codex was selected to provide WTO with standards to be used in resolving international trade disputes involving food, Codex continues to tell its members that compliance is voluntary. In actual practice we observe how the Codex texts can be used by the WTO to force a WTO member country to comply with a Codex standard." I urge you all to read this information here: www.ahha.org/codexWTOoverview.htm.

Okay, here we go. The United Nations authorized the WHO (World Health Organization) working in conjunction with the multinational pharmaceutical cartel and international banks to develop a universal food code. The “said” purpose was to set international standards of dietary supplements for the sake of safety and increased trade. However, the pharmaceutical giants certainly noticed and began to exert their wealthy lobbying influence so now Codex is instead using its power to promote worldwide restrictions on vitamins and food supplements, severely limiting their availability and dosages.

According to Ruth James here’s that we can expect under Codex.
- Dietary supplements could not be sold for preventive (prophylactic) or therapeutic use.
- Potencies would be limited to extremely low dosages. Only the drug companies and the big phytopharmaceutical companies would have the right to produce and sell the higher potency products (at inflated prices).

- Prescriptions would be required for anything above the extremely low doses allowed (such as 35 mg. of niacin).

- Common foods such as garlic and peppermint would be classified as drugs or a third category (neither food nor drugs) that only big pharmaceutical companies could regulate and sell. Any food with any therapeutic effect can be considered a drug, even benign everyday substances like water.

- Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become binding (escape clauses would be eliminated).

- All new dietary supplements would be banned unless they go through Codex testing and approval.

John Hammell, a legislative advocate and the founder of International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF), states "If Codex Alimentarius has its way, then herbs, vitamins, minerals, homeopathic remedies, amino acids and other natural remedies you have taken for granted most of your life will be gone. The name of the game for Codex is to shift all remedies into the prescription category so they can be controlled exclusively by the medical monopoly and its bosses, the major pharmaceutical firms. Predictably, this scenario has been denied by both the Canadian Health Food Association and the Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB).

The Codex proposals already exist as law in Norway and Germany where the entire health food industry has literally been taken over by the drug companies. In these countries, vitamin C above 200 mg is illegal as is vitamin E above 45 IU, vitamin B1 over 2.4 mg and so on. Shering-Plough, the Norway pharmaceutical giant, now controls an echinacea tincture, which is being sold there as an over the counter drug at grossly inflated prices. The same is true of ginkgo and many other herbs, and only one government controlled pharmacy has the right to import supplements as medicines which they can sell to health food stores, convenience stores or pharmacies."

Another problem is that Codex is now enforceable through the WTO. This means if a country disagrees with or refuses to follow the Codex standards the WTO applies pressure by withdrawing trade privileges and imposing crippling trade sanctions. Many governments of many countries have already succumbed to this pressure several times.

It appears our government is being manipulated to serve the goals of the UN, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization. After all, “food control equals people control -- and population control. Is this beginning to sound like world government and one-world order? Could this be the real goal behind Codex?” Says Ruth James in her informative expose, of which most of this article is sourced from: (www.campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/011101/THESINISTERTRUTH.htm)

Manipulated again by governments and corporations, haven’t we had about enough of this? I urge us all to use our personal power and act on this issue. There is a lot we can do, especially if we work together.

Please sign the petition at www.petitiononline.com/engC420/petition.html

I welcome ideas & comments & assistance in a grassroots movement to educate ND’s, students and the public about this issue: avollmer@ndnet.ccnm.edu.

Power to the people,

Amandha Dawn Vollmer

More Codex Info & Food Action!

Customs Confiscated Vitamins (from www.alive.com)
Dear alive:
Thank you, Rhody, for your February editorial (alive #232). It has once again reminded me that I need to voice my disgust at the power of the Codex Commission. We in Canada take our freedom of choice for granted and think that injustices are only felt in Third World countries so far removed from us. The Codex Commission wields unheard-of power in Germany and now the European Union, so much so that vitamins recently sent to my relatives in Germany have been confiscated by customs with warnings of charges of illegal importation under the Customs Act.
Ursula Kessler, BA, RHN
Pefferlaw, Ont.

I recommend us all to pick up a copy of the book from Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD, ND called "Death by Modern Medicine" and please read the article here:
http://www.healthy.net/scr/column.asp?PageSource=index&ColumnId=32

Something else going on right under our noses :

This is another example of Stifling/Damaging Food Control for the sake of the illusion of healthy trade and commerce.

OTTAWA - Bill C-27, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Enforcement Act, would mean the end of independent policy on food production, inspection and enforcement in Canada, according to the Beyond Factory Farming (BFF) Coalition.

Cathy Holtslander of the BFF Coalition will appear before the House Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-food today.

"Canadians want made-in-Canada food and agriculture regulations that ensure quality, health and safety," says Holtslander. "Bill C-27 would empower the CFIA to restructure the regulations governing Canada’s food and agriculture to put trade ahead of public safety and integration with the United States ahead of democratic Canadian control of what we eat."

Please Tell Your MP to vote NO to Bill C-27!

Sign the petition here:

http://www.beyondfactoryfarming.org/cgi-bin/index.pl

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER BUT NOTHING WITHOUT ACTION!