Codex Alimentarius:
Monstrously Toxic Power Play
for Control of the Global Food
Supply & Natural Health Industry

September, 2007
From: Food & Health Safety News #20
Living Nutrition Magazine vol. 20
http://www.livingnutrition.com

Click here for a printable PDF of this article

Click here to get a copyable letter you can send to your Senators and Congressional Representative

Compiled from various sources and edited
by David Klein, B.S., Ph.D.

The Codex Alimentarius agenda, which has long metastasized in the recesses of closed board rooms and governmental chambers, is now coming to light. This is the paramount issue of our times, yet few know about it. If Codex standards ever replace the current laws in the U.S. governing food and dietary supplements, it will affect not just Americans' right to choose supplements, but our right to grow crops with untampered seeds, to buy pure organic food, and to live free of the tyranny of Big Agro-Chem-Pharma-Med, through health-destructive FDA rules enacted and enforced by a pro-corporate government that cares nothing about our health freedom. In other words, the "natural health" industry will perish. Now more than ever, we must exercise our democratic duty and be vigilant in protecting that freedom, the health and survival of the Earth, and all her creatures and citizenry.

Please take action now and let your representatives know of your opposition to Codex, to prevent the pro-disease industries and affiliated financial interests from seizing the total power they crave. It's our obligation to tell our Congressional leaders to stop Codex and to protect and promote food and health safety and freedom. Our right to live healthfully is at stake.

Let us remember the vehement, relentless defiance by the founders of our nation that broke the stifling grip of tyrannical rule, giving us the democracy we wanted and way of life we now cherish, which are now threatened. At this time of mounting crisis, each of us must expose this clandestine monster while claiming and exercising that democratic freedom as never before.

Codex is not just about nutritional supplements, although that is an important aspect. In fact, it is the primary political battlefield where the war is being waged about who will regulate and control the global food supply, from field and stable to table. This "war" is being waged by an increasingly tangled web of global governmental and international authorities, aligned with big business and financial interests, wherein human health takes a back seat to profit and power goals.

Although American dietary supplements are currently protected—somewhat—by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), its provisions are threatened by Codex and an interlocking array of emerging regional and international treaties, agreements, regulatory “handshakes” and other executive arrangements that will "harmonize" our food laws to harsh European standards, thereby relegating DSHEA to the dust bin of history and suppressing our health freedoms...unless we take immediate action.

Do we want to see a world where our access to safe, nutritious foods and effective dietary supplements is restricted, suppressed, and controlled by government in alliance with its pharmaceutical and chemical bedfellows? If not, we must act now, before it's too late.

Contacting government bureaucrats with your complaints is largely a waste of time. Effective action takes the form of advising others and contacting your representatives in Congress. Remember: be “persistently vocal”—most politicians don't see the light; they feel the heat. Make them feel the heat.

Make no mistake about it: those international standards are moving steadily toward the Codex regime and its draconian restrictions on health freedom. Pharmaceutical companies have spent billions of dollars trying to get Washington to regulate your dietary supplements. So far, that effort has failed, in part because of a 1994 law called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Big Pharma and the medical establishment hate this Act, because it allows consumers some measure of freedom to buy the supplements they want.

The largely government-run "healthcare" establishment, including the nominally private pharmaceutical companies, want government to control the dietary-supplement industry so that only they can manufacture and distribute supplements providing any real benefit. If this takes place, as it has in Europe, the high-potency, beneficial supplements that you can now buy over the counter will be available, if at all, only by prescription and at a much higher cost. This alone is sufficient reason for Congress to oppose the unconstitutional, freedom-destroying CAFTA bill.

FDA and Congress are also working (FDA quite openly, Congress more covertly) toward the goal of harmonizing our health laws with Codex Alimentarius standards and guidelines.

The FDA is presently recommending that the U.S. harmonize with Codex standards, and it seems they would prefer to apply those standards within the U.S. as well as for international trade.(It is more than likely that we will have no choice in the matter once we are signed on to Codex.) The recent actions of Congress (bills that threaten DSHEA) lead me to think they have a similar agenda.

The U.S. passed CAFTA with a very close vote and, in fact, the Republicans held the voting period open an extra hour or more while they haggled with their party members to accrue enough votes. Sure enough, they got them. The Democrats were already all on board.

Codex Alimentarius Background and History
Compiled by Chris Gupta, based upon the work of Paul Anthony Taylor, Sepp Hasslberger, Scott Tips and Helke Ferrie
— http://tinyurl.com/2xohw
— http://www.thenhf.com
— http://kospublishing.com

Codex Alimentarius
"Codex Alimentarius," which refers to a set of strict regulations covering all aspects of food, is Latin for "food code" or "food regulations." This collection of food rules in Europe dates back to standards enacted between 1897 and 1911 by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were used as a legal reference by the courts, although the Codex Alimentarius itself had no legal standing.

Modern Codex regulations are prepared by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (herein referred to as "Codex"), which works with the EU and UN in an attempt to regulate every aspect of food production, packaging, preparation, preservation, and presentation of food "from farm to fork." Codex also attempts to regulate supplemental nutrients. It even goes so far as to eliminate "organic produce" standards (through dilution)!

Codex's reach
Because the U.S. is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and because the WTO and other treaty agreements require the United States to adhere to Codex standards, any changes approved in Europe, and implemented in the EU-dominated Codex meetings, could subject the United States to WTO-enforced trade sanctions.

Codex will control:
1. Vitamins, minerals and nutrients,
2. Genetically modified organisms,
3. Toxic residues,
4. Antibiotics, drugs, growth stimulants, and other hormones in food animals,
5. Organic foods, and
6. Irradiation of food.

The plan is to suppress all beneficial, high-potency nutrients, and to allow only those and a few other vitamins and minerals that will be high-priced, low-dosage, and synthetically-made by drug companies.

Codex regulations will become binding internationally. Any nation that has entered into trade agreements through the WTO and its adjunctive treaties will eventually be forced to adopt Codex standards.

All “new” types of food supplements will be banned unless tested and approved in a drug-like manner. This is certain to be both time consuming and unnecessarily expensive. And, the validity of such tests is doubtful. A favorite ploy of drug and governmental authorities is to use such small doses of a supplement that tests do not show any noticeable value.

Codex standards are not based upon accepted scientific or research findings. Rather, the standards are developed in a political atmosphere, with seemingly obligatory EU and drug-cartel approval.

Organic foods
From the drug cartel's point of view, the primary advantage in getting rid of true organic food is that in the absence of quality food, people will become ill and buy more prescription drugs. As a lesser advantage, the farmers will buy more insecticides and chemical fertilizers. The standards and definitions of "organic food" will be changed. Under Codex, a farmer or rancher will be able to call his products "organic" when they are full of toxic poisons. Under Codex, "organic food" may include as little as 70% organic contents, but this will not be noted on labels. (The other 30% can consist of poisons or contaminants.)

The new laws requiring genetically modified crops, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics in foods will be cost-prohibitive to people living in developing nations, and billions of people may die and/or sicken as a result of these policies.

Codex is not based on science or democracy
Unelected government officials, working in cooperation with vested industry and trade interests, make decisions that result in domestic and international standards, which in turn are to be enacted into law by the member states of the WTO. When the WTO was created, the enforcement mechanisms for Codex and other international standards were created. With this enforcement mechanism in place, an increased incentive therefore arose to hijack the original purpose of Codex (i.e., to provide clean and safe food for the planet with no international barriers to the movement of that food), instead promoting a restrictive governmental agenda of suppression of natural alternatives to pharmaceutical medicines.

Harm in harmonization
Through the process called "harmonization," our legislators in Washington will be required to align America with harsh and restrictive Codex requirements, regulating international trade, distribution and processing of food, herbs and nutrients. Those proposed standards will be extremely detrimental to the environment and your health, blocking your access to many clean, unadulterated, life-enhancing foods.

The FDA is currently at work, preparing its own plans for "directives" for "harmonization" of our dietary supplement laws so they will fully agree with the excessively restrictive "international standard" set by the EU-dominated Codex.

What Codex will accomplish
These new standards and guidelines will:
    1. Protect the multimillion euro (European equivalent of dollars) investments of the large drug companies as well as their government-blessed monopolies.
    2. Lead people away from natural healing methods, resulting in more power for the government-medical-pharma cartel, more suffering and death for the populace, and the further degradation of life on Earth.

Codex's Evil Sister
The drug industry, recognizing the growing preference for natural remedies over pharmaceuticals, wants nutritional supplements and herbs either forbidden or priced out of reach. In Europe, the drug cartel has succeeded in enacting the European Food Supplements Directive, which will accomplish that objective on the European continent very soon. This Directive, which passed into European Union (EU) law in 2002 and was implemented throughout the EU on August 1, 2005, is the first of several EU Directives to impact natural healthcare and is one of the bases for the Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements Guidelines adopted by Codex Alimentarius.

Effects of the 1994 U.S. dietary-supplement law, DSHEA:
In the United States, after DSHEA was enacted by Congress, the shackles were removed from American suppliers, who were permitted for the first time to actually advertise some of the purported health benefits of vitamins, minerals, and herbs, and to sell such products free of the arbitrary enforcement powers of the FDA. DSHEA was passed because large numbers of Americans demanded it. Over 2.5 million ordinary citizens wanted to ensure that dietary supplements would remain available over-the-counter. By 2002, nutritional supplements outsold drug medications. Interestingly enough, although the FDA has retained wide-ranging enforcement powers over supplements, many anti-supplement interests repeatedly and deliberately lie and call supplements "unregulated."

CAFTA agreement
Special clauses have been inserted into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) designed to force America to submit to Codex standards after its enactment by the U.S. Congress. CAFTA was passed by the U.S. Senate and Congress in 2005. This laid yet another brick in the wall for the U.S. government to eventually restrict vitamin and supplement sales in accordance with the "German Model" of healthcare. Gradually, DSHEA, which protects the nutritional rights of Americans, is being nullified by these “end runs,” and the North American supplement companies (along with their healthfood stores) are being insidiously phased out.

The power behind the throne
Codex is a joint venture between the United Nation's World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization (WHO/FAO). The WTO stated that it will enforce Codex "guidelines" as the world standard for trade in food and food supplements. Both the FAO and the WHO are intended to protect the health and welfare of the world's population, but it is clear they have shirked this responsibility in regard to Codex.

An immense German, French, U.S., and British drug cartel is behind this. Codex is also working with other groups supporting the following agendas:

1. The chemical industry's aim that all animals be treated with antibiotics and hormones.
2. The largest seed company in the world (Monsanto) is working toward 100% genetically-modified crops.
3. The nuclear industry's goal of irradiating all foods including plants and livestock.
4. All industries' goal: phasing out truly organic foods, or at least, making them extremely difficult to obtain.

Hopefully, the facts will alarm you enough that you will want to immediately contact Congress and tell them how you feel about all of this.

Actions by the European Union and the United Nations affect millions of lives. What makes it possible for drug companies to have so much influence at the EU and UN and even within our own FDA? The answer is rather simple: drug companies make excessive profits by overcharging on patented medicinal drugs. They claim that the profits are needed for research into new drugs. Yet, the costs of that research only come down to paying the salaries of some lab technicians. It is well-known that most of the profits are used for lobbying politicians, advertising, and similar methods of increasing sales.

The powers on the throne
Some 167 countries are members of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). Here are some of the international organizations working closely with Codex in order to accomplish its objectives:

• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
• International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation (ICGFI)
• Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA):
• The European Commission on Food Safety (ECFS)
• United Nations (UN)
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• World Trade Organization (WTO)

There are more than 20 Codex Alimentarius Committees.
These committees develop guidelines (there are more than 16,000 pages of working documents) on every aspect of food, and present those guidelines to the Codex for ratification. Trade organizations with strong publicly documented ties to the pharmaceutical, chemical and agricultural industries have a very influential voice at these meetings. There has been no significant representation from health advocates, nutritional supplement manufacturers, natural healthcare professionals, or similar groups at the Codex meetings, except for the National Health Federation (NHF), which is the only health-freedom organization with official International Nongovernmental Organization (INGO) status at these meetings. The NHF is the only INGO voice consistently speaking out for health freedom year after year at these meetings.

The Codex Commission meets every year, alternating between Rome and Geneva, while its various committees meet in different host countries (such as France, Germany, Canada, Australia, the US, etc.). The U.S. representatives to Codex have well-documented, unsavory connections to the very industries that stand to profit from the wholesale implementation of the Codex standards. Insofar as the FDA is concerned, consumers have virtually no say at all.

The governments of both India and South Africa have repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the foolish restriction of nutrients and herbs under Codex, but their protests have been regularly disregarded during meetings by ill-defined "consensus" tactics that do not allow full discussion or debate on these crucial issues, or even true consensus.

The Power in Codex
Here is one of many reasons why Codex can overrule our U.S. dietary laws. In the United States Federal Register, dated Oct. 11, 1995, the FDA's Policy on Standards states that "where a relevant international standard exists, or completion is imminent, it will generally be used in preference to a domestic standard." The U.S. Constitution states that U.S. treaties take precedence over U.S. laws. There has been activity on Capitol Hill to prepare "harmonization" rules, which will lock America into obeying Codex dietary standards.

It is important to note that Codex Alimentarius operates under the system enshrined in the Napoleonic legal code, under which anything not explicitly permitted is forbidden! In contrast to the Napoleonic legal code, the U.S. operates under the more sensible English-based Common Law, wherein anything not specifically forbidden is permitted.

WTO placed corporations over nations
The WTO has put the mechanisms in place to override any national law that interferes with multinational corporate profits in international trade. That is one of the reasons why Congressman Ron Paul tried to remove us from the WTO in 2000 via House Joint Resolution 90. Congress failed to enact his proposal.

U.S. Codex Office
The U.S. Codex Office is found within the FDA, which, in turn, is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This Office works very closely with Codex in Europe. If you go to its website, you will see this:

"The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO 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, ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations."

The U.S. obeys WTO
Codex standards and guidelines were originally intended to be voluntary, i.e., each nation could obey or disobey them. But that began to change when the various nations signed new treaties at the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), at which time the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence. According to the treaty the United States signed at Uruguay, we are required to obey the rulings of the WTO. The WTO has enforcement power through a new international court, the Dispute Settlement Body, which does not follow our rules of evidence and wherein our interests are represented by unelected government bureaucrats.

We have a controlled (or paid-off) press
This Codex crisis is the clearest proof this writer has ever seen that we have a "controlled press" in America! There is absolutely no mention by ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, BBC, or the newspapers and newsmagazines that America is hurtling toward the total loss of effective vitamin-and-herbal supplementation! This is largely due to a conflict of interest: the drug companies provide them with millions of dollars in drug-ad revenues, and it is my belief that the media have been threatened with the loss of this revenue if they tell the public the truth about Codex.

In my opinion, this includes generous "contributions" to the White House and Congress, as well as immense bribes to EU and UN officials. Now you can understand why the newspapers, newsmagazines, and news broadcasts do not say a word about the nutritional crisis we are facing. In 2004, pharmaceutical companies spent over $4 billion on direct consumer advertising. This includes media advertising. In that same year, $785 million was spent on Congressional lobbying.

Can Codex be stopped?
There is no certainty about this. You should contact your Congressmen and Senators, and tell them how you think they should vote. It is imperative that concerned natural health consumers become organized and fully activated to stop Codex from being enacted in the United States.

July 4, 2007 Update by Sharrhan Williamson
Just this week, the FDA announced that it was implementing tough, new “Good Manufacturing Practices," which consist of regulations that will adversely affect sales of vitamins and minerals. For once, the FDA was very forthright, making it clear that small supplement companies will have to go out of business. According to news sources, the big vitamin/supplement companies that are set to stay in business (Vitamin Shoppe, GNC, etc.) have strong pharmaceutical company backing.

Senator Ted Kennedy's FDA "revitalization" bill S. 1082 is another blow to DSHEA: it allows for its dismantling by the FDA and Congress. Dr. Ron Paul is trying to counteract this with some new bills such as his H.R.2117. We'll see if he is successful.

Codex is happening, although they are implementing it in small stages so that the public hardly notices. If we call Congress to complain, they'll say, "Oh no, that's not happening." We must read between the lines and look at all the evidence—it's as plain as day. On the bright side, perhaps people will get back to growing more good organic food and herbs locally than ever before.

July 16, 2007 Update by Scott C. Tips of National Health Federation
The 30th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) in Rome, Italy just ended (July 2-7, 2007). Heaping plates full of Codex standards and guidelines were advanced to their final stages as if starving people were gathered around a banquet table. It did not matter what was heaped on the plate; it got passed to the table regardless. It also did not matter that there were some 451 country delegation members and another 61 INGO (International Nongovernmental Organization) delegate-observers from around the world in attendance (or pretend attendance); the CAC Chairman, Dr. Claude Mosha, plowed forward, pushing aside any and all objections—excuse me, he called them "reservations"—that were made. It would not have mattered if a plate of rotten tomatoes had been presented to him for approval; he would have approved them too. In this one meeting, the CAC was rendered irrelevant as a meaningful "approving" body, for it merely rubber stamped without thought what had been done by others. Mimi the Gorilla could have done just as good a job.

That is the essence of what happened at the Codex meeting as Sepp Hasslberger and I (the National Health Federation delegation) saw it. To read our full report, see www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_16_jul_2007.html

While Americans Slept by A. Ofria
When we see powerful players forcing our leaders to act in ways that threaten the rights that Americans have historically died to preserve, we must remind them of their duty to safeguard our way of life. If we do not raise our voices above the clamor of multinational commercial interests, we may be silenced forever.

Take Action by Scott C. Tips
Legislation can either protect or restrict your freedom in all its aspects, including your health freedom. As long as there is some semblance of representation in the halls of Congress, use whatever influence you have as a constituent on your Senators and Congressional representative. Let all three of them know that you oppose American harmonization with Codex Alimentarius standards and all other restrictions upon your right to purchase and grow naturally healthful foods and choose naturally healthful goods and services.

Remember the National Health Federation's action motto: "Be persistently vocal." That is, do not just send one letter or fax, or one e-mail, and then sit back and watch TV reruns, thinking your job is done. Be persistent, do all three, re-send, and pick up the telephone to call them with your concerns. Even better, if possible, pay them a personal visit in their offices, ideally, going together with friends. Engrave your views in their minds, even when they are on the Senate or House floor. Make them feel the heat.

To begin, you could say:
"I am asking you to do two things to protect our health freedoms here at home: 1. Support the Health Freedom Protection Act (H.R.2117) by signing on as a cosponsor; and 2. Oppose all efforts to harmonize with or conform our American system of food and food-supplement regulation to the European-dominated Codex Alimentarius Commission's health standards, which are based on junk science."
Unify your efforts with others by joining an organization such as the National Health Federation with an established track record of health freedom activism. Together, our individual efforts will be coordinated and amplified.

Editor's note: Special thanks go to Scott C. Tips, Esq. of the National Health Federation for assisting with the editing of this article.

Watch These Films!
"We Become Silent - The Last Days Of Health Freedom –
The Codex-CAFTA Documentary" (2006)
A 28-minute video by Kevin Miller at http://herballure.com/Special/WeBecomeSilent/QuickTime.html

"This is What Democracy Looks Like" (2000)
A 68-minute compilation of interviews with Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, Susan Sarandon and Michael Franti about the driving forces behind the World Trade Organization.
Available at video stores and www.corrugate.org.

New Book
CODEX Alimentarius - Global Food Imperialism
This 293-page book, just released this year, consists of a compilation of informative articles and viewpoints by various knowledgeable health-freedom activists who know Codex intimately. Compiled and edited by Scott Tips, President of the National Health Federation.
$15.95 plus shipping: U.S $3; Europe $12
Online orders: www.thenhf.com
Mail orders: National Health Federation, P.O. Box 688, Monrovia, CA 91017 U.S.A., or call 626-357-2181.

Democracy in Action
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." –Thomas Jefferson.
To contact your U.S. congressional representatives, go to: www.house.gov.
To contact your U.S. congressional senators, go to: www.senate.gov.  
Or visit: http://www.house.gov/zip/ZIP2Rep.html

Codex Action Information
Boston Area Codex Action Committee
Sharrhan Williamson • 617-499-0920 • sharrhan@verizon.net

National Health Federation
P.O. Box 688, Monrovia, California 91017
626-357-2181 • contact-us@thenhf.com• www.thenhf.com

http://tinyurl.com/2xohw
www.alliance-natural-health.org
www.codexalimentarius.net
www.dr-rath-foundation.org
www.iahf.com
www.isil.org
www.mayday-info.dk
www.mercola.com
www.newmediaexplorer.org
www.newstarget.com
www.thenhf.com
www.welltv.com

Back to the Sample Articles Index page