Day 7, April 23, 2008
This morning we met with Dr. Col. Denis Mikode, Beninese Codex Contact Point and asked if there was some way that he would be able to go to Codex if the Natural Solutions Foundation paid for his trip. He clearly was moved that we cared so much about the ability of Africa to determine its own future in relationship to Genetically Modified foods but, alas, was not able to get either a Government Mandate for the meeting on such short notice or a Canadian visa. For that, he would have had to go to Ghana for the visa and, if it failed, come home or, if he should succeed, would be able to continue. Of course, there were no airplane tickets for him at that point, etc.
We told him that we would take care of all that but he felt that the only way Benin could be represented was if a miracle occurred. Long story short: no miracle on that one.
Later that day we got ourselves packed and set off for the airport to make the grueling flight from Cotonou to Paris to Newark to Ottawa – all in economy seats. General Stubblebine is well over 6′ tall. Tyson hovers right around 6′. I am merely uncomfortable: they are really, really uncomfortable on these long haul flights.
While we were waiting in the Cotonou airport, Tyson got talking with a fellow whom, when we staggered off the airplane to spend 6.5 hours in the Paris airport at 6 AM, he decided to wait for on the jet way. Tyson introduced us to Jeff, a semi-nomadic Environmental Engineer who had just finished a solo 3 month bike trip through West Africa. JEFF DOES NOT SPEAK FRENCH!
Tyson and Jeff were going to take the train to Paris and asked if General Stubblebine and I wanted to come. Of course I wanted to come! It was a magnificent Spring day and we got out of the subway (“Metro”) directly opposite Notre Dame Cathedral as the bells were chiming and the clear sky provided a backdrop of perfect cerulean. Jeff led us on a stroll down the boulevards and streets until we came to a perfectly charming side walk cafe (with heaters – it was a tad nippy so early in the day) and we had double espressos and the most perfect croissants I have ever tasted.
But the best part of the feast and ramble was Jeff. He is a lovely, earth-sensitive free spirit who, like so many other exceptional people, is very interested in the Panama project. One of his specialties is environmental impact studies! Perhaps, if all goes well, he will be able to do some or all of the environmental impact statement required by the Panamanian Government before we build the actual project!
Then Tyson reluctantly got back on the train to return to the airport and find General Stubblebine buried under our hand luggage, all of which we left with him. About 6 hours after we started out, we were back in Charles de Gaulle airport, ready to take off on the next leg of our trip.
That was not only a delightful break, but some sort of a forward propulsion in the coming-together of the Santa Clara Project (www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org).
Day 8, April 24, 2008
MMMMMMRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR That’s the sound of an airplane engine humming for 7 hours. When we landed in Newark Airport we had been traveling for two days and we were not finished yet! But our good friends Nicholas and Marie drove to the airport, took us to their nearby home, fed us a wonderful homemade dinner and took us back to the airport again JUST in time to make our plane to Ottawa.
We got there, found our bags and bought round trip tickets on the hotel shuttle which took us to the front door of the lovely bed and breakfast we like to stay in here in Ottawa when we attend the CCFL (Codex Committee on Food Labeling) meetings. Then sleep.
Day 9, April 25, 2008
Finding an Apple repair store in a city we do not know without a car to get to the store (my brand new computer was going black for longer and longer and finally I could not turn it on when it was off or off when it was on: time to consult the computer doctors!). Eventually we succeeded, found a place for dinner and crashed.
Day 10, April 26, 2008
Today the pre-CCFL meeting started. The activity today is a workshop deciding, once again, how the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Exercise (GS) was to be implemented by Codex. This strong document (not perfect, it is true, but strong) was presented to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) in 2005 as something which the WOULD implement and the way it was to be implemented was left to the Codex Committee of Food Labeling (CCFL) and the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) to decide. Strategies were to be presented to the CAC on a strict time line.
The foot dragging and shenanigans to avoid doing this have been mind boggling and I have reported on them since the first time CCNFSDU’s Dr. Grossklaus moved the agenda item on the to the very end of the meeting and made any meaningful discussion impossible (2005). Since then, things have not gotten a whole lot better and the implementation so far comes down to endless argument over which nutrients should be labeled and which should not be and how they should be represented.
Now, labeling in important to consumers and does, in fact, contribute to reformulation of products (“What? You put THAT in something you expect me to eat?”) and in risk assessment and post market surveillance (“Everyone who ate lot number 27449X2 of the product got sick and 42% of them had to be hospitalized.”) and are thus good things.
But labeling will not, in my opinion, take care of the serious concerns which caused the GS to come into existence: preventing the non communicable diseases of UNDERNUTRITION.
The Codex strategy of considering all nutrients as toxins which need to be limited – limited! – through the process of Risk Assessment as if nutreints, and not terrifyingly high levels of pesticides or anti-nutrients caused by genetic modification of plants and animals, free radicals caused by irradiation of food and all the other dangers to which Codex blithely exposes us WITHOUT LABELING OF ANY KIND were a danger to human kind!
Outrage in my words? Yes, outrage. While diddling with Nutrient Labels for years on end (important though they be), nutrients are being taken off the shelves in the EU, threatened in Canada through a terrible bill and LIMITED as if they were risks through Codex all over the world. Make no mistake: the US will be next, again, if we do not do something about it before it happens so we are not fighting a rear guard action.
Recall for a moment the disastrous FDA Guidance whose comment period ended on April 30 last year. The FDA proposed to make all nutrients and objects used for health purposes unlabeled drugs and devices. That would mean that healthful foods like cherry juice (the first subject of their attack) could not be used with a health intent or the FDA would classify it as an untested drug.
The FDA provided no website for your comments. They told the Natural Solutions Foundation that snail mail was not tallied. The Receiver of Dockets gave us her personal email and so 588,000 people were able to use our web site to access the only working email address available to tell the FDA to back off in no uncertain terms. Well, only about 198,000 people actually got their message through because our site was constantly being hacked and attacked at that time. Even with “only” 198,000 voices, the roar was deafening: the FDA backed off, at least for the time being.
The WHO/FAO, parent organizations of Codex, makes the point in its document on the cause and prevention of chronic degenerative diseases: they ARE the diseases of UNDER nutrition. The number of people who die from over nutrition is so small as to be equivalent to zero. The number of people who die from under nutrition is in the billions:
Cardiovascular disease including stroke, diabetes and obesity are diseases of under nutrition. They are preventable through nutrition, which includes supplements. They are the major killers of the industrialized and, as it moves toward our disastrous diet of prepared and degraded food, the developing world. (Of course, properly used drugs are the other major killer of those unlucky enough to be able to afford them!)
So what is Codex planning? Nutrient Reference Values, upper limits beyond which nutrition may not go, are being established even as we speak. Just as the solution of Congress in dealing with a totally failed FDA was to throw much more money at it in the last session of Congress with S. 1082. So Codex wants to treat the chronic degenerative preventable diseases of under nutrition by restricting nutrition. Logical? Not at all. But that’s what passes for Codex logic!
So half way through the meeting I was pretty well disgusted and saying to myself that we needed a miracle to deal with Agenda Item 5, labeling of GM Foods, when I turned around and there was our miracle, Antoinette Booyzen, the Delegate from South Africa.
Antoinette is fearless and knows nutrition and Codex very, very well. She fights tirelessly for what is right, regardless of what the politics might be. In fact, for her decade of dedication to optimal health and what is good for people, not profits, the Natural Solutions Foundation awarded Ms. Booyzen with the coveted Linus Pauling Health Freedom heroes Award in 2006.
I knew that we could rely on Ms. Booyzen to use her position as a National Delegate to further the good of the world’s eaters if she could, not the position of the world masters.
Day 10, April 27, 2008
After a good deal of highly pleasurable reunion talk (our emails have been interfered with so being in contact has been very difficult) we started to talk about GM labeling in South Africa and Africa. We talked and talked and talked and the net result was a South African paper demanding, for a variety of reasons, mandatory labeling of all GM foods.
Day 11, April 28, 2008
Today was the first day of the Codex meeting and we sat through the requisite speeches of welcoming telling us what a great bunch of people we were and how important our would would be to the world. Now, you can take that two ways: either the meeting’s lack of action would have a huge impact on the world through degraded food standards, degraded food and degraded health or 2., that if Codex actually did something positive, it would have a huge impact on human health.
However they meant it, the droning banality started in the morning and continued on and on and on and on.
By today, Monday at 1 PM, Antoinette has put her paper on compulsory mandatory labeling in as a Conference Room Document. You can read her document here (http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm):
There was a reception in the evening where we could lobby, if we wanted to, for mandatory GM labeling, which would likely come up tomorrow. We decided to skip it, though, since we were all so tired and we know that the food served there is exactly what we would put in our bodies: in fact, food served at the receptions is a perfect example of why we cannot let Codex run the food world!
Stay tuned!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.Organics4U.org
Songhai, Porto Novo, Benin
Day 3, April 19, 2008
We landed today in Cotonou, the capital of Benin and the shoving began: African airports are like airports everywhere, but worse. Everyone apparently needs to be first, whether there is any point to being first or not.
I don’t need to be first and neither do General Stubblebine or Tyson, so we were pretty close to last – last off the airplane, last through customs, last to get a baggage cart, last to get our luggage.
Tyson, however, was nearly the first of our party to get vaccinated! I am strongly averse to vaccination and, to my mind, the more you study any one particular vaccine, the more you NEVER want to take that preparation. That is certainly the case with Yellow Fever Vaccine. Although many countries in Africa require proof of vaccination against this devastating disease (unnecessary, really, for people who have access to good health, Vitamin C and silver solutions) for entry. Bert, Tyson and I were able to produce exemption letters for our visas and secured our visas for Benin without any difficulty.
I had forgotten that, once you clear passport control and get your entry stamp in Benin, there are two guys in (what once were) white coats asking to see your Yellow Fever Vaccination card with a valid stamp on it. We speak English. They speak French. The possibility of communication was nill to none. Gen. Stubblebine and I tried the words for “Exemption letter†in as many ways as we could think of. We failed miserably. Finally, ready to go home, I suppose, since we were close to the last people on the plane, the two vaccine police men gave up in exasperation and waved their hands, shouting, “Go! Go!†and waving us through the door.
Tyson, however, was separated from us and was not so lucky. Before he knew what had happened, he was sitting in the Health Officer’s Office being asked in French for something (he does not speak French). He, too, kept saying that he had an exemption letter (from me, in fact!) but there seemed to be no uptake on that. He looked up from getting out the letter from his papers and saw that the Health Officer was bending over a refrigerator from which he took a vial and a syringe. “No! NO!” Tyson said and waved his letter of exemption around (probably a little wildly – I know that is the way I would have waved mine!). The man got out a yellow International Vaccination Card, stamped it and said, in perfect English, “Give me 10 Euros [ Approximately $16 US].
Tyson gave him the Euros and the man waved him out of the office WITH a vaccination card but WITHOUT the vaccination!
Once we got through the pushing and shoving at the luggage conveyor, we exited past a Beninese guard who checked every single one of our luggage tags to make sure they matched the numbers on our luggage. With all the people ahead of us, can you imagine how long that took?
Finally we exited the baggage area only to realize that the customs people were opening every suit case of every traveler. I stopped dead and looked around in utter dismay: It was already 9:45 PM and we were clearly going to be here for hours. For some reason (I have no idea what it might have been), the customs official nearest to me looked up, saw me and said, again, “Go! Go!” and we made our way out into the crowd waiting to greet their friends and relatives, associates and colleagues. There was a gentleman in a brilliant and distinctive African suit waving a very welcome “Songhai” sign. We clustered around him and he led us to the van he had brought to pick us up from Songhai.
Because our plane had not come in the night before, his two hour round trip to the airport (and the fuel which is so important in this very poor country) was wasted. He was, however, gracious and helpful nonetheless.
When we got to Songhai Center about an hour later, we were greeted in this oasis of plenty and prosperity in the middle of want and hardship by Father Godfrey Nzamjou, the man whose inspiration lives and breaths in Songhai. Although the restaurant closes at 10, he and his staff had kept it open for us (how different from Paris!) and we had an hour or so to converse and orient ourselves.
We were led to a modern building with suites and bedroom, each with a shower and private bath.
The next day, we toured the compound in the morning and saw the ingenuity, love and tenderness, yes, tenderness with which this land has been turned from a desert into a Garden, perhaps a Garden of Eden. Today, in a world where food riots are becoming more commonplace daily, the fertility which has been coaxed from the land is an urgent lesson for possibilities and a call to action. The Panama Santa Clara Project will follow the Songhai model for farming without waste or pollution. Imagine what we can do with land that is so abundantly fertile!
The heat was truly ferocious and about 11:00AM we retired indoors because anywhere outside was impossibly hot. We had more excellent food, all grown here, and waited for Fr. Godfrey to come back to us for more discussion.
Around 4 PM he arrived and said, “OK. Now you know what we have at Songhai. What are you looking for?” We spoke at depth and at length and videotaped the discussion. I think it is important that you see that and will mount it as soon as we have enough bandwidth to make that possible. It was a wonderful conversation in which we expounded on our dream and Fr. Godfrey said that this was what he had been waiting for.
We agreed that we must support each other’s work and he reaffirmed that he will, without a doubt, come to Panama to set up the design for the zero emissions farm complete with bio-digester and bio-gas for fuel independence as well as power independence. Fr. Godfrey is the proud “papa” of the largest bio-gas facility in Africa. Cheap, easy and clean, bio-gas can heat our water, run our generators, pump our liquids, grind our grains, etc. And we will learn from a master!
But Songhai is much more than just a fuel independent system. Please take a moment when the tape is mounted to watch it and capture the shared dream of this world leader whose Center is a recognized United National Center Excellence in Africa.
After more chat and dinner (outstanding, of course), Tyson, General Bert and I set to working through the immense number of details for our community in Panama, the Santa Clara ARC, with the clear understanding that what we are doing now is highly preliminary since the community will ultimately make these decisions for itself.
That took us late into the night and we fell asleep quite exhausted. Oh, by the way, there was still no internet connection.
Day 4, April 20, 2008
Today was our “BIG DAY” at Songhai Center. Father Godfrey is immensely busy and he agreed to give us most of a full day to discuss our plans and possible working together in considerable detail – that is a large part of why we came.
We began with breakfast at 8 AM in the restaurant which serves about 200 meals per day to visitors. All food served here is grown here or on other Songhai Centers so everything is not only fresh, but free of pesticides and all other types of synthetic, chemical additives. It is wonderful knowing that every bite was grown by the labor of people who love the land and understand how to nurture it so it can nurture them. We are very eager to replicate that loving relationship between our food and our selves as we come to create the farm and farm school which will be a core activity of the Santa Clara ARC.
We took a tour of the facility including the foundry, the kiln, the fields, the food processing areas, the store, the animal sheds, the fish pond, the composing area, the bio gas facility, etc., etc. All of this amazing integrated farming has been created here in the total absence of fertile soil. Fr. Godfrey told us that he had worked 15 years of the 20 that he has been here to create this astonishing fertility. We start in Panama with astonishingly fertile land!
Songhai’s rich productivity daily feeds 1500 people (300 workers and their families, which average 5 people), about 100 students who are in training, typically for 18 months, and the 200 guests who come to the African and Western restaurants. I think it is an easy leap to conclude that our fertile farm will be producing much more than we members of the community, guests and health center clients can consume so it is reasonable to expect that one center of profit for the Santa Clara ARC will be the distribution and sale of outstanding food!
Because of the intense heat, everything stops for several hours during the middle of the day. Everything, that is, except lunch. We wove our way from shade spot to shade spot to the restaurant for lunch and much talk about what we have seen. Tyson is a black smith/iron worker so he was particularly fascinated by learning what he needs to know to make the bio gas apparatus and by the machines which Songhai designs and makes on site.
Later, Fr. Godfrey came to where we are staying, where there is, mercifully, air conditioning and we started to talk together. I asked him how many other groups like ours had come to set up sister facilities as we are doing.
Tyson had the foresight to set up a video camera to film this discussion and it was a great decision. The video is not compatible with my computer so we have to download it to a disc and upload it that way. Clearly we do not have the opportunity here in Songhai, but we will do so shortly.
The upshot of the discussion was that we are what Fr. Godfrey has been waiting for as a partner community! We will bring our experience in order to work toward sister health centers in Parakou, Benin and Santa Clara, Panama. He will use his experience to make Santa Clara a full zero emissions facility farming center and school.
Meanwhile, we had missed our appointment with Col. Mikode, the Codex Contact Point for Benin because we arrived more than a full day late. This delay winds up having significant impact on Codex. Read on.
Dinner, then more intense discussion and off to bed.
Day 5, April 21, 2008
Today we started the day with meeting for about an hour during breakfast with Fr. Godfrey. By the way, Songhai makes its own delicious yogurt. After about an hour, he had other things to do before heading off to Nigeria to meet with government officials there to replicate the Songhai model there. There are also two people from separate projects doing similar things in Nigeria. One is, like Gen. Stubblebine, a General.
Sometime later, Col. Mikode and Pascal, the head of the Benin Horticultural Research Station came to see us. They had good news and bad news for us.
The good news was that they had prepared a budget and program for the agricultural project using magnets to treat the water used to grow plants. Preliminary results suggest significant increases in crop yield, nutrient density, plant vigor and significant decreases in water utilization. Given the rapidly worsening shortage of food in the word due to climate change and diversion of food crop acreage to biofuels (which cost at least 29% more energy than they produce so the bargain is a very, very bad one for the planet, its carbon balance and its people) the ability to increase yield and nutritional value, while eliminating all requirements for pesticides and other chemicals, is a very important asset. Equally important, perhaps, is the reduction in water usage to get stronger and more vigorous plants.
I had been perplexed by the fact that nothing was happening with the agricultural magnet project – nothing. I had designed a simple (and, I hope, elegant) design which would test the hypotheses of increased crop yield, increased nutrient density, increased plant vigor and decreased water usage but they require actually being carried out to show anything. I could not understand it when I got an email saying that the project was postponed until they got the money to carry it out.
When Pascal presented me with the document outlining the costs, I nearly fell off my chair. Instead of 6 test beds, there were 33. Instead of raised beds edged with scrap lumber of corrugated tin or sand bags, they were asking for 4.2 metric tons of concrete, thousands of bricks, etc.
It was clear that we needed to talk!
The next interesting meeting was a telephonic one with Dr. Koura, who was supposed to serve as the Beninese delegate to the Codex Committee On Food Labeling next week in Ottawa. She had informed the Codex Contact Point, Col. Mikode, that she would not be funded by the WHO Trust Fund at 11 PM on Saturday evening but that email was not read until 9 AM Monday morning (yesterday). That means that Benin will not have a voice at this important Codex meeting where the initiative begun by the African nations at the meeting in Ghana in February this year to demand labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms was pushed forward so impressively.
I asked our Natural Solutions Foundation Trustees if we should not host (i.e., pay for) the Beninese delegate to make sure that there was a strong voice from this country at the Codex meeting. We quickly agreed and the next thing we needed to do was convince Dr. Kora and the Beninese government that this was a good idea.
Col. Mikode had no problem with it and said that if Dr. Koura was willing, so was he.
Day 6, April 22, 2008
Early this morning Tyson, General Stubblebine and I set off with a translator to visit Pascal at the Horticultural Research Station to find out what had gone wrong with the Agricultural Magnet project and retrieve 20 pairs for use here at Songhai.
Because we had a translator with us this time, as opposed to the last time we talked with Pascal, we discovered what the problem was: Language difficulties led to Pascal believeing that since we had identified 11 potential crops for the experiment, he would need to conduct the experiment with 3 beds of each crop. The undertaking would be huge and he wanted to build structures to make it possible. I explained that we wanted to choose 2 crops from the 11 and Pascal heaved a huge sigh of relief. We walked out to the fields to see where the projects would take place and Pascal has already applied the magnets to a buried rigid water pipe in preparation for our visit. Once we got the miscommunication out of the way, it became clear that a real project using amaranth and tomatoes would be carried out and carried out well.
We are eager to get those results and the results from the Songhai application. It is our hope that the results are robust enough that we can begin to change agricultural practices in many places in the world. It is essential, the Natural Solutions Foundation believes, to reclaim food production, eliminating pesticides and other dangerous chemicals, and making ti clear that the best crop yield is produced by natural means, not by GM crops. Dr. Koura, on the other hand, when we finally did get together this afternoon, was not so sure it was a good idea. She had “turned off” the process by telling her bosses that she was not, after all, going and was adamantly reluctant to tell them that she could now go under our sponsorship.
We tried every which-a-way to Sunday to persuade her, but she was not movable. We got ready to write to the US and UN Ambassadors from Benin to see if they could provide a person to attend the meetings (it is much easier to get a Canadian visa from the US) when we got a piece of very bad news, indeed.
This information makes us think that we are seeing a pattern: The Ugandan Codex delegate had taken the ball into his own hands and arranged an African strategy session on GM labeling the day before the CCFL meeting was to begin. He is a credentialed delegate from a member nation. Canada denied him a visa twice.
The strategy of the power brokers is clear: fix it so the opposition cannot show up and then claim that the process is legitimate. That is pretty much the same as arresting the opposition and claiming that your election was democratic (or counting the votes on a programmable electronic voting machine with a predetermined outcome, for that matter!)The Codex process is far from legitimate. Our Trustees have just spent an extended period on the phone working out our next strategic moves to deal with this new tactic.
More to follow.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.Organics4U.org
The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.
Once again the FDA has failed to protect health in the US. This time, by allowing toxic imitation nutrients derived from hexane, a known carcinogen, to be added to baby formula (in biologically insufficient amounts, by the way), they have compromised the health of infants who are known to experience severe diarrhea and abdominal distress, sometimes requiring hospital intervention, after drinking these products.
Showing little interest in either the public’s health or well-being, if the other side of the coin is the health and well-being of corporate interests, the FDA continues its pattern of failing to protect us from unsafe products. Not only is organic food degraded by both the USDA and FDA’s actions, but information known to the FDA – that these formulas were making babies very, very sick – was ignored as ingredients derived from toxins were permitted while investigations into the damage these toxins were causing were ignored.
The FDA cannot regulate food and drugs at the same time. They do a very poor job of regulating either but since foods are the major competitors of drugs (whose manufacturers pay a significant portion of the FDA’s operating budget through “User Fees”), foods are consistently degraded while drugs are more and more laxly regulated.
Following is an article which details the basis for the legal complaint against the toxic faux nutrients lodged by the Cornucopia Institute.
CONTACT: The Cornucopia Institute
Charlotte Vallaeys, The Cornucopia Institute: 978-369-6409
Mark Kastel, The Cornucopia Institute: 608-625-2042
Organic Infant Formula Ingredients Processed with Toxic Chemical
FDA Reports Indicate Infants Sickened From Algae/Fungal-Based Nutritional Supplements
CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN – April 15 – The Cornucopia Institute filed a legal complaint with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today, demanding that the agency enforce the organic regulations prohibiting toxic solvents from being used in the production of organic food. The Institute, a nonprofit food and farm policy research group, found that baby formula and other food manufacturers are using hexane-extracted omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (DHA/ARA) derived from algae and soil fungus.
Perhaps more startling, through a Freedom of Information request at the FDA, Cornucopia found algal- and fungal-based DHA/ARA have been linked to serious side effects such as virulent diarrhea and vomiting in infants consuming infant formula, many of whom required medical treatment and hospitalization.
“The federal organic regulations very clearly prohibit these oils in organic foods, so this is not a case of companies finding loopholes in the regulations. What we’re seeing is the latest in a long string of USDA actions that blatantly cater to industry interests at the expense of consumer safety,” said Mark Kastel, Codirector of the Cornucopia Institute, based in Cornucopia, Wisconsin. “USDA officials are simply allowing these companies to freely break the organic rules in their pursuit of profit,” he adds.
Organic products with the prohibited fatty acid supplements include Horizon Organic milk with DHA (Dean Foods) and organic infant formulas, including Similac Organic (Abbott Laboratories), Earth’s Best (Hain Celestial), and Bright Beginnings Organic (PBM Products).
Martek Biosciences Corporation produces these DHA and ARA supplements. They are extracted from fermented algae and soil fungus with the use of a highly explosive neurotoxic petrochemical solvent, hexane. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration lists hexane as a serious hazard to worker health and safety, and the Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as a hazardous air pollutant. The National Organic Program strictly prohibits its use in the processing of organic foods and ingredients.
“Only a change in the regulations would make these oils legal in organic foods, and a regulation change requires citizen input,” said David Cox, a lawyer with the Columbus, Ohio law firm of Lane, Alton, and Horst. “USDA officials do not have the legal authority to decide on their own that they will not enforce the regulations, no matter how much industry is lobbying or pressuring them.”
The addition of DHA and ARA to organic infant formula is especially troublesome considering that Martek’s oils are linked to serious illness in some infants. “Through a FOIA request, we discovered that scores of parents have notified the FDA that their infants experienced symptoms such as serious cases of diarrhea, vomiting, and extreme gassiness from consuming DHA/ARA formula, often requiring medical intervention. These symptoms commonly disappeared as soon as the infants were given regular formula without these supplements,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, the author of Cornucopia’s comprehensive report Replacing Mother—Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory (www.cornucopia.org).
While formula makers claim to add these oils because they “support brain and eye development,” scientific data to corroborate these claims are very weak. “Results of most of the well conducted clinical trials have not shown beneficial effects of DHA and ARA supplementation of formula milk on the physical, visual and neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants born at term,” according to Dr. Karen Simmer, professor in the School of Women’s and Infant’s Health at the University of Western Australia.
Breast-feeding advocates worldwide contend that DHA and ARA appear to be added primarily as marketing tools. DHA and ARA supplementation adds approximately $200 annually to the cost of formula, which is absorbed by parents and publicly funded nutrition programs. Misleading claims that DHA/ARA supplemented formula is now “as close as ever to breast milk” also lead to the impression among many new mothers that formula is now equivalent to breastfeeding, which may contribute to lower rates of breastfeeding and higher formula sales.
“Adding these two fatty acids to formula does not make it ‘close to breast milk,'” said Jennifer Thomas, M.D., a pediatrician practicing in Racine, Wisconsin. “Breast milk has nutrients, live cells, and bioactive compounds that are absent from formula,” she added. “Formula advertisements featuring DHA and ARA make it a lot harder for me, as a pediatrician, to convince new mothers to breastfeed if they have seen advertisements or labels implying that formula is just as good as breast milk.”
But the serious side effects experienced by some babies remain the most pressing reason for keeping these oils out of organic infant formula. Cornucopia has filed a Freedom of Information request to look into how the USDA appears to have collaborated with lobbyists for Dean Foods and others in secretly allowing these materials, despite their explicit prohibition in the federal organic regulations. “It’s bad enough these materials are being added to conventional infant formula,” said Cornucopia’s Kastel. “This marketing gimmick has no place in organics, where mothers are looking for the safest, most nutritious and natural foods for their families.”
MORE:
The Cornucopia Institute, together with the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy, has petitioned the FDA to require a warning label on all infant formula supplemented with Martek’s DHA and ARA. Currently, parents of infants who experience adverse reactions to DHA/ARA formula have no way of knowing that these fatty acid supplements may be the cause.
Few parents know that Martek’s supplements contain only 40 to 50% DHA and ARA, with the balance being sunflower oil, diglycerides, and “nonsaponifiable” materials. Many of these components are not found in human breast milk, and the triglycerides carrying DHA and ARA are not identical to those found in human breast milk—and have never been part of the diet for human infants. It is unclear why some infants cannot tolerate these laboratory-produced DHA/ARA supplements. But the evidence of side effects strongly suggests that more research is warranted.
People can urge the FDA to require a warning label by following the attached link and posting a comment
The Cornucopia Institute and the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy have also petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleging that formula companies are engaged in misleading advertising. The ads touting benefits to brain and eye development appear to be based on shaky scientific evidence. Lawyers at the FTC had previously warned Martek and formula companies about overstating the benefits of DHA and ARA. In response to the petition by Cornucopia and NABA, the FTC is currently investigating the alleged false advertisements.
Parents and health care providers are encouraged to pass on reports of adverse reactions to infant formula or food products containing DHA and/or ARA to the FDA and to The Cornucopia Institute: cultivate@cornucopia.org
Also today, The Cornucopia Institute filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA, calling for an investigation of Quality Assurance International (QAI). QAI is the nation’s largest corporate organic certifier and has been at the center of a number of other scandals in the organic industry, most prominently the questionable certification of large factory farm milk production. Cornucopia charges QAI with lax oversight and improper certification of products containing DHA/ARA oils, including questioning whether or not QAI is complying with the law and has the technical qualifications to carry out their responsibilities.
The full formal complaints can be viewed at:
www.cornucopia.org/DHA/USDA_DHA_LegalComplaint.pdf
www.cornucopia.org/DHA/USDA_QAI_LegalComplaint.pdf
For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, and our US based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (https://staging.drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.
Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.organics4U.org
The following story appeared on Alternet.org today and provides 5 useful tips to help avoid make-believe-eco (“Faux Green”) products. Green is a strong market trend and manufacturers want you to believe that when you buy their products, green is what you get. Sometimes it’s true and sometimes (most of the time, in my experience), they get the green – yours – for nothing more than marketing.
Laws are lax so your attention to details like “All Natural” (meaningless label) vs. “Certified Organic” (significant label) is all that stands between you and paying more for the same old toxic stuff!
Here’s Nicole Hughes’ useful article providing 5 tips on consuming green:
Don’t Get Fooled By Eco-Imposters
Nicole Hughes,
Source: Take Part
April 15, 2008.
The change in the season inspires many of us to participate in the ritual of spring cleaning in some form or another – whether it’s your semi-annual bathroom scour or you’re gearing up to dust the wiring behind the stove. At the same time, most of us are also becoming less enthused with the idea of filling up our homes and the environment with a cocktail of hazardous chemicals found in traditional cleaning sprays and wipes.
Non-toxic is the safer, greener and cleaner way to go. Many companies, however, try to market their wares as “all natural†in an attempt to cash in on the green revolution – when in fact, their products are anything but. So what’s the best way to filter out the eco-imposters and zero in on the eco-friendly goods when confronted with so many choices? Here are five tips to help you weed through the labels and get past the false advertising. Happy Cleaning!
1) Look for the USDA seal of organic approval if a product claims to be organic. In order for products to be certified organic through the USDA’s National Organic Program, 1) they can’t contain any petrochemicals and 2) 95% of the ingredients must be organic.
2) Stay away from products with ingredients that end in the suffix “eth†– like laureth or myreth sulfate. Also, avoid labels that mention PEG, another harmful chemical compound.
3) Be wary of vague labeling, including phrases like “made from organic products†or “environmentally friendly†or “all-natural.†Without independent research to back them up, these claims might actually mean “made from 1% organic products†or “1% all natural†if they aren’t certified by the US Department of Agriculture.
4) Don’t be fooled by hydrosols and a laundry list of organic herbal water extracts and fragrances. They might look good on an ingredients list, but essentially it’s plain ol’ water trying to ‘green up’ the image of synthetic products.
5) Choose plastic bottles made with the recycling code 1, 2 or 5. Recycling codes 3 and 7 are likely to contain bisphenol A or phthalates, which are thought to disrupt natural hormonal function.
Thanks to Alternet.org
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/82444/
The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about – and to use – natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.
For more information on our global programs, including the International Decade of Nutrition, and our US based ones, please visit us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org and join the free email list for the Health Freedom eAlerts to keep you in the loop, informed and active defending your right to make your own decisions about your health and wellbeing!
Our activities are supported 100% by your tax deductible donations. Please give generously (https://staging.drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Thank you for your support.
Feel free to disseminate this information as widely as possible with full attribution.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
My April 3, 2008 post on Morgellon’s Disease, https://staging.drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=599, generated vigorous discussion. I received, for example, a letter from a Morgellon’s Disease sufferer who documented a possible vector for the condition through genetically modified cotton, so altered that it can inoculate the person in contact with it and create the disease. I quite agree.
This is a plague courtesy of indifference to safety at very best. That’s the bad news. The worse news is that less dramatic diseases with longer incubation periods and less clear causality (although Morgellon’s Disease causality is still unfolding) such as cancer or infertility are completely invisible as results of GMOs since the FDA actively prohibits labeling of any GM ingredients or components. The only (partial) assurance you have of protection is eating organic and ONLY organic. Then the permitted contamination is “ONLY” 10% as allowed by the US Government!
Only 10%!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.Organics4U.org
Here is the letter: it is definitely worth reading
Apparently there are a lot of theories circulating about this disease.
I have this disease and am very familiar with it.
I have examined these extracted fibers for years.
I can tell you my theory is very reasonable as to who caused this problem.
Its not lyme disease.
It has to do with the Textile industry. Although these fibers are non textile
in origin.
They are comprised of cellulose, they are highly genetically modified fibers.
They have genetically manipulated e-coli bacteria, nemotodes, chemicals,
proteins and plant DNA and have developed ways to incorporate large amounts of
these “high performance” bio active fibers into clothing and genetically
modified the cotton plant many times over.
This research done at a handful of Universities then sold the technology to
textile manufacturers here and abroad. These textiles can then be sold back to
the United States from countries like China etc.
What you will read in this article is shocking to know what they were doing in
the textile business. This was all done by consent of the Government via the
National Textile Center, part of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Article#1 “Developement of bioactive fabric” use search box.
http://www.ntcresearch.org/pdf-rpts/AnRp00/m00-d03.pdf
University of Dartmouth
Article#2 “Cotton fiber groth in Planta and in vitro. Models for plant cell
elongationand cell wall biogenisis”. Hee jin kim and Barbara Triplet.
View second image box toward bottom in this article. View picture of fiber
root in picture “A” and Trichrome picture “E”. Return to morgellons and
compare fiber images. The trichrome is interesting as this is the same odd
structure with three prongs protuding that is also removed from the body.
Between morgellons and what you will read in reference material you notice the
following:
Both fibers from morgellons and from the agricultural labs have striking
simalarities.
Both fibers are comprised of cellulose.
Both fibers have a helical coil type tendencies, this is a genetically
modified trait that they admit to.
Both fibers autoflouresce as can easily be seen on both the morgellons site
and on picture box #2 from the usda referrence image given. The
autoflourescence is a genetically modified trait as well and can be seen in
several colors.
This is due to genetically altered e-coli bacteria with flourescent componets
spliced from nemotodes and other creatures that autoflouresce.
You read how GFP, (green flourescent protiens) were genetically spliced to
accomplish this. As well as other autoflourescent colors.
The usda referrence article states clearly the fuzz ball growth problems in
engineering as well as their lack of understanding how these fibers stop
growing at certain lengths.
My theory is that this is a bio engineering mistake that has gone wrong and
the full impact was not realized before sold to textile manufacturers.
These people had no idea what they were creating in these labs and the impact
of those consequences on the public.
In my reading from the documents from the University of Dartmouth I found
absolutly no trial testing of these fabrics on humans. The goal seemed to be
to obtain funding, develope technology and then provide this technology to
manufacturers.
I theorize the mode of transmission is via micro abrasion of clothing
articles, particularly cotton to innoculate these bio active fibers into the
body or via protien and oil digestive bacteria that were altered to perform
that function, yet may be able to use this protien and oil breakdown to gain
access passed the defences of the skin.
In my case I have noticed the majority of lesions are concentrated around the
stitching on the inside of the fabrics like cotton t-shirts where the pieces
are sewn together, that rope-like stitching. Also on clothing “wear points”
like the shoulder blades and shoulders.
That is how I noticed the abrasion effect and the resulting innoculation of
these fibers. Yet these lesions are not limited to the stitching ropes as
sitting back in a chair can abrade these into the skin without you feeling it.
Tight fitting levis do the same thing to the outer thighs.
Since they have admitted engineering lysine deficient e-coli bacteria for the
purpose of controlling its growth once embedded in textiles and clothing this
does not stop these bacteria/fibers from taking advantage of a non-stop supply
of lysine in the human body if innoculated by abrasion or protien breakdown.
Lysine is an essential amino acid of the body.
Here is just one shocking quote you will read:
Bio lab, University of Dartmouth.
“Clothing materials are generally biofriendly and sources of heat, moisture
and even NUTRIENTS for cellular microdevices and all ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE
HUMAN BODY”.
“Our goal is to develope fabrics that contain micro fabricated bio
environments and biologically activated fibers”
I can go on and on with this. It will shock you no doubt.
I hearby name:
The National Textile Center, a division of the United States Department of
Agriculture.
and
The Universities listed on the National Textile Center website involved with
bio active fabrics, particularly the University of Dartmouth bio lab, year
2000 team group. As well as other Universities sharing this technology before
and after this date.
AS THE ONES WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CREATION OF THIS BIO ENGINEERED
MISTAKE AND ITS RECKLESS MARKETING INTO THE PUBLIC WHICH HAS NOW CREATED THE
DISEASE CALLED MORGELLONS.