November 13, 2007

Today was a day like any other day at a Codex meeting: boring, stultifying, mind numbing and filled with tiny treasures of reality amidst a sea of obfuscation. As I have said so many times, the great majority of the people who come to these meetings are the bamboozled, not the bamboozlers. They come with a variety of expectations and beliefs about the process, but they are not interested in subverting either reality, health or freedom as far as General Stubblebine and I can make out. As the words flow on and on and on and on, though, if you listen carefully enough you will hear the subtext which comprises the reality of Codex. And then, when you point these underpinnings of reality out to people who actually sat in the room as they flew by, the reaction is really quite interesting: a lot like the stages of dying: denial, shock, depression, anger, and, unlike dying, a determination to change the outcome, at least in the home country of the person processing the newly identified reality. I had the opportunity to speak at length with two members of the supplement industry (who had no clue that Codex was working pretty hard to put them out of business but began to “grok” it pretty hard and fast as we talked over dinner) and five African and 2 Asian delegates who, likewise, were not clear about Codex’s agenda before our talk, but see it rather differently now.

In fact, an African delegate whom I had met several times before at Codex and her home country came up to me today and said that she was shocked that everything that Codex was doing was fine with me. Now it was my turn to be shocked and I asked her what she was talking about. She explained that she knows me to be very vocal and forthright but I had made no comments during the meeting. I told her that the Natural Solutions Foundation is a Public Observer (no opportunity to speak during the meetings) but that I most assuredly did not agree with what Codex was doing. Then she did something extraordinary: she asked me if I would please make sure to email her a month or so before the Codex meetings and tell her what the Natural Solutions Foundation positions and concerns were so that she could give them language during the meetings! This African government official wants our input so that our concerns can be the concerns of her country in the dialogue of Codex! Being there is half the fun. Speaking there is the other half of the fun and this delegate volunteered to have half the fun for us!

What happened today? Some other amazing things, in addition to the one!

A few examples: The standard for gluten free foods has been dragging on and on and on and on. For years and years and years.
I mentioned that in the full day workshop on the topic (Saturday, November 10, 2007) the debate ranged hot and heavy between the “not one part per million more than 20 ppm of gluten as the absolute upper standard for a gluten-free product” and the “well, we’ve been selling gluten-free foods up to 100 ppm (and the 1981 Codex standard allows 200 ppm) for years so what’s the big deal with allowing 100 ppm as the gluten-free standard” teams. YEARS! Back and forth, days and days, papers and more papers, working groups and electronic letters and on and on and on.

Today, somebody let the cat out of the bag. The Great Gluten Food Fight was a meaningless struggle that had absorbed well over a decade of time and effort. In exasperation, Dr. Rolf Grossklaus, Chairman of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) finally uttered the truth. Here is a verbatim report of his remarks: “Whether it is 20 or 100 ppm, these are trace elements and do not put the patient at risk.”

In other words, these meaningless struggles which have been going on for well over a decade are useful because they absorb energy and time, diverting attention and awareness from the real agenda of Codex. By numbing the mind, distorting and fragmenting the process of dialogue and agreement, enmities and allegiances are created which are then skillfully exploited to cement total control of the process while a feeling of compliance and [pseudo] accomplishment is allowed to pass for real forward movement on real food safety and security.

Responding to that comment, the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS) said, “To put things in the right situation, we are talking about hand luggage on the biggest ship in the world: the Queen Elizabeth. You are talking about how many pieces of hand luggage you want to put on the world’s biggest ship.” This meeting has been rich in people doing small, irrelevant things on huge ocean liners. This is not a meeting of one liners! (Joke).

The amount of energy which this standard has absorbed is astonishing but makes sense viewed from the perspective I outlined above. That is not to say that reliable labeling for “gluten free” (or “reduced gluten” or “low gluten”) are unimportant. But 14 years? Come now!

Another example: Health Claims. If you make it impossible to let people know what nutrients and foods can do for them, then they will be far, far less likely to use them for a health benefit. That is the game the FDA is playing in the US and they have made sure the game extends to Codex as well. The US attends all of the Codex Committees (as you would expect, after all) so it can tie together efforts to achieve something in one of them with the same agenda in other committees.

As you may recall, we reported from the Codex Committee on Food Labeling (Ottawa, May, 2007) that the US (of course) had tried to bull through (assisted by the usual cast of culprits: Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and the EU) a definition of advertising which said that ANY communication which linked a health benefit to a food or food component which resulted in a change in the consumer’s beliefs, behaviors or buying patterns around food was to be considered advertising. We provided enough information on that absurd guideline that a number of countries took exception to it and academic publications without no commercial interest in the food were exempted. But what your friend says to you over the water cooler or what your doctor (or mother) tells you is still “advertising” and can expose the “advertiser” to legal action by the FTC, FDA or their legal lackies.

Here in the US, both the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission could jump all over anyone who provided such information – anyone. That would include scientists who published papers on food and health, journalists, doctors, mothers, health food store clerks, anyone at all. Through selective enforcement, plus some mainstream propaganda, suppressing that competitive information could get even easier for the drug folks.

Since the FDA (whose Dr. Barbara Schneeman so ably represented industry interests in her position as US Delegate at that meeting) had worked on that Codex Guideline for several years, it is, in our opinion, no surprise that they were already positioning the US for implementation of restrictions on truthful information about the health benefits of food (the single most significant competitor to drugs and drug profits) and took actions like the following:
December 2006: FDA issues Draft Guidance on CAM Regulation for Industry which states that products used with a health intent may be declared untested [hence, illegal] devices or drugs. Information used to convey that health benefit and intent to gain it thus become a force in moving foods into the category of untested drugs since it creates the expectation of a health benefit when using the food or food component.
March 2007: the Michigan Cherry Growers post several independent scientific papers stating that cherry juice is good for people with arthritis. FDA orders them to remove the papers and all references to them or they will declare cherries an untested drug and thus ban them in the US.
July, 2007 FDA issues Draft Guidance on Health Claims which says that “significant scientific agreement”, an impossible and totally unnecessary standard for safe, effective and long-used supplements (no new ones are allowed on the market which were not in use by June, 1994 unless they undergo extensive testing). By confusing information (like the cherry juice studies) with health claims, true speech is being stifled. Truthful statements about health benefits would be illegal and subject to FDA enforcement.
March, 2007 Ron Paul (R-TX) introduces Health Freedom Protection Act, HR 2117, to assure Americans the right to make, and learn about, truthful health claims which are supported by scientific evidence. (Evidence-Based Review System for the Scientific
Evaluation of Health Claims)

June, 2007 FDA introduces Good Manufacturing Practice for supplements which, by its own economic impact analysis, will drive most small and many medium size nutrient companies because of burdensome requirements. Nutrients are safe and effective. Virtually no nutrient-related deaths have ever been reported.
November, 2007 US, represented by FDA employee Barbara Schneeman, PhD, head of FDA Office of Dietary Supplements, supports CCNFSDU Health Claims document which the US comments on saying a Health Claim is any representation that states, implies that a relationship exists between a food or a constituent of that food and health” and that such claims must meet absurdly high scientific agreement standards.

Is this a plot? No it is a plan. Remember, when I used the term “Nutricide” I gave it 2 definitions. The first one is “the death of the body of knowledge relating health benefits and food”. For the second one, go here (https://staging.drrimatruthreports.com/index.php) and click on the featured video.

Can’t get enough of Codex: Special bonus: If you want to read a near-real time account of some of today’s Codex session and its implication, click here (http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2007/11/notes-skyped-from-codex-by-dr-laibow.html).

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Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation