FDA Comes Under Investigation Over Codex, Trilateral Cooperation Charter- Acting Commissioner's Job Under Magnifying Glass- NHF Codex Report from Thailand

IAHF List: [Following my DC Update Below Please Also See NHF's Report from the Recent Codex Meeting in Thailand]

I'm up at 4:40 am sending you this election day mssg before anyone here in DC is even awake, because when it comes to doin' battle with the lowlife miscreants at the FDA, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I've been showing this article to hundreds of Congressional aides but need you to help me by showing it to all your friends and neigbors to awaken them because together we're going to DEFEND this country from the CFR's planned maneuvers:

I want to thank those of you who helped send me on this trip to DC, without your help, what I'm about to tell you would not be happening, because it required me to go face to face with a lot of different sectors of the bureaucracy- some things you just can't get done in this town over a phone line.

Theres an entity inside the Department of Health & Human Services that was created largely due to chronic FDA criminality and malfeasance. Its called the Inspector General's office, and their job is to put people and situations at FDA under a magnifying glass and to take action where necessary to stop the sort of abuses which IAHF was created to expose and stop.

I've launched a separate, but parallel probe via the GAO (Government Accountability Office). Realize that probably has you snorting in mirthful incredulity, but they actually have an office just a few doors from the Red Roof Inn here in Chinatown where I've been staying for the past several days and I moseyed in there the other day for some sit down talks about a whole raft of things that are unfolding right in front of all our noses- hidden in "plain site."

As I type this I've got Muddy Waters on the Ipod singin' "Walkin' Blues". Its a fittin' tune cause I've worn out some shoe leather on this trip walking all over the Cannon, Longworth, and Rayburn House office buildings having numerous productive conversations wherein I laid the groundwork for the followup trip I'll need to make at the end of this month. I feel very good about how things have been unfolding because I've accomplished my goal of successfully building on the work accomplished during the July trip.

Only one member of the Oversight & Investigation subcommittee could lose his seat in my estimation, (Charles Bass R-New Hampshire). He's been heavily outspent by his Democratic challenger and he's being held accountable for Bush's wartime policies. It won't bother me if he IS driven out because just like ALL the offices in this illustrious pharma paid off subcommittee he's taking money from Pharma, he was given a chance to help me in the way I needed, and all I got from his staffer who I had a 15 minute meeting was more of the same empty promises. I directly challenged Bass (and everyone else) to work with me to help communicate with the Inspector General's, but when push comes to shove these gutless people aren't interested in helping to uphold the law.

On the weekend I took the Chinese bus from Chinatown in DC to Chinatown in Philadelphia to visit my brother Steve who I hadn't seen in 5 years. Just before getting on the bus to come back I had a long, spontaneous conversation with a Philadelphia policeman.

We compared notes on our respective efforts to fight crime- and although I'm fighting mostly white coller crime, and he's mostly at war in the streets, we came to the conclusion that at the end of the day all criminals are basicly the same- they all think they'll NEVER get caught, but sometimes the truth ends up catching up to them due to persistent detective work and people pounding a lot of shoe leather just fighting the good fight the only way anyone really can which is ANY WAY POSSIBLE.

On the street here in DC I had a long conversation the other evening with a long haired guy from Zendik Farm in West Virginia. http://www.zendik.org He was standing on the sidewalk in front of a multiplex theater hawking T-Shirts that say "Stop Bitchin! Start a Revolution!" He had a hockey bag full of Black T-shirts with those words emblazoned on them and I got one along with a bumper sticker. We compared notes and I told him about my time at High Flowing community in the Appalachians in Floyd VA not too far from Sendick Farm in West Virginia and it turned out that we knew lots of folks in common.

The Spirit of 1776 lives on in America today. Some say our nation has become a Fat Lady Drivin' a Cadillac, but I've never accepted that theory. Sometimes we just have to take the bull by the horns and face the situation. and I thank all of you for helping me come here to represent your interests.

Fortunately, we were given a superbly written Constitution, but its up to each of us to breath new life into it to the best of our abilities,and if in the end, thats STILL not enough, we DO have the ability to REVOLT again, and from where I sit thats a damn good feeling indeed!

There will be a Revolt at the polls in this country today, a REVOLT against the traitorous Neocon Whores who got us quagmired in Iraq. Its important to bear in mind when I say this that I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, I'd classify myself more as an anarchist Libertarian Green. Realize these categories may not seem to overlap quite that cleanly which is why I quit the Libertarian Party and never joined the Green party. So I'm a man without a Party, and I always vote my conscience. We CAN fix this country and we CAN stop the collectivists evil plans to slam us together with Canada and Mexico.

Our health freedom allies Rob Verkerk and Ingrid Franzon in England and Sweden have just attended the most recent CODEX meeting in Thailand under the auspices of the National Health Federation- and here is there report from that OTHER front: I've been in touch with them from the other side of the world:Be vigilant regarding what is being said here and let keep s building our grass roots strength:

Codex Puts Industry Interests Before Consumers – Again!

Forty-five countries and 24 international non-governmental organizations today completed a week of deliberations at the 28th session of the United Nations-backed Codex nutrition committee, held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

This year’s meeting of the committee, relocated from its heartland in Germany, unsurprisingly saw a strong turnout from Asian countries. However, cultural factors may have hindered interventions, leaving the European Commission and United States delegations to dominate proceedings under the chairmanship of Germany’s Dr Rolf Grossklaus. The re-location from Germany to Thailand also seemed responsible for the 30% and 32% reduction in attendance, between 2005 and 2006, from national delegations and non-governmental organizations respectively.

The Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU), one of 27 Codex Alimentarius Commission committees, develops international guidelines and standards for foods including infant formula, cereal-based foods for infants, gluten-free foods and dietary supplements. Committee procedure is tightly controlled, and although consensus voting provides the mechanism for agreement of texts, organized pacts between national delegations frequently allow viewpoints biased in favor of industry to be pushed through, even in the face of fierce opposition from consumer-led international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) such as the US-based National Health Federation (NHF).

The NHF delegation at Chiang Mai, led by Ingrid Franzon from Sweden, initiated heated discussions at this year’s meeting that brought to light the need to take better consideration of the consumers’ metabolic, national and geographic differences. Also on the NHF’s delegation this year were Dr Wong Ang Peng from Malaysia and NHF’s scientific advisor, Dr Robert Verkerk, from the UK.

The agenda items of particular interest to NHF at this meeting included discussions on the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, nutrient risk assessment, health claims and Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs), the latter of which currently seems the most likely candidate to replace Recommended Daily Allowances of vitamins and minerals on food, dietary supplement and functional food labels. The NHF has been taking an active part in the Working Group on risk assessment, a discipline which is set to become the key scientific justification for potential future bans on dietary supplements. Current risk assessment methods are flawed and biased, so methodologies that are scientifically rational are urgently required, and were central to the NHF's interventions during this year’s meeting.

With the discussions on infant formula and foods occupying around 75% of the committee’s time, critical agenda items 7, 8 and 9 on health claims, NRVs and risk assessment did not commence until 7:23 pm on the final evening of deliberations, which closed shortly after 9 pm. It seems that the continued low priority for these agenda items over successive CCNFSDU meetings is perhaps being engineered by the Codex Secretariat in order to allow the European Commission to progress its own regulations in these areas, so that once completed these can act as models for future Codex standards.

Ingrid Franzon said, ”This year’s meeting can best be described as an industrial and geographic polarization. It is deeply disheartening to see the views of delegations from small countries, or those of INGOs like the NHF, backed by many thousands of consumers, being trampled on by the EC bloc and other big countries, who seem much more concerned with the problems of big business rather than the interests of consumers.”

Dr Wong, who has previously attended a CCNFSDU meeting as part of the Malaysian delegation, added, ”Fluoride and sugar in foods were two glaring issues at this year’s meeting. It seems without doubt that industrial interests are taking precedence over consumer interests. Current science, and even common sense, would say it is nonsense to include fluoride and extra sugar in foods, especially those destined for children. It seems that the European Commission, the USA, Germany and some other European delegates know no shame, and as a result we now know better than ever before that the CCNFSDU’s purported remit of ’consumer protection’ is hollow.”

The NHF team stimulated some two hours of discussion following its intervention over the need to stipulate more detailed specifications for ’safe water’ to which infant formula is added. Safe water is a concept not well understood by many parents who use infant formula, and contamination continues to result in millions of cases of infant death and sickness annually. Interestingly, the Chairman attempted to shut down the discussion following the NHF intervention by saying, “Safe, more safe, most safe, what is the difference?” but fortunately the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), the International Association of Consumer Food Organizations (IACFO) and other INGOs, who were also more concerned with consumer interests, fought hard to reach a compromise on wording in the face of strong opposition from national delegations, who, seemingly, primarily voiced the views of industry.

Dr Robert Verkerk, the NHF’s scientific advisor, was deeply unhappy with the allocation of time to key agenda items, saying, ”I hope the 10 minutes given over to risk assessment and health claims apiece do not reflect this Committee’s interest in these hugely important subjects, both of which will have a big bearing on consumer health and freedom of choice in years to come. We hope, however, that useful discussions in the Working Group on Risk Assessment, with which we have been closely involved, will be reflected in the committee’s final report.”

This year’s CCNFSDU proceedings have once again shown just how difficult it is to make changes to international guidelines and standards, when such changes are motivated by consumer interests and natural health issues rather than industry. Fortunately, however, Codex procedures move slowly, and with continued, well thought-through and scientifically backed inputs, there are still opportunities for consumer voices to be heard so that positive changes to texts can be sought.

Nevertheless, the outcome of this meeting underscores yet again the importance of all freedom loving individuals, especially Americans, of opposing the creation of so-called "free trade areas" and regional blocs, such as the proposed North American Union.

The recent evidence of the European Union project, for example, shows us that the creation of "free trade areas" and regional blocs is merely a prelude to the dismantling of the political and legal systems of participating nations, and the replacing of these with a hemispheric government. As such, the passing of the European Union's highly restrictive and Codex-compliant Food Supplements Directive, in 2002, should serve as a warning to Americans as to what could happen if we allow Congress to abandon the United States of America as an independent country. Just as the relatively liberal dietary supplement laws of the UK were overridden by the Codex-compliant EU Food Supplements Directive (as a result of successive treaties that the British Government had signed with its European neighbors), participation in the North American Union could similarly lead to U.S. dietary supplement law (i.e. DSHEA) becoming susceptible to Codex-complaint harmonization with the more restrictive dietary supplement laws of Canada and Mexico.

In short, while the unelected bureaucrats from the FDA who attend Codex meetings are ultimately not accountable to us, our Senators and Congressmen most certainly are. The National Health Federation therefore recommends that all citizens should keep these facts in mind when voting in their general elections.

Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without government restrictions. With consumer members all over the world, and a Board of Governors and Advisory Board containing representatives from 6 different countries, the Federation is unique in being the only consumer health freedom organization in the world to enjoy official observer status with the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

One final comment from JH: Do not forward the bogus Codex "alerts" from the (so called) "Natural Solutions Foundation" They're a controlled opposition group working directly against NHF, IAHF, ANH, the Rath Foundation and all other legitimate health freedom organizations world wide- they're disseminating a steady stream of truth, half truth, total lies and disinformation. Their goal is to steer us off a cliff. They don't want anyone listening to IAHF's mssg re the threat of the planned N.American Union which is the means by which FDA is trying to usher Codex in here. See http://www.nocodexgenocide.com/page/page/3312735.htm also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stubblebine