CODEX Alimentarius

CODEX Alimentarius ("food rules") is to going to be used on us whether we like it or not.

If your Country is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), you will be obliged to abide by the CODEX Regulations. It will be used by the WTO to resolve international trade disputes. If you do not follow it, it could cripple your countries important economic sectors.

In short, as described by Dr. Matthias Rath as: "an unscrupulous attempt" to implement "pharmaceutical cartel protection laws" and bolster the "spread of business with disease".

It is considered draconian by millions of concerned health care advocates around the world.

There is OVER 16,000 pages of CODEX working documents available to the public. Official site. Part of FAO and WHO food and veterinary standards activities. With information about procedure, forthcoming activities, etc.

The current proposal suggests:

• No dietary supplement is to be sold for preventative or therapeutic use.
   
• No dietary supplement sold as food can exceed potency dosages set down by the CODEX Commission. Dietary supplements of higher potency are to be sold as "drugs" by pharmaceutical or phyto-pharmaceutical companies. Supplements without a recommended daily allowance (RDA), such as co-enzyme Q10, will be illegal to sell because is will be considered a "drug".
   
• The CODEX Regulations for dietary supplements will become binding.
   
• All new dietary supplements will be banned unless they have undergone extensive CODEX testing (via scientific risk assessment) and final approval.
   
• Under the new ruling, only supplements made from a list of 15 minerals and 13 vitamins will be allowed in ultra-low potencies on the new "Positives List", mirroring levels that were originally set during World War II to stave off malnutrition.

What you will get by 2010:

• The CODEX preamble expressly forbids the use of nutrients to "prevent, treat or cure any condition".
   
• Herbs have been put under a closed committee of the WHO where they are now held to be "untested drugs". There is only a short list of "approved herbs" that may be used for specific conditions. While some complex oriental herbal formulas may be permitted, most will not. Ayurvedic, Tibetan, tribal and other traditional medicines that use herbs and natural substances are to be forbidden in WTO Member Countries. Herbal, shamanic and energy-based medicines are held to be forbidden forms of treatment.
   
• Genetically Modified organisms (GMO's) are to be legal in ALL foods and under ALL circumstances.
   
• CODEX is to set permissible upper levels for pesticide residues, toxic chemicals, hormones in food and other environmental contaminants that are many times greater than those advocated by chemical and pesticide industry lobby groups.
   
• CODEX mandates that ALL animal feed be treated with antibiotics, hormones and growth stimulants. (This will kill off organic, free range and bio-dynamic farming as we know it.)
   
• CODEX Further mandates that the irradiation of ALL food go ahead, despite the arguments of food safety experts.

It is already happening

It has become law in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the EFTA States of Iceland and Norway. Zinc tablets have gone from AU$4 to AU$42 per bottle. Echinacea is now classified as a "drug", and has risen from AU$14 to an amazing $153 ! Vitamin C doses greater than 200mg/day have been removed from the shelves at health food stores, and now you need a prescription for the higher doses (doubling the price, plus a GP visit cost).

Consumers are complaining

In Bonn, Germany October 2004, thousands of people and children protested.

April 2005 in the UK, The Alliance for Natural Health, the British Health Food Manufactures Association and the National Association of Health Stores won a round in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as the "CODEX did, in fact, infringed on current health guidelines and was wrong". Then on the 4th July 2005 in Rome the CODEX guidelines were ratified and the ECJ overturned the previous ruling later that month. At the same meeting in Rome, the US delegation issued a formal written statement to the Commission pledging support for the compulsory rules, overriding domestic laws allowing its own citizens access to nutritional supplements. The US media was silent. Shortly afterwards, the Australian and New Zealand Governments stepped into the line behind the EU and US. Again, not a mention from the media.

There appears to be no "exit clause" for WTO Members, even if a Member wishes to set its own standards, it will be compelled to adhere to the CODEX framework - irrespective of acceptance or not.

There is so much more to say about this Frankenstein system.

Since 2003, there have been criticisms from within the WHO and FAO about the CODEX Commissions methods and guidelines on supplements.

What to do NOW!

Do your web searches; complain to your politician in writing or email; write to the papers; get on the radio; and most of all, tell ALL of your friends, and then remind them again!

Check out and download the papers from CODEX Alimentarius, Alliance for Health Freedom Australia (ahf-au.org), Alliance for Natural Health (alliance-natural-health.org)