Meet Codex Alimentarius
Codex Alimentarius - an international body that sets standards for foods - is deliberating uniform world wide rules for vitamin and mineral supplements. The Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, to some known by its acronym CCNFSDU, will be meeting once again this year. The gathering will take place in Bonn, Germany, and it will try to achieve the needed "consensus" for the vitamin rule to pass. The meeting will go on for a week, from 3 to 7 November.
The host for the meetings of the Committee on Nutrition (CCNFSDU) has traditionally been Germany. It was also the German delegation to this committee which first introduced the proposed rules in 1994. At the time I realized that the Germans delegation had a rabidly anti-supplements agenda, possibly because of the strength and influence of pharmaceutical interests which have long determined "health" policy, especially in Germany. In a comment to this first proposal I wrote that there is no need to restrict supplement availability because of an overwhelming safety record. I also pointed out that consumers and natural health practitioners might be very upset if they found that they could no longer find vitamins in proper dosages.
Although Codex guidelines are born in a very slow process - eight steps of procedure to publish a rule and years of work to arrive at the point of agreement - these deliberations will eventually give birth to very powerful legislation. Powerful because the Codex dictates on vitamins and minerals will be applied world wide, according to research done by AHHA, who attended several of the meetings. The World Trade Organization may enforce standards issued by Codex, overriding national laws. The WTO is using the mechanism of Trade Sanctions when its "Dispute Settelement" body believes countries need to change their laws to conform to such Standards.
One of the most penetrating voices to condemn these quasi-secret meetings resulting in international legislation has been that of Dr. Rath, who charges that Codex is little more than a club controlled by pharmaceutical interests. According to Rath, the Codex rules being discussed on supplements will perpetuate the pharmaceutical business with disease which has been a very lucrative business indeed.
Codex delegations are made up of national ministry of health officials, typically of the food control department in health or agriculture ministries. Multi-national companies of the food and pharmaceutical area are participating as members of many national delegations. Rules are made by "consensus" of the participating national health authorities. In effect, we have here an international law making body that draws for its decisions on the opinions of ... health ministry officials - with the advice of industry lobbyists. Hardly a proper way to make legislation that will affect our health for decades to come.
Last year, the CCNFSDU meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, and it was highly interesting to see the deep divide between the proponents of restrictive legislation (Germany, France, Norway) and the countries with more liberal laws, but also the deep mistrust emanating from the developing countries who see a Codex guideline for vitamin supplements as an effort to encroach on their nutritional policy. Developing countries generally prefer to try and feed their people, many of whom are starving or undernourished. They see an eventual Codex guideline as a way for the multinationals to muscle their way into their national economies with junk food and vitamin supplements as an added luxury.
Economically, the developing countries cannot possibly afford widespread supplementation at this stage of the game, so they oppose any standard for vitamin supplements as superfluous and damaging to their own national food priorities. The "one size fits all" approach of Codex may be valid for eliminating contaminants in foods and for standardizing food hygiene and food processing procedures, but it is definitely not welcome in this highly sensitive area of supplementation. My report on the 2002 meeting in Berlin gives you an idea of the "clash of civilizations" that regularly comes to a head in these gatherings.
Health effects of supplements are generally acknowledged but are said to be outside of the Codex mandate. Many countries prefer to treat anything above the recommended daily allowances (RDA) as medicines - to be closely regulated. Of course this plays into the hands of the pharmaceutical giants who would rather sell expensive synthetic drugs to the sick than cheap nutrients which might eliminate their lucrative business altogether.
It is possible for anyone interested to participate in these meetings and to talk to their national representatives. Industry does it - why not consumers and natural health practitioners? All you need to do is contact your health ministry's Codex office and ask. You can find the contact details on this page. (Scroll down to "ALINORM 03/26A - Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses
24th Session" to get the PDF file.)See also:
The Growing Threats to DSHEA
A well documented article by Paul Taylor, discussing DSHEA, the US law on food supplements passed in 1994, and how this law may be influenced by the Codex Alimentarius guidelines on supplements...Codex Animation by airlock - a concerned teen ...
To find out more, you can search this site putting "Codex Alimentarius" in the search box on top of each page. There are numerous articles.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Saturday August 30 2003
updated on Tuesday December 21 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/08/30/meet_codex_alimentarius.htm
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