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Organic certification loophole makes scams possible, farmer says Canada: Organic rules Organically grown foods have been receiving increased negative attention from Codex in recent years and are under threat. The Codex committee on food labelling is attempting to water down global organic standards to permit the use of unnatural substances: Sulphur dioxide causes allergic reactions in some people. Sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate are potentially carcinogenic and implicated in hyperactivity in children. Carrageenan is associated with the formation of ulcers in the intestines and cancerous tumours in the gut. Worse still, the Codex Alimentarius Commission recently gave the go-ahead for work to begin on the inclusion of ethylene in the Codex guidelines for the production, processing, labelling and marketing of organically produced foods. Ethylene is used to artificially induce fruits and vegetables to ripen; its approval for use on organic foods would represent a disturbing step towards WTO-enforced acceptance of the same dubious and unnatural agricultural practices that non-organic foods are already subject to. Codex wants to water down organic standards because organic foods fetch higher prices than ordinary, non-organic foods and the large, non-organic food producers see an easy opportunity to break into the profitable, quickly expanding market for organic foods. On a deeper level, organic foods promote better health than non-organic foods, by virtue of the fact that they contain higher levels of micronutrients. In addition, of course, organic foods don’t contain pesticides, residues of veterinary drugs or genetically modified organisms. Bearing in mind that good health is not in the interests of the “business with disease,” this ultimately makes the increasing demand for organic foods a threat to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, not only because organic foods promote good health, but also because they result in a lower demand for pesticides, veterinary drugs and GM foods and, thus, in lower profits. Moreover, unlike genetically modified seeds, organic seeds cannot be patented. Given that some of the major players in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, such as Bayer and BASF, are also major players in the biotech industry, the rising popularity of non-patentable organic foods is, in fact, a serious and growing threat to their profits. Genetically modified foods The Codex Alimentarius Commission adopted its first guidelines and principles for genetically modified (GM) foods in 2003. US, Canada and Argentina won a trade dispute at the WTO against the European Union (EU), where it was argued that the EU had been applying a moratorium on the approval and importation of foods containing GM material. If adopted, further guidelines and standards for transgenic foods now in the process of being drafted by Codex, will further contribute to making the approval and importation of GM foods that comply with them mandatory for all WTO member countries. The US, Canada and Argentina are also pushing against mandatory product labelling for GM foods. This is exactly what the big GM food manufacturers want, of course, as they have long realized that growing numbers of people are opposed to transgenic food products and that industry will not be able to change public opinion about these products any time soon. Unlike the seeds for regular foods, seeds for GM foods can be patented. This is the real key to why biotech companies are so desperate for these foods to be forced onto world markets, as the potential long-term profits are so colossal as to compare favourably with the market in pharmaceutical drugs. Given that some of the major players in the pharmaceutical industry, such as Bayer and BASF, are also major players in the biotech industry, it is evident that the pharmaceutical industry is once again positioning itself as a key beneficiary at Codex. So far as the pharmaceutical industry is concerned, the only products worth producing are those that are patentable. Because of their rise in popularity, food supplements, natural health practices and even organic food represent a serious threat to the pharmaceutical industry. The financial interest groups behind the Codex Alimentarius Commission know this only too well and are now engaged in a desperate struggle to maintain their monopoly upon the healthcare industry and expand into GM food production. Food labelling A specific Codex committee to deal with food labelling issues, the Codex committee on food labelling (CCFL), has been in existence since 1965. The issue of food labelling is particularly crucial to the further spreading of life-saving natural health information, as restrictions upon the written content of food labels contribute, along with those on advertising, to preventing nutritional supplement manufacturers from informing people of the proven benefits of dietary supplementation. CCFL has refused to acknowledge the role of optimum nutrition in the prevention, alleviation, treatment and cure of disease, and rather than protecting the health of consumers, can be seen to be acting in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Codex is not just about nutritional supplements; it is the primary political battlefield where the war is being waged about who will regulate and control the global food supply from farm to fork. A tangled web of global authorities, big business and financial interests, is waging this war. Trade and profit are its prime goals, not human health. The long-term financial winners in the battle to gain control over the world’s food supply are likely to be the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, especially given that the adoption of still further Codex guidelines for foods derived from biotechnology now seems almost inevitable. As a result, our freedom of choice, our future health and the environment itself are all now clearly at risk. Good nutrition and optimum health threaten the pharmaceutical industry’s disease business because they reduce the size of the marketplace for synthetic drugs. However, food that is free of pesticide residues, artificial additives and other contaminants can, by definition, only come about as a result of a lower global usage, or ideally the entire elimination, of these chemicals. This, of course, would not be in the financial interests of the pharmaceutical and chemical companies that manufacture such substances, as it would clearly result in lower profits, better health for entire populations and a consequent reduction in the use of synthetic drugs. While it may have been out of the limelight recently, the Codex Alimentarius Commission’s support for business with disease has continued unabated, and the wide scope of its activities makes it a significant danger to the future health of all humanity. Do we want to see a world where our access to safe, nutritious foods and effective dietary supplements is restricted and controlled by pharmaceutical and chemical interests? If not, then we must act now, before it’s too late. Visit (www.freedomincanadianhealthcare.com) for more information. Print | 24-03-2007, 11:13:00