Calendar
| Agustos 2008 |
| 28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
| 11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
| 18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
| 25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
|
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, 20:13:00
|
|
|
|
| My Bookmarks |
|
In order to be able to use this function, you must be registered
and/or logged in.
|
| Who is online? |
User online:
0
Guests online: 3
|
| Stats |
| Visitors overall: |
12710 |
| Visitors today: |
0 |
| This month visitors: |
162 |
| Visitors max/day: |
466 |
| Visitors yesterday: |
34 |
|
|
