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David 1, Goliath 0...
Posted by:
kwan
()
Date: November 07, 2009 03:02AM [A small but very important victory for natural health advocates at a recent Codex Committee convocation in Germany. Scott Tipps, of the NHF, is the only non-governmental/non-corporate representative out of all the thousands who rubber stamp Codex's guidelines. He is working tirelessly for our health freedom. I'm going to send him a thank-you note.]
PRESS RELEASE VICTORY AT CODEX!!! Anti-Supplement NRV Document Held Back Because of NHF November 6, 2009 This week of November 2-6, 2009, the 31st Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) met in Dusseldorf, Germany to continue its work in developing standards for global nutrition. Some 260 delegates were in attendance, comprised of various countries’ functionaries and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) representatives. Never one to disappoint the crowd, Dr. Rolf Grossklaus returned for his final, farewell performance as the CCNFSDU Chairman. The Committee covered various topics, among them methods of assaying fiber and the establishment of Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD)./1 At the special Saturday meeting of the CCNFSDU Working Group on Nutrient Reference Values for Non-communicable Diseases, the NHF was represented by its president Scott Tips and was very active in making its pro-freedom views known. (See our previous release at [www.thenhf.com].) At both meetings (that of the Working Group and the Committee), NHF especially took to task the God-like aura given to the “expert consultations” of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO). These are pre-selected groups of experts with a pre-determined outcome to their “consultations” and are hardly scientific. Along with other delegations, the NHF succeeded in retaining language in Codex standards that ensured that Codex would not just look to FAO/WHO expert consultations for scientific knowledge. Amazing Victory But the real battle and amazing success took place on Tuesday, November 3rd, during the general session, when the two agenda items covering the NRVs for non-communicable diseases, including the “Proposed Draft Additional or Revised Nutrient Reference Values for Labelling Purposes in the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling,” were discussed by the Committee. The CCNFSDU was all prepared to rubber-stamp its approval on the “Proposed Draft Additional or Revised Nutrient Reference Values for Labelling Purposes in the Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling,” which had been pushed by the delegation of the Republic of Korea and others.l This document was so astoundingly anti-vitamin and mineral it infuriated the NHF representative, who had to restrain himself from using harsh and insulting words when it came NHF’s turn to speak. Appendix 2 of the document is only two pages, but contains already-low values for each of the Vitamins and Minerals listed in the Appendix (except for Fluoride, which of course has an excessively high value). (To see the document, go to www.thenhf.com/press_releases/Appendix2photo11-09.pdf) For example, the “scientific” values assigned to Vitamin C were being reduced from an already-low 60 milligrams to an even-lower 45 milligrams! The NRV for magnesium was to be cut from 300 milligrams to 240 milligrams. Niacin’s value was to be chopped from 18 milligrams to 15. These were, and are, absurd numbers, based upon nutritional ignorance. Over a one-hour period, the NHF took the floor repeatedly to lambast the document and to insist that its adoption would be a public-relations nightmare and make Codex the laughingstock of the World. If anything, NHF said, these numbers must be drastically raised. The argument swirled around the room with the NHF holding firm against comments from many other country delegations, especially Australia (which calls harsher standards "an extra bit of comfort"  , all of whom thought that these numbers were perfectly normal! Had NHF not challenged the document, there would have been no sustained opposition to its passage.
Instead, NHF kept unrelentingly hammering at the points it had first raised and answered at every chance the counter-arguments of the document’s proponents. Finally, the Chairman, perhaps in exasperation, suggested that the Committee not advance the document to its next step because there was no consensus! This “compromise” was supported by NHF but opposed by others until, with it still hanging in the balance, the Indian delegation firmly stated its support for NHF’s position and against it advancing. India’s timing was impeccable. That was enough for the Chairman, who quickly concluded the debate and held the document back. But for the National Health Federation, India, and also Costa Rica and Iraq, this document would have advanced towards a more final, fixed form. Now, it remains in a malleable form that will let it be corrected at next year’s CCNFSDU meeting. Increasingly recognized at these Codex meetings, NHF appreciates the support it has been given by other country-member and INGO delegations. Most of all, though, NHF appreciates the support its membership has given it, financially and morally, that enabled this victory to happen at all. ******************** 1 Not to be confused with Maximum Upper Permitted Limits, Nutrient Reference Values (“NRVs”) are nothing more than souped-up RDAs. These are numerical values assigned to each nutrient so as to reflect the mythical typical person’s nutritional needs for that nutrient. By referring to the NRV for, say, magnesium, the consumer is supposed to get an idea of whether he or she is getting an adequate (or in European bureaucratic eyes, an excessive) amount of magnesium. If a consumer, for example, sees that he is getting 100% of his daily requirement for Vitamin C, he will almost certainly mistakenly think that he need look no further to supplement his diet.; he is, after all, getting his full needs met, even though 100% will be defined as 60 milligrams! These values are supposed to be set according to rigorous scientific evidence; but, as NHF has long contended, “science” at Codex levels is far more political than scientific. Re: David 1, Goliath 0...
Posted by:
juicerkatz
()
Date: November 07, 2009 12:57PM A small step in the right direction, I suppose... I just wish they would leave our food alone. Go away, Monsanto, you are not welcome here... Re: David 1, Goliath 0...
Posted by:
Tamukha
()
Date: November 07, 2009 02:34PM [sigh]It's not Monsanto--it's all industries that make chemicals. Note: In the controversial document, fluoride levels were maintained at high, whereas vitamin and mineral values were lowered. My first thought was, "How profitable and cost effective is the manufacturing of fluoride, compared to magnesium and niacin? What cunning little capitalists these interests are. I gotta hand it to them, bottom-lining everything to death." Alas, to our death, most likely . . .
Thanks for posting, kwan. Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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