so i was just reading up on this because it goes into effect in the usa on dec 31 2009. anyone know anything about it? what about the statements about germany and vitamins being illegal there?
Quote:
WHAT CODEX WILL BRING
What can we expect under Codex? To give you an idea, here are some important points:
Dietary supplements could not be sold for preventive (prophylactic) or therapeutic use.
Potencies would be limited to extremely low dosages. Only the drug companies and the big phytopharmaceutical companies would have the right to produce and sell the higher potency products (at inflated prices).
Prescriptions would be required for anything above the extremely low doses allowed (such as 35 mg. on niacin).
Common foods such as garlic and peppermint would be classified as drugs or a third category (neither food nor drugs) that only big pharmaceutical companies could regulate and sell. Any food with any therapeutic effect can be considered a drug, even benign everyday substances like water.
Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become binding (escape clauses would be eliminated).
All new dietary supplements would be banned unless they go through Codex testing and approval.
Genetically altered food would be sold worldwide without labeling.
According to John Hammell, a legislative advocate and the founder of International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF), here is what we have to look forward to:
"If Codex Alimentarius has its way, then herbs, vitamins, minerals, homeopathic remedies, amino acids and other natural remedies you have taken for granted most of your life will be gone. The name of the game for Codex Alimentarius is to shift all remedies into the prescription category so they can be controlled exclusively by the medical monopoly and its bosses, the major pharmaceutical firms. Predictably, this scenario has been denied by both the Canadian Health Food Association and the Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB).
The Codex Alimentarius proposals already exist as law in Norway and Germany where the entire health food industry has literally been taken over by the drug companies. In these countries, vitamin C above 200 mg is illegal as is vitamin E above 45 IU, vitamin B1 over 2.4 mg and so on. Shering-Plough, the Norway pharmaceutical giant, now controls an Echinacea tincture, which is being sold there as an over the counter drug at grossly inflated prices. The same is true of ginkgo and many other herbs, and only one government controlled pharmacy has the right to import supplements as medicines which they can sell to health food stores, convenience stores or pharmacies."
It is now a criminal offence in parts of Europe to sell herbs as foods. An agreement called EEC6565 equates selling herbs as foods to selling other illegal drugs. Action is being taken to accelerate other European countries into 'harmonization' as well.
Paul Hellyer in his book, "The Evil Empire," states: "Codex Alimentarius is supported by international banks and multinational corporations including some in Canada, and is in reality a bill of rights for these banks and the corporations they control. It will hand over our sovereign rights concerning who may or may not invest in our countries to an unelected world organization run by big business. The treaty would make it impossible for Canadian legislators either federal or provincial to alter or improve environmental standards for fear of being sued by multinational corporations whether operating in Canada or not.
This will create a world without borders ruled by a virtual dictatorship of the world's most powerful central banks and multinational companies. This world is an absolute certainty if we all sit on our hands and do nothing."
Citation for saying the US will be following it word for word at the end of the year?
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Codex Alimentarius is a Trade Organization which is part of the WTO (World Trade Organization). Apparently if any country is a member of the WTO, it is mandatory for Codex to be implemented within that country or they would violate WTO trade agreements.
Eric if that were the case we would have had this discussion in 1995 and not 2009.
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Because that's when the WTO was founded. The Codex is nothing new and it's been around since the sixties.
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Overbear: better 10 innocent men be convicted, than a single guilty man go free to commit more crime. Overbear: I prefer that I be given a license to shoot anyone who would pick socialism or communism over the basic freedoms inherent to consumerism. MatrixBaller04 AKA EricS9652: I can guarantee something will happen between now and February 9th. Tha-Italian-Stallion: America is the same country who made a should be slave it's leader.... why the **** would I have any pride in that? Blake360: in highschool, my teacher's father worked for the CIA and she brought my class documents proving the Roswell crash was of extraterrestrial origin.
Collaboration between WTO and the Codex Alimentarius concerns the use of international food safety standards in the context of the SPS Agreement.
Mandate
The WTO's SPS Agreement states that “to harmonize sanitary and phytosanitary measures on as wide a basis as possible, Members shall base their sanitary or phytosanitary measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations”. The Agreement names the joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius as the relevant standard-setting organization for food safety.
The WTO bases their sanitary or phytosanitary measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations. The SPS Agreement (which is from the WTO) bases it's guidelines and recommendations on Codex Alimentarius standards.
Codex is effectively mandatory for all WTO Members
Quote:
The legal basis for enforcement of the various different Guidelines and Standards created by Codex comes from the ‘Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures’ (SPS Agreement) and the ‘Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade’ (TBT Agreement). Both the SPS Agreement and the TBT Agreement were included among the Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods, which was annexed to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement that established the WTO. (11). Although Codex standards and guidelines are theoretically voluntary, a new status has in effect been conferred on them by the SPS Agreement, in that any WTO Member adopting them is presumed to be in full compliance with the SPS Agreement. (12).
The net result of this is that even when a country decides not to use a Codex standard the measure that it operates in place of that Codex standard remains subject to a range of conditions set out in detail in Article 5 of the SPS Agreement. (13). The most important of these conditions is a requirement to take into account risk assessment techniques developed by “the relevant international organizations”. (14). As it turns out however these “relevant international organizations” actually include Codex itself, and in this respect it is notable that the CCNFSDU is already considering a document entitled ‘Discussion Paper on the Application of Risk Analysis Applied to the Work of the CCNFSDU’. (15). In other words, in the event of a country choosing not to implement a Codex standard the measure that it operates in place of that standard still remains subject to Codex guidelines.
Other conditions affecting measures that countries operate in place of Codex standards include a requirement to take into account economic factors and the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches to limiting risks (16); a requirement to take into account the objective of minimizing negative trade effects (17); and a requirement to avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable distinctions in the levels of risk protection that it considers to be appropriate in different situations, if such distinctions result in discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade (18).
As such then, countries that are members of the WTO are effectively required to implement all Codex standards by virtue of the fact that they have signed up to the SPS Agreement. It may not be entirely coincidental therefore that many countries have already begun taking steps to implement stringent restrictions upon the dosage and availability of vitamins and minerals, in preparation for the finalisation of the Codex Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements. Indeed, the significance of Codex was underscored in 1985 by United Nations Resolution 39/85, whereby guidelines were adopted on consumer protection policies. The guidelines advise that "Governments should take into account the need of all consumers for food security and should support and, as far as possible, adopt standards from the ... Codex Alimentarius". (19).
Further proof that trade agreements, such as NAFTA, WTO aren't based on free trade, and why we should reject said 'agreements'. WTO isn't as much of a joke as NAFTA is, but to assume you need an 'agreement' to trade freely is laughable. We should pull out of the WTO, and NAFTA, and while we're at it, scrap the UN. We should be worrying about our interests.
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
What does the WTO base their food safety guidelines on, as set forth by in the SPS Agreement? Codex Alimentarius.
Even if countries decide they don't want to implement Codex, it doesn't matter. Codex Alimentarius is the guideline which the WTO bases its sanitary or phytosanitary measures on international standards, guidelines or recommendations.
The only way to get around Codex is to 'drop out' of the WTO.
I've yet to see a shred of evidence pointing towards the restrictions of the codex having the effects mentioned in the OP on American consumers.
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
I've yet to see a shred of evidence pointing towards the restrictions of the codex having the effects mentioned in the OP on American consumers.
Evidence? You want evidence? Yeah? Well, just look at this ghastly snippet of text..
Quote:
CODEX STANDARD FOR FOOD GRADE SALT
5. CONTAMINANTS
Food grade salt may not contain contaminants in amounts and in such form that may be harmful to the health
of the consumer. In particular the following maximum limits shall not be exceeded:
5.1 ARSENIC
- not more than 0.5 mg/kg expressed as As.
5.2 COPPER
- not more than 2 mg/kg expressed as Cu.
5.3 LEAD
- not more than 2 mg/kg expressed as Pb.
5.4 CADMIUM
- not more than 0.5 mg/kg expressed as Cd.
5.5 MERCURY
- not more than 0.1 mg/kg expressed as Hg.
WTF! HOW CAN WE LET THIS HAPPEN TO US!?!?
__________________
Overbear: better 10 innocent men be convicted, than a single guilty man go free to commit more crime. Overbear: I prefer that I be given a license to shoot anyone who would pick socialism or communism over the basic freedoms inherent to consumerism. MatrixBaller04 AKA EricS9652: I can guarantee something will happen between now and February 9th. Tha-Italian-Stallion: America is the same country who made a should be slave it's leader.... why the **** would I have any pride in that? Blake360: in highschool, my teacher's father worked for the CIA and she brought my class documents proving the Roswell crash was of extraterrestrial origin.
After browsing the SPS agreement briefly it seems to me that this all pertains to international trade NOT what can and cannot be sold on US shelves.
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
See here is the thing, I'm betting nothing will happen in the US and things will go business as usual.
Why? because I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with the Codex or WTO but actually the European Union's Food Supplements Directive and people with a few screws loose attribute it to those organizations and assume it's going to be a worldwide thing.
__________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Eh, not true. The biggest manufacturers are in the US (Solgar, Twinlabs, etc.) but the ingredients are imported.
It's hard to understand a lot of the language the guidelines are written in. Have to reference back to a lot of different sources, but I'm working on it
