Most Americans have never heard the term Codex Alimentarius and have no idea to what extent it could impact their daily lives and health. There have been no major headlines or news broadcasts about Codex, keeping it from being a household word. People will eventually hear of this nefarious threat to human health when it impacts their freedom to have safe foods and nutritional supplements.

Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “food code”) was founded by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) in 1962. Codex is a trade organization, not a consumer health organization. It has been convening a group of international delegates annually to set guidelines on all foods, agriculture, and nutritional supplements since 1963. Virtually anything that can be put in the human mouth has come under the scope of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). Organic food standards, genetically modified foods, and food irradiation are but three of the many topics that fall within its purview.

The CAC has been meeting for 44 years and has established committees that churn out guidelines and regulations covering everything from Parmesan cheese to hormones in animal feed to allowable pesticide levels in food. Little notice was paid to their seemingly frivolous activities until the World Trade Organization (WTO) was chartered in 1995 and became the enforcer of Codex standards. Even though the U. S. Senate never ratified the United States’ membership in the WTO, our nation has, through default, unwittingly become a participant.

The WTO is the vehicle whereby Codex Alimentarius standards can now be imposed upon its 136 currently member nations through the use of severe trade sanctions for countries that fail to comply with CAC regulations. Through the WTO, Codex has developed real muscle. While the CAC’s original charter was to eliminate trade barriers regarding food and to ensure the quality of food available to people worldwide, it’s charter mission has proved vulnerable to the influence of big dollar multinational pharmaceutical, agricultural, chemical, and biotechnical corporations.

If Codex gets its way, as it already has in the European Union and Australia, we can expect that ultimately the following events will occur:
• Consumers in WTO countries will have available to them only 28 or so dietary supplements which are, by design, far too small in dosage to have any discernible impact on any human being, since Codex decided to ignore “good” science by creating guidelines for nutrients as if they were toxins and required establishment of a dose that had no perceivable effect on health. High potency nutrients will not be available either with or without a physician’s prescription, since these life-sustaining molecules will be forbidden under any circumstances.
• All animals grown for human consumption will be mandated to be treated with antibiotics, growth enhancers, and hormones.
• With the exception of locally grown and consumed food, all food that is traded and marketed to the public will be irradiated.
• Herbs will not be available unless they undergo multi-million dollar scientific trials similar to those used for drugs.
• All native seeds will be confiscated and the use of genetically modified (GMO) seeds will be mandated.
• The “acceptable” limits of toxic compounds in the food supply will be increased, including the allowance of seven specific toxins that were previously banned by Stockholm Convention, a global treaty signed by 120 nations to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants.

“Harmonization” (the term used to describe mandatory global compliance) with Codex guidelines in WTO participating countries is slated for December 31, 2009, after which sanctions may be applied to non-harmonized countries.

You may wonder, as I do, why people are not up in arms over this thinly veiled attempt of the powers-that-be to regulate food and nutrition with adverse policies. The fact that Codex meets infrequently (and almost always offshore) and is bogged down in highly technical language that is difficult to understand has kept Codex under the radar of most Americans. The nearly total media blackout on Codex and its activities also helps to keep the United States uninformed and therefore pliant. Even those who have been aware of its presence and potential impact have been confused by conflicting published information, notably the official mollifying position of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Influential trade organizations, particularly in the natural food and supplements industry, have remained silent under the belief that the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA) that was enacted in 1994 and which keeps nutrients from being classified as drugs and allows no upper limit on dosage of nutrients, will keep Codex regulations away from our kitchen tables and personal freedoms. If intact, DSHEA would protect Americans from Codex’s standards for nutritional supplements, but it would not protect us from any of Codex’s other severe standards. Several bills have been introduced into the United States Congress to weaken or undermine the protection of DSHEA and more will very likely be introduced. Should that happen, the United States would immediately fall under the nefarious standards of Codex.

Though a small number of concerned citizens in America are waking up to Codex, a narrow window of opportunity exists in which Codex’s ill-designed standards can be exposed and reversed. Those wishing to learn more about Codex and what they can do to support efforts to stop its devastating standards from being implemented can visit: www.healthfreedomusa.com.

Dr. John Wilson is a medical doctor and CEO of Great Smokies Medical Center of Asheville, which has been serving the alternative medical healthcare needs of Western North Carolinians for 27 years. He has an ongoing interest in the politics of medicine, especially in regard to Codex Alimentarius.
Contact: Tel. 828.252.9833 Email: Greatsmc@aol.com Internet: www.gsmcweb.com

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