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Taken from NaturalHealthLine for April 1, 2005 http://www.naturalhealthline.com Reporting and Commentary C By Peter Barry Chowka Codex: A looming threat goes largely unexamined As an example of what the new vision of CAM hath wrought, in the year 2005 - at a big CAM Expo, in the pages of slick CAM medical journals and magazines, in the self-aggrandizing utterances of CAM leaders, and in the actions of government CAM bureaucrats - rarely - in fact, never - is any serious attention paid to the looming threats to natural healing, personal freedom and responsibility, and self care (all of these among the linchpins of alt med) represented by Codex. Codex is the United Nations/World Health Organization-based international trade and regulatory framework on foods that has established new standards for and restricted the availability of herbal and nutritional supplements in Western Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the transnational, one world-new world economic and political order that is now the status quo, with national sovereignty and autonomy constantly being diminished, Codex-inspired regulations are poised to have a major effect soon in the United States. Ultimately, among other things, it seems certain that Codex will restrict and limit the availability of high potency over the counter nutritional and herbal supplements here as it has in other Western countries. The last time there was a serious threat to the availability of nutritional supplements in the U.S., in 1993-'94, a groundswell of public interest, channeled by a number of grassroots organizations, helped to mobilize support for Congressional legislative protection for supplement freedom. A decade later, with CAM firmly entrenched, alt med activists in leadership positions have largely been replaced by a new wave of CAM/integrative med proponents who in turn have abdicated leadership on this - as well as other - critical issues, loathe as they are to bite the hand that feeds - the hand belonging to the medical-industrial complex that the original pioneers of alt med once stood in clear opposition to. In reality, growing restrictions on medical choice and self-care including the availability of nutritional and herbal supplements are not incompatible with the self-interest of many proponents of integrative medicine and CAM. Many of these proponents are elitist, mainstream-doctor-wannabes who believe (like orthodox doctors) that the public needs to be protected from itself, and that supplements should be prescription items, available only with the approval of a licensed orthodox or CAM practitioner. In only a decade, we have gone through the looking glass. But in spite of the extremely high stakes, only a small handful of observers is expressing concern. One of them is attorney Suzanne Harris, who has been monitoring issues relating to freedom of medical choice for more than a decade. In an article on Codex published last November, Harris writes: "What we face here is the fundamental fact that Europe thinks differently. They believe, especially in Germany, the founder of the regulatory concept of medical foods, that doctors should prescribe the meaningful products. So here we are in a global contest. On one side is Europe that believes in strict regulation and doctors’ prescriptions for the really useful products. On the other side is a North American populace that believes in freedom of choice but where many of the staunchest believers in freedom of choice and companies, most likely to be extinguished by the end results of that battle, do not even know that a global battle is raging. And at the center of the mix, we have powerful commercial interests allied with whatever side they think will produce the best market opening opportunities." In an article last month titled "The Future of the Nutritional Supplement Industry --- The Realities," Jon Rappoport, another independent observer of current events, has written: "I know one bright executive of an alternative health firm who has quit her job and aligned herself with a company that sells supplements and bankrolls quite expensive clinical trials of its products. This executive is convinced that the future for the bulk of the supplement industry is dark. Only the medically-oriented companies will survive. . . "If you want continued access to nutritional supplements of your choice, at the potencies you decide you need, I suggest you use this article and get a message out to the supplement companies. The sitting ducks. Don't bother trying to be sweet and nice. Make your demands. Organize consumer groups. Put on pressure. Squeeze them to do what they refuse to do." In a subsequent article on February 27 that is an excellent summary of Codex and the broader context within which Codex is moving forward, Rappoport writes, "Codex is on the march. Other similar players are on the march. I'm not an expert on the overall scene in Europe, but I do know that, in recent years, there has definitely been a reduction in the availability of supplements without a doctor's prescription. And the EU is working hard toward a further drastic reduction." To be continued. . . For more information,
Will your vitamins be banned from the shelves after
August [2005]?
Why do meddling Eurocrats want to ban your vitamin
pills?
The Codex in Australia - The End of the Dietary Supplement
Industry?
Health supplements: R.I.P.
Watchdogs to set limits on vitamin intake
Paul Taylor's article from Bonn Codex meeting 2005 Gary Null's CODEX ALIMENTARIUS Action File
GRAVE DANGER! - THE CODEX COMMISSION And, for another point of view. . .
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