US Bullies Africa on GM Labeling, Africa's Had Enough
The US outdid itself at this Codex meeting. It actually bullied another country into withdrawing its submission because the paper South Africa submitted in favor of Mandatory GM Labeling was so strong and under cut the US position that no labeling should ever be permitted. South Africa is a sovereign nation, with its own concerns, laws and issues, but it was forced by US bullying to rescind its submission because of the international tantrum that the US threw. Read about it here (http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm).
The US DOES NOT want anyone to know if there is GM food in what they are eating under any circumstances. Once the US became aware of South Africa's paper (apparently before it was generally available to the rest of the meeting), they jumped all over them electronically. This was a major affront to national sovereignty, African and the concept that Codex is anything but a mouth piece for the multinational corporations which the US represents! Africa, however, decided that they have had enough!
Read more here (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=683).
What this means for us as consumers is huge. What it means for us as an organization is likewise huge but adds a continuing requirement for sufficient funding for us to be able to continue both our health freedom campaigns in the US and to continue our international work. For example, we will need to go to Africa at least twice before the next CCFL meeting, perhaps 3 times, if we are to support this vitally important effort properly. Species-specific mandatory labeling of GM foods impacts each and every one of us. Manufacturers who have to put such declarations on their labels for international trade will put great pressure on the US to lift the ban on such labeling for domestic consumption. The US will be hard pressed, indeed, to keep such labeling out of the US on food imported (as more and more of our food is) and the pressure for mandatory GM labeling will be increased immeasurably by this move.
We are proud to be such an active part of this movement to allow people to have health freedom options in their food choices and eat safe foods.
YES, INDEED, compared to the US position, we certainly have something else to say to anyone with a pro-health ear and we continue to say it.
Thanks, Dr. Schneeman, for that excellent confirmation of the accuracy and importance of our work!
Remember, the US actively FORBIDS the labeling of the GM components in your food.
You read that right. It FORBIDS any reference to the fact that 75-80% of your food contains (or is) Genetically Modified. So you are part of the largest experiment in human history. Risk Assessment and Risk Management depend on Post Market Surveillance, as it is called, which means finding out what the stuff that you are exposed to does to you. It is the final (and official) phase of human experimentation and clinical trials for foods and drugs. Without labeling, however, there can be no Post Market Surveillance because there is no possible way to find out who ate what and when. There is therefore absolutely no way of knowing what these "foods" are doing to us and our children, to our cancer and fertility rates, to the possibility that, for example, contact with GM cotton might be causing the horrifying Morgellon's Disease and [literally!] who knows what else. Consumers who want to avoid this stuff (as I do, because the more I learn about these products, the more concerned I become and the more unwilling I am to consume them.
The Natural Solutions Foundation is working on this issue inside, and outside, of the US because that's where the solutions are. What is the US afraid of your knowing? If you read Appendix I (on the right hand side of the Press Release about the situation (http://www.prweb.com/releases/GM_Labeling/Codex/prweb909004.htm)to South Africa's Conference Room Document 21 (now retracted), you will see a pretty good summary of why you should be afraid, very afraid, of eating GM foods. If you read Appendix II of the same document, you will see the official US Policy, taken directly from the FDA's website, on why GM foods are NOT tested for safety and why materials proving their safety are not required before they enter the food chain - and your body!Two Working Groups on the labeling of GM foods were convened (Oslo, 2007 and Accra, 2008) to deal with this impasse. The Oslo meeting saw the memorable declaration by the US Delegate, FDA's Dr. Barbara Schneeman, that the reason the US FORBIDS any GM labeling is that consumers would overwhelmingly reject GM if they knew they were eating it and therefore, because the US holds that GM and non GM foods are identical, it would be false and misleading information if consumers were told the truth about GM components in their foods. I have previously reported on the stunned silence and astonishment that greeted this revelation, characterized by the EU Delegate (when he could catch his breath!) as "Weird!"
Zimbabwe, Zambia and several other African nations are, in fact, convinced the description should be "Lethal" because they believe that GM food is a genocidal strategy to depopulate Africa [first]. They may be right, given the fact that organisms like Epicyte's spermicide-producing corn, which confers permanent male sterility when eaten, which was patented in 2001. Monsanto and DuPont acquired it for development and proliferation. The extent to which it has contaminated the food chain is currently unknown.* Further, the emerging science of GM impacts is frighteningly clear: eating, raising or growing GM products has many serious impacts.**
Please tell everyone you know that the labeling of GM foods is an issue of major importance and ask them to visit the Natural Solutions website, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and join the distribution list for our free Health Freedom eAlerts. You'll get the information you need and the action steps you can take to keep food fit for eating!
Remember, Freedom isn't Free! Donate generously to keep the pressure on the people and institutions who want to take away your health freedoms and, with them, your health! All donations are tax deductible. Please consider a recurring donation (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to help us help you keep your health AND your freedom!
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
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- Notes: * In 2001 the President of Epicyte noted that field trials would be conducted "at least 100 feet away from other corn crops". This distance provides no effective protection against pollen contamination whatsoever.
** Organic food in most of the world allows only 0.9% GM contamination while US Organic standards permit a full 10% contamination and Organic producers are noting that the presence of contamination by GM at even higher levels is making sourcing of Organic foods more and more difficulty (and therefore expensive).