To read Dr. Rima’s blog on Day One of the Ghana Codex Working Group on the Labeling of Foods Obtained from Genetic Modification/Genetic Engineering, go to: http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=512
Day Two, January 29, 2008 passed much the same way as Day One. There was a mixture of excruciating (to me) trivia intermingled with decisions that could have life and death impact on the lives of people all over the world.
As a US Citizen, I was not proud of the side that my government, through the person of the FDA’s Barbara Schneeman, consistently took. But I was proud and thrilled by the position that Norway, Japan, Russia, the EU and others consistently took in response when they defended and inserted mention of the rights of consumers to have the information they wanted against the constant pressure of the US and its allies to prevent consumer access to truthful information. (By the way, although I took verbatim notes of the 3 days, my computer will not go on line at this hotel so I do not have access to those notes right now. When I can get that computer back on line, I will post them in their entirety for you to read if you like. Some of you will find the nitty gritty of a Codex meeting fascinating, some will find it laughable. I find it both.)
See Day 1 for details of the new unilateral “background” document the US sought to use to control the event. The Working Group’s thrust was powerful to find a way to make this Background Paper an official Codex document and while other options for forward movement toward consensus would come to the floor, there was no other option presented which had so much traction or forward momentum. The other options kept flopping, as it were, off the table and gasping for air on the floor. Fish out of water.
On the afternoon of the second day, during the lunch break, the EU and other interested countries came up with some proposals to give the background paper a proper “chapeau†(French for “hatâ€) or heading. The US helped to craft a proposal for a chapeau which quickly became two chapeaux. The wording and concepts proposed by the US seemed benign enough: ‘Foods are safe when they come to market and labeling is not a substitute for safety.’ ‘This document was for the use of countries as they developed their own framework for the labeling of GM foods’ and other balsamic-sounding phrases. But if an official Codex document says that foods on the market (like GM “foodsâ€) are safe by the time they get there, then a nation keeping GM foods out because of safety concerns might be creating a barrier to trade in the eyes of the WTO, mightn’t it?
If the document was for use by Codex member countries, might the use of anything not in that document constitute a barrier to trade since this document was the one that they were supposed to be guided by in such regulations? And so on. It all sounded wonderfully friendly but, looked at from the point of view of Codex/WTO trade sanction strategy which could be used to force an end to the mandatory labeling which the US opposes so strongly, it was a very dangerous document, indeed.
Yes, the day ended with the purveyors of half truths and distortions quite satisfied.
Day 3: January 30, 2008 Africa to the Rescue!
By the time the third day dawned, things were different. Norway continued to insist that the background document preamble (the “chapeauâ€) HAD to include the fact that preferences of consumers was a reason for regulatory requirements for labeling (the labels exist to inform consumers… duh). The US continued to reject any mention of the consumer’s needs and preferences and said that they were not relevant (Hmm, if not for the consumer, why have any label… the US position is quite batty).
Norway, in the spirit of conciliation, suggested changing “consumers†to “countries†in the statement that said that their preferences were different in different places. The US objected. But so did Nigeria, one of the authors of the Background Paper. “Noâ€, said the Codex Contact Point of Nigeria, a fine lady who really cares about what she is doing at Codex. “No!†, Mrs. Eschiet repeated. “The issue here is not countries. The mandate of Codex is first to protect the health of consumers and it is consumers, not countries, who should be protected here. Let us change the word back to ‘consumers’ †she said. There was nothing the US could do at that point except to state that they did not support this wording. But the US had an even bigger surprise in store. It was just about time to get out those “queasy stomach” prescriptions that Big Pharma likes to sell by the ton.
Member nations started presenting other Codex texts that the US sponsored “background” paper had left out… fancy that, people who didn’t want to inform the consumers not informing their Codex colleagues! And then the delegates began to suggest that they be included!
They began to introduce principles from CCGP, the Codex Committee on General Principles and from other Codex documents which supported the right of countries to make their own decisions, and of consumers to make theirs through adequate information.
The US delegation appeared to become quite unhappy. Sitting where I was I could see the vigorous head-shakes and the vigorous consultations between members of the Delegation including the people from the Department of Commerce, the biotech and grocery manufacturer’s people and others on the delegation whose identify I did not learn. This is not the usual demeanor of the US delegation, to say the least.
Things got more difficult for the no-right-to-know contingent as the session progressed. It was so encouraging to see people from around the world defending the consumer’s right to know.
The Natural Solutions Foundation has long maintained that concerted effort on the part of the developing nations and those who also do not see multinational corporate interests as their own can change the direction of Codex radically. We have also maintained that if this happened, Codex might become the greatest force for health and well being on the planet that the world has ever seen. If what we saw during this meeting, particularly at the end of it, is any indication of the beginning of a trend, we are right!
At the same time, we believe that, left unchanged as a playground for the greed (and worse) of the corporate interests which the US serves in all of its dealings within Codex, the impact of that organization can be disastrous to the lives and well-being of literally billions of people.
Well, what happened today, on the last day of the deliberations of this Working Group, was a confirmation that the first outcome is, in fact, a real possibility. We have been working with developing countries reminding them that, as a group, they are incredibly powerful. Acting in concert, they can control what happens at Codex and act in their own best interest, not be dragged along to act in the best interest of the developed world and the multinational corporations. That is part of the message we have been delivering at Codex meetings in our conferences with the delegates of the developing countries and on the ground, in their home countries. That is, in fact, one of the biggest reasons that we travel to these places and meet with their decision makers. The other, of course, is to promote their use of the Codex Two Step Process so that they can protect their health and avoid crippling World Trade Organization trade sanctions at the same time.
You see, many of the African states, who understand how dangerous GM foods are and fear their impact on their people and on their land, had met and had come up with absolutely brilliant modifications to the “chapeaux†(background document heading) that the US proposed. By taking out many of the future WTO mine fields (that the no-right-to-know gang had included in the initial draft of the document) while quoting from the Codex texts to get the wording precisely correct, they created a preamble to the document that protected their choices for labeling but cut the cheese from the carefully crafted mouse trap. They left out the provision about safety, leaving open the very real possibility that a food could have been brought to market which turns out not to be safe. Other countries supported them strongly. The US said that if this modification were to be adopted by the Working Group they would not be able to support the document and reiterated this several times.
When the group showed no signs of backing down, Dr. Schneeman had what would be classified, in my professional and personal opinion, as a “hissy fitâ€. She became (literally) red in the face and complained strongly to the chair persons that all the hard work of the past year was wasted in the face of this modification and that she was personally upset. And, indeed, she sounded personally upset. In fact, we overheard one member of the US delegation saying as he walked out for a break that the US was “getting slammedâ€. Dr. Schneeman certainly appeared to be aware that she, her paper, the US position and, by my estimate, its future WTO strategy, were, indeed, getting slammed.
That is not the same thing as the American people getting slammed; in fact, if the Right to Know countries succeed, Americans will be closer to having “truthful and not misleading” food labels regarding such matters as GM status, irradiation and the like. Codes, it seems, can be a double edged sword.
As they provided support for the African position, other countries as well noted relevant Codex texts which the US/Canadian/Nigerian background document did not mention, allude to or acknowledge. Principles for safety and labeling, for Risk Assessment of GM foods and for other strategies to protect the consumer’s health were brought forward to give countries latitude to protect its people and not be assaulted legally via trade sanctions. Africa became stronger and stronger and the US lost, it seemed to me, more and more ground.
At the end, the document’s chapeaux and the document itself were left for further consideration at CCFL this coming April in Ottawa. So the battle continues.
With your continuing financial help (urgently needed, by the way – make your generous tax deductible recurring donation at the link below) we can, indeed, continue to support the emergence of these alliances which can give strength to the push back against the multinational agendas. It happened here. It can happen everywhere in Codex. We need your continued support to be able to attend the Codex food labeling committee in Ottawa, where the battle will continue.
Donate here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189
We had the opportunity to speak at significant intensity and length to African delegates and tell them about our International Decade of Nutrition to help them feed themselves and to help them use the Codex Two Step process to make sure that their laws and food supply support health, not profit for the corporations which will exploit them… to death. We passed out our materials, the Codex Book and “Nutricide: the DVD†– the indispensable story of what Codex is, and how it came to be. The updated version contains the special video made specifically to explain the Codex Two Step to Codex delegates. You can find them on our web site, www.healthfreedomusa.org
And some wonderful news, thanks to your support!
The Natural Solutions Foundation was told that it can expect two more official letters of invitation from two more African governments to bring not only the International Decade of Nutrition, our technology and our assistance in producing clean and abundant food to these countries, but to bring our Codex information and strategy as well. We were invited by the host country, Ghana, to the Codex Committee for Africa, CCAfrica, in 2009, a year from now.
As you may recall, we will be in Ghana for a few days and then traveling to another West African country, followed by a middle eastern one and then an East African one for exactly these purposes. We are recording it all for the Codex documentary. You can easily understand that we do not want to advertise our travel plans right now since we do not want the considerable weight of the US’ 5000 lb ‘trade gorilla†to sit on these countries before they have developed their strategy for dealing with that consequence. But there is something that I will share with you. As of today, right here, right now, we do not have enough money to complete the trip. I cannot believe, however, that you will let us down. We need your generous support and we need it now.
Donate here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189
• We need it to build health freedom in the US and the rest of the world.
• We need it to reclaim food for you and your brothers and sisters around the world.
• We need it to change Codex into the most potent health force the world has ever seen.
You can be sure, by the way, that as that happens, the multinationals will try to kill it.
So think carefully about how much your health freedom is worth to you. $1 per week? $10 per week? $100 per month? How about a matching grant? All of your donations to the Natural Solutions Foundation are tax deductible since we are a tax exempt 501 ( c ) (3) organization.
Donate here: http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189
Oh, yes, one other thing: if you donate $100 or more to help fund our Codex/Health Freedom Video, we’ll give you a really nice “Thank you!†in the final version of this made for TV full length documentary! There is a special link on the donation page for that. Our wonderful videographers Mary Beth and Jim are getting some excellent footage and we’ll be able to show you what it is like to be where your heath and freedom are at stake.
Thanks.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Posted on January 11, 2008
The West Australian, January 4, 2008
Here is a helpful and cheery little article sent to me by a friend and correspondent in Western Australia. He knows, as you do, that Genetically Modified (GM) crops are dangerous and that, once mixed with native crops, the foreign, dangerous and untested DNA it inserts into neighboring plants can never be removed from the food supply. Never. Take a look at what the new book “Seeds of Destruction” has to say on the topic. Then please come back here and take a look at this article.
He knows, as do you, that GM crops which “volunteer” (that’s commercial-eze for “invade” or “trespass”) into a farmer’s crop then force the farmer to pay “intellectual property” rights to the owner of the GM DNA (which is patented by the US Patent Office, but not safety tested by the FDA or USDA, or the EPA, for that matter!) He knows, like you, that crops and animals are modified with marker genes which confer resistance to antibiotics and that resistance transfers to the animals and people that eat the crop. He knows that the foreign DNA is not stable in the nucleus: it jumps around from place to place causing totally unexpected and unanticipated impacts. Even when it is stable, it is often indigestible so that instead of being broken down in the GI tract, it passes through cell walls intact causing auto immune problems and being literally woven into the DNA of cells, most especially rapidly dividing ones like your stomach lining, or a fetus’ brain, for example. That DNA is then woven into the genome of its consumer and no one we know has any idea what it does then or 40 years later. DNA, of course, generally causes proteins to be produced. If the proteins have never before been produced, no one knows what they will do now or in the future.
He knows that independent research, which the FDA does not review (but, to be fair, it does not review company safety data, either, before it approves a food for human use) shows that GM foods cause infertility, holes in the GI tract, fetal death and still birth in rats, smaller kidneys and depressed immune function in rat pups which survived (most did not) and a host of other serious problems. He also knows that scientists who dare speak out to even so much as question this technology and the wisdom of using it before it has been shown to be safe are exposed to a vast and well orchestrated disinformation campaign against them and their careers are, literally, not figuratively, over. Their tenure vanishes, so do their job prospects. In fact, I was sitting at the Tiburon CA Health Freedom Leaders meeting which produced the Tiburon Declaration against Forced Vaccination which you and your organization can sign here (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=460) when our hostess got a call from an academic who had published an article merely raising questions about GM foods. His academic appointment at a prestigious university was abruptly terminated and he found that he was blackballed. This professor of Organic and Environmental Agriculture whose specialty is rebuilding damaged ecosystems in the cleanest way possible was out of a job and apparently out of luck. You would think, of course, that such a skill base would be huge demand. Not if Monsanto and the others have anything to say. And they do, they do!
It is by now a truism that Big Pharma runs the FDA. You do know, as does our friend in Australia, that Big Agribiz and Big Biotechna are also massively big players on the food scene (and therefore in Codex Alimentarius – the World Food Code). Recall that Monsanto, a pharmaceutical, chemical and GM giant in its own right, but by no means the biggest in the field, has said that it would own the world’s food supply by 2010. Well, it looks like it is about to own Australia’s wheat.
How to stop this? One good way is to shift to a diet comprised TOTALLY of organic food. Protect yourself and the environment. Protect farmers and their ability to stay on their land. Now get active. Disseminate what you learn in these posts to everyone you know. And ask them to join the Health Freedom eAlerts and become informed, activated and disseminators!
And, of course, don’t forget to donate to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Our friend in Australia knows, and you know, too, that the other side has more money than God but that the Natural Solutions Foundation is raising awareness all over the world about these dangerous foods. For example, we will be at the Codex Working Group in Ghana on January 28-30, 2008 in which dozens of countries will try – again – to prevent the US from shipping, and selling, food with any sort of GM food in it they want with absolutely zero identification on the label. That is US policy in the US and, working for the Biotech industry (who actually have a seat on the US delegation at this meeting and others), if the US has anything to say about it, in the whole world.
Other countries are not so sure they like this. Australia is, however, a bone in the tale of the US dog at Codex and happily endorses anything the US wants at Codex. So here is Australia endorsing potentially deadly food.
Then International Decade of Nutrition, a program of the Natural Solutions Foundation, is designed to give farmers the power to stay on their land, grow their crops without chemicals and then feed themselves and their families with enough economic advantage so that they can stay on the land. We will be in several African countries following the Codex meeting to start projects for the International Decade of Nutrition. Not, I can assure you, with GM crops or animals.
Now for the article. Don’t forget to let others know what you already know: they need to know it!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
Drought-tolerant GM crop trials welcome in WA, says Chance
by Jodie Thomson
Development of genetically modified crops with drought-tolerant properties would be welcomed in WA in order to attract a share of Federal assistance to help farmers copewith climate change, Agricultural Minister Kim Chance said yesterday.
He also signalled that the WA Government’s drought assistance package, which included grants of up to $8000 to affected farmers, could be overhauled and the money poured into development of other plant varieties or farming methods to manage drought.
“We are talking with farmers here in terms of converting the State’s drought assistance to one which actually deals with the longer-term issues,” he said. “I think the cash component of last year’s package was some $7.3 million- you could do an enormous amount of work.”
It follows a revamp in drought-relief payments by the Rudd Government, which would include funding ways to help farmers deal with global warming through using GM crops,changing ploughing methods and specific water management strategies.Mr. Chance said the State Government was supporting drought research progrms such as trials of mustard biofuels crops in the north-eastern Wheatbelt and ploughing techniques.
But research into genetically modified crops, in particularwheat, would be a “nice addition” to those programs already under way and to a joint plant breeding project recently struck with Zhejiang University, the headquarters of the China National Barley Research Centre.
WA was in the last year of its moratorium on coommercial GM crops,due for review at the end of 2008. But Mr. Chance has previously signalled it is unlikely to be lifted until concerns about GM safety and labelling were allayed. GM issues willbe on the agenda when he expects to meet Agriculture Minister Tony Burke this month.
Nationals leader Warren Truss said yesterday farmers had serious concerns about the Federal Government’s drought relief reform.
“the new Rudd Government has confirmed the fears of regional and rural communities around Australia that it will embark on a new bout of slash and burn,” Mr. Truss said.
November 26, 2007
Here is a look a the projects underway right now or being initiated in the near future by the Natural Solutions Foundation.
1. eDeclaration of Planetary Health and Freedom Rights
Giving due reference to the UN Declaration of Rights, The World Health Organization Declaration of Health Rights and the WHO Global strategy for Diet, Physical Activity and Health, the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, the Wilmont Declaration and common law principles such as the The Herbalist’s Charter of Henry VIII, this document sets forth basic health and freedom principles for humanity to serve as a guide for national policy, organizational focus and NGO activity.
2. Protection Against Compulsory Vaccination and Drugging
a. A State By State Compulsory Drugging and Vaccination Exemption Handbook (in eBook and hard copy format) will be available to guide people wishing to apply for exemptions for themselves and other people
b. A Personalized Legal and Medical Consultation Program providing necessary information, guidance and documetation will be available for those whishing to have personalized help in securing exemptions to vaccination and drugging at the State levels.
c. a No Forced Drugging Forum will be created to allow people to share information and ideas to prevent forced drugging and vaccination
3. Legislator’s Health and Freedom eHandbook
In conjunction with the internationally significant Codex Two Step Process developed by our Codex Working Group and building on the existing legislative language which the natural Solutions foundation, in conjunction with advisors from other health and freedom organizations, the Natural Solutions Foundation proposes the creation of a Legislative Handbook to guide Federal and State legislators in reforming and “reframing” the legislative landscape to support health and freedom choices for consumers, purveyors and practitioners. Just as the Natural Solutions Foundation Codex Book (“Codex two Step Process”) () provides an example of the application of the legislative and regulatory framework which nations can use to protect their people and food supply from the errors embodies in Codex, so this handbook would provide a framework from which legislators can work. Other handbooks are in the planning stage.
4. New Media Communication Strategies for Effective Penetration of Information and Options
Tapping into the new internet expertise and creativity available to us, we have developed a program to capitalize on the working principles of the internet to shift from old media communications to new media ones at, as Bill Gates would say, “…the speed of thought…” Simply putting the equivalent of a page of printed matter up on the internet is no longer sufficient for effective communication. These new strategies, which the Natural Solutions Foundation is currently implementing (but which we propose for sharing with other members of the health and freedom community) include:
a. Participatory New Media Health Freedom Symposium where creatives and organizations which need their creativity can come together to create a synergistically productive outcome unforeseen by either segment before the meeting.
b. Social Networking to attract and hold the attention of the internet user community world-wide. Through video, “FaceBook” – like virtual communities, YouTube postings and other “New Media” options, the Natural Solutions Foundation is radically changing its place on the internet and becoming a world leader in Health Freedom New Communications with the highest internet traffic ratings of any health freedom site or organization.
c. Documentary film making can be part of either the old media or the new. We have chosen, with the collaboration Ecological Options Network to make it part of the new media through an innovative programmatic multimedia strategy. Instead of commissioning a full length DVD on Health Freedom and the Codex Agenda, we have instead evolved a program of stand-alone segments in a Health Freedom Library dealing with each of the current “hot button’ issues relevant to health freedom. This will allow the health freedom movement and the wellness industry to have information rapidly and accurately become available allowing us to build our circle of influence’s awareness and energy, generate funds, spur debate and educate decision makers on these issues. After completion of the rapidly generated health Freedom Library modules, the final interactive documentary/eresource will be produced as a permanent part of the new media.
5. Development of the Natural Solutions foundation’s virtual web store, www.Organics4U.org.
Because we see the potential so clearly to simultaneously support the Wellness Industry and the health Freedom Advocates and practitioners who depend on its products through the use of the virtual store that we have created, we would like to develop-p an affiliate program allowing all health freedom organizations who are members of the working coalition to participate and help fund their activities while showing their strong support for clean, unadulterated health products and services. A Supporter’s Emporium is currently being developed to allow other goods and services to become available to the growing member base of the health freedom movement.
6. Defending against CODEX: International Health Freedom Advocacy Coalition of Health Friendly Countries and NGOs
The Natural Solutions Foundation has developed an unparalleled network of health friendly developing countries through their on-the-ground advocacy at Codex and in the home countries of the members of this emerging power center. We have developed exceptional access to health decision makers (e.g., Dr. Laibow addressing 43 Health Ministers in Mombasa, Kenya on HIV and Avian Flue prevention strategies and other related issues as well as Codex implications for their people’s health and longevity). These nations actively seek our participation in their decision making process.
For example, a large and important developing nation sought our legal and medical review of its new supplement regulations and we were able to significantly influence the proposed very low upper limits to alter them to much more liberal ones). The Natural Solutions Foundation has been invited by the entire West African bloc to conduct a series of training and policy meetings in Africa prior to codex meetings to assist that bloc in developing their positions and their choreographed responses to Codex items at the forthcoming meetings. In fact, such a meeting was scheduled which included the Presidents and Ministers of health of all 16 west African nations just prior to the last Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting (July, 2007). Funding was promised but failed to materialize so the meeting was never held. The trust and faith which the emerging pro health collation of developing nations’ places in us was exemplified when, because of scientific information provided by the Natural Solutions foundation to our friendly countries, fluoride was prevented from being approved as an additive in infant formula for healthy babies. This decision was taken through our advocacy, over the vigorous objection of the United States, the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, thus demonstrating the power of the model. and
While many issues pertain most strongly to the developing nations, there is an urgent need for leadership domestically as well as internationally on issues like vaccination, especially compulsory vaccination; other forms of compulsory drugging and limitation of factual information about the health benefits of food and traditional, natural and advanced therapies. The Natural Solutions Foundation has played a pivotal role in alerting and activating consumers and decision makers to these issues.
It is important to note that the Natural Solutions foundation’s continuing presence at Codex has allowed the Health Freedom voice to have a clear window on the interrelationship between adverse policies brought forward in Codex and the implementation of those same adverse policies through domestic regulation and legislation.
7. Creative Legislator Education (incorrectly sometimes called “lobbying”) and Litigation programs to preserve, protect, defend and restore Health and Freedom domestically and internationally.
With sufficient financial support from industry and interested donors, we believe that the legal recourses open to us are of significant potential in establishing case law to solidify health Freedom domestically and internationally.
a. The Natural Solutions Foundation has retained an experienced legislative consultant, Charles Frohman. Ideally, this activity, which currently employs the Trustees of the Foundation for 4 days a month in Washington DC . The relationships being developed have allowed us to engage in productive dialogues on a number of issues with Members of Congress.
b. We have supported the co-sponsorship of legislation to prevent parents from being forced to vaccinate or medicate their children (the importance and timeliness of which was tragically demonstrated on November 17 when 1600 parents were threatened with jail and fines if they failed to vaccinate, or in some cases, re-vaccinate, their children when either the school had lost their records or the parents did not wish to have them vaccinated.
c. The Natural Solutions Foundation has taken the lead in calling for hearings on the process of divesting the FDA of its food regulatory responsibility and numerous legislators are now seeking our input for legislative language for bills of interest to them.
8. Health Freedom Score Card
Working on the conviction that Health Freedom must be a topic of vigorous debate in the Presidential election discussion, the trustees of the natural Solutions Foundation were delighted to comply with the request they received from a Presidential Campaign to draft the Candidate’s Health Freedom Plank. Through a Health Freedom Score Card, which asks 19 tough questions of the Candidates regarding their public health freedom policies we have brought the issue into greater prominence through nearly 100,000 emails and faxes to the Presidential Candidates.
Authorized by the First Amendments, Citizens Petitions are a legal mechanism to challenge government policies. We have initiated a Citizens Petition to force the FAD to abandon its declared harmonization policy with Codex restrictions on nutrient values. About 125,000 Americans have joined the Citizens Petition through signed documents.
Additional Citizens Petitions are in the planning stage.
10. International Decade of Nutrition: Hope for the Word through dynamic empowerment and the dissemination of natural solutions to the ancient twin scourges of mankind: hunger and disease.
Part of the solution to the health freedom threats lies in the Natural Solutions Foundation dynamic and far-reaching “International Decade of Nutrition”. Because we understand that there is enough information already available to solve the world’s hunger problems and to eliminate most of the diseases of under-nutrition and water-born, parasite and other organism-based diseases, the Natural Solutions foundation has inaugurated a program to
a. Reclaim sustainable organic farming and disseminate the necessary advanced and under-utilized, low-tech, high impact technologies to allow farmers to gain the economic advantage to resist Agribiz and stay in their communities and on their farms while growing food without pesticides and other chemicals
b. Apply already existing, but little known technologies to eliminate parasitic and other organism-based diseases without the use of dangerous and expensive pharmaceuticals, pesticides, fungicides and other toxic chemicals through the use of inexpensive, effective and easily managed options
c. Widespread dissemination of information which empowers and reinforces the autonomy of populations currently disenfranchised from access to traditional, natural and advanced therapies.
Conclusion: the time has never been more opportune for strategically significant alliance by serious and successful groups in the health Freedom movement to exploit the opportunities developed by the Natural Solutions Foundation (supported by astute and sophisticated donors who understand the gravity of the threat and the potency of the opportunity which we bring to the planetary community and the domestic one as well).
Health Freedom Requires Healthy Food
The Natural Solutions Foundation is concerned with the quality and health-promoting impact of food, thus our strong opposition to the continuing degradation of the global food supply through Codex and the use of unlabeled and dangerous food components and treatments such as genetically modified foods, pesticides, growth hormones and irradiation. We are also aware that if we are to support a sustainable world and its health needs through healthy and abundant food, we must reclaim food production. For that reason, we have initiated the International Decade of Nutrition (IDN). The premise upon which IDN is based is that we already have enough information, technology and capacity to eliminate world hunger and most world disease. Of course, we do not know everything we will know, but what we know now is sufficient to make these goals an attainable reality using simple, effective and high-impact/low-tech procedures to grow and reclaim food production and help local farmers sustain themselves, their families and their communities with clean, inexpensive and healthy food.
We are currently in discussion with a leading-edge company to provide one of those technologies to a number of pilot projects in the desert, the jungle, temperate climates, etc., to field test a safe, sustainable, and effective method to increase crop yield by as much as 6 times, nutrient density by the same amount, reduce water usage substantially and virtually eliminate crop loss post harvest.
These means will allow subsistence and community-based farmers to stay on their land, feed their communities with the clean, chemical free food they grow, support their families and resist the forces of the industrialization of the world’s food supply: Codex, genetically modified crops and animals, chemical farming and their combined pressure to take away the land and livelihood.
In February of 2008 General Stubblebine and Dr. Laibow will visit African countries to initiate agricultural projects using these high tech options and are in discussion with a Thai NGO for similar pruposes.
Here is what the Financial Post has to say about the new shortage of food caused by the use of farmland for bio fuels:
Forget oil, the new global crisis is food
BMO strategist Donald Coxe warns credit crunch and soaring oil prices will pale in comparison to looming catastrophe
Alia McMullen, Financial Post Published: Friday, January 04, 2008
Corn grows in a farm field near Seneca, Illinois. Rising demand for grain to make fuel, food and livestock feed has helped push the prices of corn and soybeans.Scott Olson/Getty ImagesCorn grows in a farm field near Seneca, Illinois. Rising demand for grain to make fuel, food and livestock feed has helped push the prices of corn and soybeans.
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group said at the Empire Club’s 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto on Thursday.
“It’s not a matter of if, but when,” he warned investors. “It’s going to hit this year hard.”
Mr. Coxe said the sharp rise in raw food prices in the past year will intensify in the next few years amid increased demand for meat and dairy products from the growing middle classes of countries such as China and India as well as heavy demand from the biofuels industry.
“The greatest challenge to the world is not US$100 oil; it’s getting enough food so that the new middle class can eat the way our middle class does, and that means we’ve got to expand food output dramatically,” he said.
The impact of tighter food supply is already evident in raw food prices, which have risen 22% in the past year.
Mr. Coxe said in an interview that this surge would begin to show in the prices of consumer foods in the next six months. Consumers already paid 6.5% more for food in the past year.
Wheat prices alone have risen 92% in the past year, and yesterday closed at US$9.45 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.
At the centre of the imminent food catastrophe is corn – the main staple of the ethanol industry. The price of corn has risen about 44% over the past 15 months, closing at US$4.66 a bushel on the CBOT yesterday – its best finish since June 1996.
This not only impacts the price of food products made using grains, but also the price of meat, with feed prices for livestock also increasing.
“You’re going to have real problems in countries that are food short, because we’re already getting embargoes on food exports from countries, who were trying desperately to sell their stuff before, but now they’re embargoing exports,” he said, citing Russia and India as examples.
“Those who have food are going to have a big edge.”
With 54% of the world’s corn supply grown in America’s mid-west, the U.S. is one of those countries with an edge.
But Mr. Coxe warned U.S. corn exports were in danger of seizing up in about three years if the country continues to subsidize ethanol production. Biofuels are expected to eat up about a third of America’s grain harvest in 2007.
The amount of U.S. grain currently stored for following seasons was the lowest on record, relative to consumption, he said.
“You should be there for it fully-hedged by having access to those stocks that benefit from rising food prices.”
He said there are about two dozen stocks in the world that are going to redefine the world’s food supplies, and “those stocks will have a precious value as we move forward.”
Mr. Coxe said crop yields around the world need to increase to something close to what is achieved in the state of Illinois, which produces over 200 corn bushes an acre compared with an average 30 bushes an acre in the rest of the world.
“That will be done with more fertilizer, with genetically modified seeds, and with advanced machinery and technology,” he said.