Food Safety: Codex Backs World GM Experiment - Could AFRICA Be Control?
Food is of crucial importance to good health. The international food code, also called CODEX ALIMENTARIUS, was set up in the 1960's, ostensibly to promote the safety of foods. But recently, Codex has come up with an extraordinary piece of advice: "Be careful about those nutrients." A Codex Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplement Guideline adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome in July this year says just that.
On the other hand, Codex has consistently refused to get a handle on the most widespread and mind boggling experiment endangering not only world food safety but the sustainability of agriculture itself - the genetic modification of our staple foods. The experiment has been covertly pushed into the field and into our kitchen by the giant biotech companies. There is no international convention to label genetically modified foods at consumer level, much less to scientifically evaluate their consequences for our health. Studies are rigged by industry and obligingly endorsed by Codex. When the UK commissioned a full review on the effects of the consumption of GM foods, results were so bad they were suppressed and the researcher dismissed.
Eileen Dannemann, director of the National Coalition of Organized Women points out the great contradiction in the actions of Codex Alimentarius. On the one hand we see a "warning" on simple and clearly vital nutrients, on the other we witness complete complacency on genetic modification. A scientific experiment, to merit that name, needs a control group. There is no control for the genetic modification experiment...
GMOs and the movie "Future of Food"
Loss of Access to Vitamins and Dietary Supplements
Every one involved in CODEX and Dietary supplements must see the movie, The Future of Food. A copy can be gotten by emailing sara@lilyfilms.com.Here you will see that the CODEX has not, by one iota, concerned themselves with "the safety of food" as is their # 1 dictum. CODEX has not even labeled GMO food in the last 10 years. CODEX has not challenged the safety of the most mind boggling, paradigm shifting new FOOD technology of this epoch (including concerns about cloned beef, unlabeled at the consumer level) yet, it pays inordinate attention to vitamins.
You must ask WHY
Why is the attention on the safety of innocuous vitamins and not GMO food? Why?
Health advocates, anti-CODEX, CAFTA, NAFTA, FTAA, WTO activists who are addressing some amorphous entity "out there" fail to focus on the correct target.
The target is the United States. The United States is covertly in charge of CODEX. You must realize who is in charge when the steps leading to labeling of US based patented GMOs have not progressed in 10 years amid the erstwhile cries of EU. Currently still no progress; still no labeling and, what's more, it is now too late. The EU has been infiltrated and polluted as part of a strategy called "Acreage Conversion" by Monsanto.
Why did Congress pass CAFTA with its phytosanitary rules? Why? Because the US must appear to join the organizations it creates in order to take charge of managing world trade. Why is Mike Taylor's (Monsanto's lawyer who revolved in and out of the FDA as assistant to David Kessler and brought GMOs to world prominence) wife, a delegate on CODEX dietary supplements?
Because of CODEX non-labeling of GMOs, 185 million acres and more have been covertly planted around the world. It is my intuitive belief that we threw European bio pharmaceuticals (German model) the vitamin bone in return for our continued dominance over non-labeled GMO foods which is the bigger piece of the pie (although most corporations, foreign or otherwise must work closely under US patents). Why did Paul Bremer change Iraq intellectual property laws to preclude the use of traditional seed planting for, instead, genetically engineered seed agriculture? Why is there a State model bill initiated by the national, DC based, corporate run legislative council, ALEC (see ALECWATCH) running across the nation that takes away local control of agricultural seed?
Dietary supplements, enzymes, etc, are increasingly being made from GMO sources and with genetic engineering technology, unlabeled. Without Source labeling you will never know. Begin shining the flashlight on GMOs by DEMANDING SOURCE LABELING, in particular, the use of genetic technology or food source of GMO foods. It is very deceptive to expect people to buy "natural" vitamins derived from GMO sources to cure disease "naturally" when GMO technology is considered a hostile violation of natural law.
The conflict of interest is clear. CODEX, with regard to Vitamins and dietary supplements, is pulling off a huge deception and distraction. Bio Pharmaceuticals, Biotech Corporations are behind these initiatives with the complicity of Congress and the administration. The United States intends to own the entire world food supply. Now, that is a major national resource. Try to stop that!
My intuition is that the only way it will be stopped is by nature Herself... a global agricultural holocaust … in the form of soybean rust ... ecological chaos (i.e. monarch butterfly), etc. I point out that if biotechnology is really science which is their clarion call, then where is the "control group"? It is scientifically imperative that the scientific model be adhered to. We must insist on adhering to scientific methods. DEMAND THE CONTROL GROUP.
I recommend that the world biotech control group be AFRICALet's make a sustainable AFRICA, the world’s GMO free zone in case of an imminent agriculture collapse (IAC) caused by this highly risky technology. In addition there should be sub zones all over the United States, in every state … that is local, sustainable, organic farming. These should be the control group and subsidized by government and Biotech industry. Also, the land grant University must be funded as well as the new biotech departments. We must keep traditional agriculture interest alive. Did you know that 90% of Iowa soybean fields are now genetically engineered? What will happen to our food source when agriculture collapses? Think about it as you swallow the GMO pill!
See also:The Financial Express - India: Codex should address ethical, ecological concerns on GM foods
Codex Alimentarius and the GM Threat
... there now exists a very real risk that GM foods could eventually be forced onto our dinner plates via Codex and the WTO. Worse still however, this process is already well underway.GM Watch
latest information and comment on the genetic modification global experimentIndependent Science Panel
making the case for a GM free worldGM Soya Disaster in Latin America
Hunger, Deforestation and Socio-Ecological DevastationScrambling & Gambling with the Genome
Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception Spilling the Beans, July 2005WTO rules against EU in pivotal GM case
2/8/2006 - The EU and six member states broke trade rules by barring entry to GM crops and foods, according to the WTO but will the ruling change anything?Food & Water Watch . Org
We are very excited to announce the release of the Meatrix 2: Revolting! This spoof of the Matrix movies details the horrors of dairy factory farms, through the adventures of Leo the pig and Moopheus the cow. Entertaining, adventurous, and informative, this short animated film by our partner organization Sustainable Table is worth watching. Check out http://www.themeatrix2.comFor those who have not seen the original cartoon - The Meatrix - it can be found here:
http://www.themeatrix.com/- - -
Thanks to GM WATCH daily
US may press Africa on GMOs, Africans vow to resist
Staff and agencies
By Shapi ShacindaReuters, 8 February, 2006
LUSAKA - The U.S. may push Africa to accept gene-altered (GMO) food now that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled the EU broke rules by barring GMO foods and seeds, but Africans vowed on Wednesday to resist.
"We do not want GM (genetically modified) foods and our hope is that all of us can continue to produce non-GM foods," Zambian Agriculture Minister Mundia Sikatana told Reuters in Lusaka.
"The decision by the WTO does nothing to change our stand in this matter."
The WTO ruled on Tuesday that the European Union and six member states had broken trade rules by barring entry to genetically modified crops and foods.
A U.S. trade official confirmed findings of the preliminary ruling, contained in a confidential report sent only to the parties. The closely watched verdict addressed a complaint brought against the EU by leading GMO producers the United States, Argentina and Canada.
The European Union's opponents asserted that the moratorium, which Brussels argued was never official, hurt their exports and was not based on science.
Manufacturers of the biotech seeds, designed to increase yields and resist pests better than normal seeds, maintain they are safe for human consumption.
European consumers, fearing the effects of "Frankenstein foods" have resisted them. Even African countries facing food shortages, such as Zambia, have refused to accept gene-altered food donations, arguing their safety had not been ascertained.
Those countries that take in GMO-food demand stringent certifications and milling before it arrives on their borders.
Regional heavyweight South Africa is one of the few countries on the continent to embrace the controversial technology.
Campaigners and analysts saw the U.S. using the World Trade Organization ruling to press Africans to accept GMO food imports on the basis that Europe, which has usually backed the obstinate African position, will itself have to take them.
"Politically, I think it is very clear that the U.S. will try and use this case to force GMOs into African markets. American industry is already saying that the result is a signal to the rest of the world," Daniel Mittler, trade adviser at Greenpeace International, told Reuters by telephone.
"They are implying that while the EU may be able to resist an outlawing of national bans on GMOs, developing countries will not and will have to open their markets," Mittler said.
Africans argue that better technology to increase irrigation, more widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides, and improved monitoring of market trends will help deliver improved harvests and defeat hunger.
"It is obvious to everyone that the U.S. will interpret the WTO ruling as a message to Africans that it is now time to eat GMOs and stop the noise-making ... after all, the EU has been put on a leash in the matter," said an agriculture consultant in Malawi, one of the
countries that often require food aid.But Zambian minister Sikatana said there was no looking back: "We made a decision based on facts and those facts have not changed. We hope no one in Africa feels they have to change their views based on that ruling, it will not do."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Thursday September 15 2005
updated on Tuesday October 19 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/09/15/food_safety_codex_backs_world_gm_experiment_could_africa_be_control.htm
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