A RON PAUL MOMENT AT CODEX

by Scott Tips, JD
December 3, 2011
NewsWithViews.com


Like Ron Paul in the political debates, Codex tries to ignore NHF delegate

NHF delegate Scott Tips finally gets a chance to speak the following day after Codex Chairwoman ignores several NHF requests to take the floor on the issue of Saturated Fats.

The Conspiracy of Silence is not just limited to the political arena. For those in the know, it is as obvious as the nose on one’s face that the Mainstream Media ignores top American presidential candidate Ron Paul in favor of their corrupt list of controlled talking-head candidates. A recently leaked internal memo from CBS News revealed a deliberate policy of sharply restricting Ron Paul’s airtime during the last Republican presidential candidate debate. Out of 90 minutes of debate, Ron Paul was given 89 seconds to talk!

So, too, with Codex evidently. At the 33rd session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU), which just ended its week-long meeting on Friday, November 18th, its new Chairwoman, Pia Noble, has a definite problem in allowing the International NonGovernmental Organizations (INGOs) such as the National Health Federation (NHF) to speak.

Kindred Spirits

Coming from the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMLEV), Dr. Noble, who succeeded to her Codex position upon the retirement of Dr. Rolf Grossklaus two years ago, finds kindred spirits in her fellow government bureaucratic delegates. Members of the same club, they share the same secret handshake of delight in crafting people controls. But INGOs? Well, those bozos are just gumming up the works and slowing down the adoption of Codex guidelines and standards. Nuisances, they are, really. Okay, they can fill up the bleachers at the meetings because it looks good; but they absolutely must behave themselves. Oh, Dr. Noble’s mind is so easy to read. After all, actions speak louder than smiling words.

Dr. Grossklaus, whom NHF had criticized over the long years, actually did the World a favor when he held back the Nutrient Reference Value (NRV) standard at the 2009 CCNFSDU meeting, at the instance of NHF, India, and Iraq. That was the standard that was to have dumbed down vitamin-and-mineral NRVs to absurdly low levels. Grossklaus could have allowed those standards to advance, over our stubborn objections; but he didn’t, and he is to be thanked for that. He also had no problem generally in recognizing all of the INGOs to take the floor and speak. In that respect, he was not much different than most of the other Committee chairmen and -women. He might have squabbled with the NHF delegate, but at least its view was often allowed to be expressed. Not so with Pia Noble.

The Threat

NHF has already shown itself to be a threat at these Codex meetings. Acknowledged as being rather outspoken, NHF started off its participation in the meeting on Monday, November 14th, with a bang, speaking out at every turn in favor of broadening the Terms of Reference (i.e., mandate) given to the Electronic Working Group (subcommittee) for establishing NRV standards for nutrients so as to include science other than just FAO/WHO scientific findings. Most delegates – still uncritically genuflecting at the altar of FAO/WHO pseudo-science – defer to their science in adopting numbers to insert into such standards. Forgotten is the great World of Science that beckons beyond the narrow cultish confines of FAO/WHO science. NHF’s view is that when Codex considers adopting any standards, it should look far and wide at all pertinent science, whether it comes from FAO/WHO or not.

Amazingly, after all, NHF’s near solitary and obstinate opposition to the vitamin-and-mineral NRVs back in 2009 had killed their momentum on the path towards adoption. But for that opposition, they would, by now, have been well along the 8-step track to adoption by Codex. The 2010 Committee meeting in Santiago, Chile saw even more opposition and a request by the Committee for FAO/WHO to come up with a report on NRVs, which they did just in time for this November 2011 Committee meeting.

So, as I sat there on Monday and leafed through the rather impressive 39-page FAO/WHO report, and listened while the WHO representative presented the report and the Committee then discussed it, I suddenly realized that we were all here, spending time on this, because I had reacted so strongly and persistently two years ago. NHF had caused this. It felt good.

The CCNFSDU created an Electronic Working Group charged with reporting to the Committee at next year’s meeting with its recommendations for NRVs for vitamins and minerals. The NHF will be part of this eWG. This means that – for a third year in a row – no dumbed-down vitamin-and-mineral NRVs were adopted at Codex.[1]

So Silence the Threat

Later, the Committee took up the issue of NRVs for Saturated Fatty Acids.[2] Adhering to the outdated views first espoused by the makers of Crisco in 1911, when they wanted to shove butter and lard off grocery-store shelves in favor of their new-fangled invention, Crisco (a shortened name form for “Crystallized Cottonseed Oilâ€