ANH-USA Victory! Supplements Are Exempted From Codex Language in Food Safety Bill

The FDA Food Modernization Act (S. 510), also referred to as the “Food Safety” bill, has been modified to exempt dietary supplements from language that otherwise creates a slippery slope toward U.S. harmonization with Codex Alimentarius. ANH-USA worked to protect the natural health community from this dangerous provision that threatened access to high quality, therapeutic supplement doses by working with key senators to modify the language, now for the second time.
The most worrisome provision of the bill initially required the Food and Drug Agency (FDA) to recommend that U.S. foreign Herbal supplementstrading partners harmonize with Codex. This odd language was no doubt very intentional. How could we recommend harmonization to other countries if we rejected it for the U.S.? So in effect we were committing ourselves to a much more restrictive regulatory regime for supplements.
As the Senate moved forward with the Food Safety bill, Senator Harkin (D-IA), committee chair, working closely with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), promised to see what could be done to make absolutely clear this legislation was not intended to impact our access to dietary supplements. At that time, Senator Harkin modified the Codex provision, asking the FDA to consider “whether and how” to recommend U.S. foreign trading partners harmonize. This was a very important change and a tremendous show of support from both Senators, but we were still concerned that the inclusion of Codex language in the bill could be used to support future U.S. harmonization with Codex standards on dietary supplements.
ANH-USA worked with our allies in the Senate over the past several months to include additional language providing stronger protection for supplements. New language has now been added specifically stating, “Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the regulation of dietary supplements.”
The Codex Alimentarius was initially developed to establish international food safety standards and regulate ingredients of food products. However, there is great concern that if the U.S. harmonizes with Codex standards, which are expected to follow Europe’s increasing ban on supplements, our access to supplements will be lost and even our food standards may be compromised. Although ANH-USA considers the new exemption a huge victory, it only applies to dietary supplements. The U.S. is still at risk of harmonization with other Codex food standards.
ANH-USA is especially grateful to Senators Harkin and Hatch for their leadership, continued dedication to the natural health community, and most recently, their show of support protecting our supplements from Codex harmonization. The Senate is expected to take up the Food Safety bill any day now. As the legislative process moves forward we will keep our members up to date on our efforts and where appropriate, we’ll ask for your help to protect supplements from increased government intrusion. The House version of the Food Safety bill, already passed, is especially worrisome. We will continue to make every effort, with your help, to ensure that the House version does not become law.

51 comments

  1. Oh MY! That does sound as if our freedom is not negatively impinged by otherwise “compromised” individuals in the sense department. Couldn’t think that it would ever be doubted that some would try to infringe upon freedom of health !

    1. I only learned of this today and am very happy to know that the government is not able to, once again, get its fingers into very personal and private decisions that the general public has every right to make for themselves.

    2. I’m not surprised considering that 97% of the supplements on the market are made by big pharma. You think your vitamins are exempt? Just double check the label and if it says “Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)” it’s from big pharma or “Calcium (as Calcium Carbonate)”. You are not really getting calcium. The fact that they put the “as” shows that they are acting “as” the food form when really they are the isolate form. Don’t believe me. Check it out yourself. There is a great PDF page a friend showed me which shows the Merck index of where the “as” stuff comes from. Check it out on the home page of grownbynature.com.

  2. At last some commonsense is being applied. Keep up the excellent and important work.

  3. Can you help the cherry and walnut producers initiate a class action lawsuit against the FDA, for, among other things, violation of the Constitutionally guaranteed free speech, as long as it is not libelous or endangering anyone? We need to go on the offensive against food fascism! Jon

  4. Great job! It’s nice to know you guys are fighting to support natural health care. Know that you efforts are very much appreciated!

  5. Whew! Let us know what we can do for future battles. Would appreciate if you could supply direct links and thank yous for Senators Harkin and Hatch.
    Thanks for spearheading this movement,
    Beth

  6. Codex Alimentarius Summarized in 7 Points
    http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=157
    HealthFreedomUSA.org, the website of the Natural Solutions Foundation, is beholden to no one: our only interest is health freedom. Rima E. Laibow, MD, successful natural medicine physician since the 1970s, has studied 16,000 pages of Codex documentation. Her conclusion is that people who say that Codex is “consumer protection”, “voluntary”, or “harmless” are, at best, seriously mistaken.

  7. I am so excited that our government put the good of the people first vs money and big pharma!

  8. Hey Folks!
    When you first contacted us about the bogus legislation, a form was prepared so that we could voice our opposition to our congressmen. On that same written protest form you provided a vehicle to send a copy of the message to the local newspapers.
    You should do the same thing with this victory. Our local newspaper the Northwest Herald has a “200-word posting limit” on all editorial comments. None the less, do not let up the pressure to keep the public informed about these critical nutritional supplement attacks and unified public victories. The more people that know about your good work and success rate; the better prepared we will be for the next blatant attack against our God-given freedom to choose the proper nutritional supplements for ourselves or loved ones. Bless you, Peter

    1. Amen and Selah, Peter – and ANH-INTERNATIONAL,
      Deborah – You folks are carrying the yeoman’s job in what you do. Not only in doing it but endea voring to keep us informed of actions taken, progress and outcomes.
      Folks, we need to take this a whole lot more seriously. It occurs to me that we need to inform MD’s, whose practices deal mostly in prescription drugs, that they are getting a bad name among the public. Among the reasons patients feel more and more leery of conventional medicine is that the FDA is corrupted by and acting deceitfully on behalf of the pharmaceuticals industries and food companies. The MD’s may be unaware that these things occur. But, since the MD’s are at the end of the line for prescribing and distribution they, the MD’s, are being blamed for the huge costs, injustices and damage to people’s lives. It is measureable in the numbers of patients flocking to natural healers and health workers. It will continue until patients stop dieing by many HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS each year. If they begin to get the message we’ll all be able to sleep more easy.

  9. I would like to have a list of all Congressmen that support dietary supplements, and those that don’t so we would know who to vote for and which campaigns to support.

    1. Man Oh Man, what and idea. Put it up somewhere on the site as an easily accessible, continually available, printable (for us to distribute to churches, friends, voters groups, etc.,) reference and reminder at election time. (Make sure to include this website name and e-mail address on it where you got it.) Then each elected Senator and Representative could easily be reminded that all of us have their voting positions on Food, Supplement, Drug and Health issues in our hands.
      Great idea Bonnie, keep them coming – Let’s go get ’em, Girl.

  10. I might mention that in France it is illegal to sell flax seed oil, a food that I eat (raw) practically every day. I do not know the reason for this prohibition, unless there is a concern that some cooks might use it as cooking (frying) oil. But it does show how crazy some regulations can be. One website (http://www.ricela.com/pages.php?linkid=3) says that regulations in France, Belgium and Chile limit the linolenic acid content of oils to be used for frying to 2%. It could be that flaxseed oil exceeds this limit if used for frying, but that would be no reason to deprive everyone of its benefits in the raw state.

    1. Very slim likelihood it would have anything to do with cooking. Flaxseed oil is a very healthful omega 3 essential oil. The “essential” part means your body can not make it. Without it you will get sick…and you will suffer greatly (which will drive you to doctors for relief)….and you will die early (which will require heroic efforts from the medical teams to extend your life – very expensively). Most doctors will not treat you with the simple oils you need to replenish what becomes deficient in your body. If treated with the necessary oil you will soon completely recover with no need for extensive exams, testing, scans, follow-ups, medications, tracking, surgeries, devices and repetitive visits. For that reason powerful people have been given authority to “protect” you from people who want to treat you with “unproven and unscientific” therapies or (inexpensive) products like flaxseed oil.

  11. This is excellent news, but we must keep an eye on other aspects of Codex. It never pays to get too comfortable.

  12. A DEFEAT for Big Pharma? NOT possible with our thoroughly corrupted bought and paid for Congress. And how does Codex Alimentarius deal with the even more deadly GMO’s brought to you courtesy of Monsanto and Cohorts? An unholy and heinous alliance between the Pharmaceutical Industry, the Chemical Industry and the FDA? We the People don’t stand a chance. Don’t get Mad. Get Even. Vote the Bastards OUT of office. Every single Congressional Incumbent, every single election, regardless of Party. You want Change? You want to stop the wholesale destruction of our inalienable rights by stomping all over OUR beloved Constitution? You want to end the plunder of our Great Middle Class by the Banksters and the powerful, wealthy, greedy Corporate Elite on Wall Street? Vote the Bastards OUT. THAT they understand, Three elections, Just six short years. And they will be on their knees to us pleading for our forgiveness. And WE THE PEOPLE will have taken our Beloved Country back where it belongs. Pssst. Just DO it. ALL of them. NO exceptions.

  13. I do agree that some supplement claim to be natural but in fact made of numerous artificial stuff and I do agree that supplements can be taken under the control of FDA although I do strongly believe that FDA is no longer working for public honest organization but rather FDA is heavily corrupted company aiming interest making more, more and more money by manipulating with English language.
    Therefore I have asked you numerous time to create from members of independent and honest scientists, lawyers and medical specialists-who are passionate and have money to contribute to work together and oppose private companies such Monsanto, FDA, WHO and so on. They are getting richer and richer and therefore always have money to higher high standard of lawyers to defend their false evidences. Please go to http://www.maufacturedillusions.com to find out where we are lead by Illuminati. By being informed about what have been planned and witnessing how things flow in our world life I see clear that their plans work so far perfectly. They are not after populations health but against and total control. These companies already bought several vitamin and mineral companies and they will soon poison us by added more toxins in our food, deplete soil completely of minerals. Please dont wait and please dont think that there is room left for justice and truth JUST FIGHT, DON’T LET THEMGO DEEPER AS IT IS ALREADY LATE

  14. The Food Safety bill itself needs to be radically changed and should NOT be passed as is!
    Please, people, call your representatives and let them know that you are NOT in favor of this
    Food Safety bill as it is far too much regulation and we do not need harmonization from government
    regulators who understand little, if anything, about cutting edge nutrition!
    PLEASE – silence and apathy will have us further controlled by an ill-informed FDA and an ill-informed Congress.

  15. Dear Sir:
    I feel that the FDA has a full time job dealing with some of the known and dangerous FDA approved drugs being available OVC. EXAMPLE. Acetaminophen. Tylenol is linked to 50 percent of all liver failure in the US. It is linked to several other serious health problems not mentioned.
    Leave the Supplement Industry alone unless serious problems are proven.
    Sincerely
    Will leverett

  16. Codex will turn out to be extremely harmful
    Go to YouTube.com and search Codex Alimentarius and/or Dr Rima Laibow.
    Any politician who votes for Codex should face treason charges.

  17. Great job on getting the supplement language added. But you also need to be working on making sure this S.510 international bill is not put into American law. It will destroy my ability to grow my own organic foods at my premises. It will actually take away organic from farming altogether. Small farmers will go out of business through financial regulations that will be cost prohibitive. This bill stinks & is just another way the ruling elite are trying to control us.

  18. To be straightforward, I do not trust the word of these Senators that wording has been added to this bill (S.510) to protect supplements from FDA regulation! We need to push for a separate law forbidding the FDA from regulating against dietary herbs and supplements. As in the recently passed horrible healthcare bill, there is so much written into it as part of the dealmaking to get it passed, that no one knows about it until it becomes law. Then it is too late. I fear such language could easily be inserted into S.510 and we will only find out when the bill is passed. We need a separate bill designed specifically to protect natural herbs and supplements from government regulation (ultimately confiscation) as we see in many European countries and in Australia. Don’t trust the word of Senators and Congressmen, get it in writing!

  19. Thank you for advocating to protect vitamins and supplements–keeping them out of the hands of powerful corporate monopolies with seemingly very dark agendas! Thank you!

  20. Bill left out one important safety issue……the monitoring of the purity of supplements imported from Asia
    specifically the Peoples Republic. Ask Sen. Hatch and Harkin to include this in further tuning of our response
    to NWO attempts to standardize and control our right to self medication with natural vitamins,
    minerals and amino’s,………the latest safety issue,Lead contaminated Chinese flouride poisoning US domestic water supplies and the nessessary “Chealation “of all returning Gulf Vets for depleted uranium and heavy metal contamination.

  21. Good news for a change! But it sounds like this initial victory may only be a bone thrown to us to distract us and make us go away. The forces of evil do not rest…and neither should we. All of us should continue to be vigilant to protect our health choice freedoms, dietary supplements, minerals, medicinal herbs, and the whole ball of bee’s wax! With Obamacare now in place, it is most vital.

  22. It is difficult to express the depth of my gratitude for your efforts in protecting our access to dietary supplements. I have a strong interest in this particular legislation because with the help of dietary supplements, my husband’s life was saved from hepatitis C. He is now healthy and no longer has this disease. Again, thank you very much for your work in keeping dietary supplements available for those of us who need access to supplements to protect our health.

  23. Why all the restrictions on dietary supplements? The pharmaceutical drugs are the ones that are
    truly dangerous. The body cannot tolerate chemical drugs and they have severs side effects. In
    1939 I almost died from sulfa. It made my kidneys hemorrhage and I have suffered ever since.
    I am 76 years old and I never take prescription drugs. They are too dangerous and more addictive than street drugs.

  24. So.. this is a victory because supplements won’t be included, even though the rest of the bill will move forward to screw over the American food supply? And trust me, anything that Senator Orrin Hatch is involved with is patently evil.

  25. What a shame they are not really concerned about the real dangerous ingredients in our food such as HFCS that has been linked to diabetes and metabolic syndrome and hydrogenated oils or what I like to call rancid oil that oxidize your good cholesterol.
    How dare anyone take away the supplements that have to be taken because our food has no food value. Tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables are mass produced and picked before they are fully ripe therefore not having any food value. Chickens are abused increasing their cortisol level that we absorb into our bodies when we eat them. Our fish and cattle fed an abnormal diet such as corn. If it’s not healthy for them it certainly isn’t for us who are going to eat it.
    Antibiotics given to these sick and diseased animals we eat and it is no wonder when we need antibiotics they no longer work.
    The old saying, ” you are what you eat”, is still true. I worry about the mentality that treats animals as less than a living breathing animal. I love meat so don’t get me wrong that I am saying don’t eat meat, but I want to eat cows and chickens that at least had a life and are not pumped full of toxins and hormones. It is no wonder 9 year old girls look like they are 21 and already have breasts of an adult woman. The are being fed those hormones through the chicken they eat.
    I am considering raising my own chickens for eggs and only buy grass fed beef. I already stopped eating fish.
    These people who make these decisions are ultimately going to be held responsible for everyone who is injured by their decisions on all of these additives and restriction of any supplements that can help improve your health such as antioxidants.
    I don’t need anyone to take care of my health or protect me. It is my responsibility, to read and protect myself. I am a grown up with a brain and I live in the United States that is supposed to protect individual rights given By my creator and not the government who seems to have nothing better to do than harass Americans about their vitamins while THEY kill people with untested drugs that all end up in stupid lawsuits. LET THE BUYER BEWARE. PERIOD. AS LONG AS THE LABEL GIVES ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS WE ARE ALL CAPABLE OF DECIDING WHAT TO EAT. Thanks for listening.

  26. That’s great news – although the caveat of what food “standards” will apply remains uncertain. Thanks for being on top of this ANH – good job!

  27. Thjis is the End Game–we must take a life or death stand and make it clear there is no compromise on Earth with our right and our mandate to have healthy food and supplements and not be regulated by artificial and anti-health, fraud-based, and corporately suspect standards of any kind! There is no compromise and we must be extremelyi active to remove energetically any senator or rep who is half-hearted or fuzzy about the need to do this! The argument goes like this: we will make sure you are not reelected and are very unpopular in every district or region in your state if you do not work energetically to defend and EXPAND the people’s rights to healthy products in therapeutic quantities without restriction from any government entity, SO HELP US GOD! NO COMPROMISE WITH INSANITY FRAUD AND ORGANIZED YET FRAIL EFFORTS TO DESTROY HUMAN KIND THROUGH ADVERSE FOOD AND PISS-ANT LOW-DOSE SUPPLEMENTS HANDED OUT BY THE TOTALLY NUTRITIONALLY IGNORANT MEDICAL DRUGGING COMMUNITY’! iIT’S NOT A MATTER OF COMPROMISE, YOU SEE IT’S OUR RIGHT AND NOT ANY ONE ELSE’S TO EVEN BEGIN TO MESS WITH THAT RIGHT. FIRST OF ALL, WE SHOULD BE TRYING TO PUT MCCAIN OUT OF OFFICE, THEN ON TO OTHER GOALS! TAKE CARE HEALTH-SEEKERS!

  28. Elwood Richard of Now Foods suggested I subscribe to your newsletter. How does one do this? Jack

  29. I agree w/ Jon is there any way that the cherry and walnut growers could iniate a class action suit against the fda? we Definately need to go on the offensive against food fascism… have you all out there read the book FDA Failure, Deception, Abuse from the Life Extension Foundation.. it’s worth the read . but after you do , there’s no doubt ,that at the VERY least, reform should start w/ this gov’t agency.. scary and sad the level of corruption in this agency.

  30. REMAIN VIGILENT. Their tactic is to ALWAYS go for more than they think they can get, then scale back, then next time the same. Stepping stones to TYRANNY. This is a psychologically proven scientifically designed tactic. Don’t think it’s a victory necessarily. Remember, next time it will be something else, with some newly fabricated pretext or “need” for our “benefit” and “saftey” or the “economy” or some such other psychopathic rhetoric. So wake up, and stay vigilant, the enemies of freedom are regrouping always, and they are always 3 steps ahead of us. Until we get wise as to WHO THE HECK is constantly driving this kind of tyrannical agenda and policy forward, they will always have the drop on us. Wake up and realise: it’s the banking cartel that has taken over corporations and government and society for the last 100 years who want total global homogeny under a technocratic dictatorship.

Comments are closed.