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The food crisis begins to bite
- Text size
Jerome Taylor and Andrew Buncombe
The Independent
April 27, 2008
CHINA
The roaring economy and an ever expanding middle class have had a particularly profound effect on food prices, particularly rice and wheat. Because of industrialisation, rice planting fell from 33 million hectares in 1983 to 29 million by 2006 and China now imports more than ever, placing a major strain on international supplies. Despite freezing prices, rampant inflation means the cost of food has risen by 21 per cent this year.
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USA
In a land where supposedly the rich are thin and the poor are overweight, one of the largest cash and carry stores, Sam’s Club, announced this week it would limit customers to take home a maximum of four bags of rice. The move came a day after Costco Wholesale Corp, the biggest US warehouse-club operator, limited bulk rice purchases in some stores and warned that customers had begun stockpiling certain goods.
NORTH KOREA
Even during times of relative stability, North Korea has shown itself to be inept at feeding its population. During the 1990s a famine caused by poor harvests killed an estimated two to three million people. On Wednesday the World Food Programme warned that the country could again be plunged into famine because of the spiralling cost of rice and there was an estimated shortfall of 1.6 million tons of rice and wheat.
EGYPT
Up to 50 million Egyptians rely on subsidised bread and this year Cairo has estimated it will cost $2.5bn. But with the price of wheat rocketing in the past year there are fears the country has plunged into a “bread crisis”. Queues are now double the length they were a year ago. Inflation hit 12.1 per cent in February with prices for dairy goods up 20 per cent and cooking oils 40 per cent
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April 27th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
alex is really pushing this food shortage thing. starvation only happens to the people who have been suckered into death traps(large cities). you choose where you live and i have no pitty for starving people on this planet(except for africa)
country folk will never starve…except in africa where desertification is so bad due to the big companies cutting down most of the trees that many can’t raise their own crops. the people are pretty much screwed there so i feel sorry them. if you live on any other continent besides africa you are just plain stupid to starve.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
AK #1, So you don’t feel sorry for the little kids whose parents are so downtrodden that they can’t move out of the city? So we have a repeat of the late 60’s http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....-1,00.html
and you’re just going to sit back and watch the news footage of the coppers drilling all the city folk..are ya drinking a beer and having pretzels while doing this?
April 27th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
#2 snipers in ambush – and you’re just going to sit back and watch the news footage of the coppers drilling all the city folk..are ya drinking a beer and having pretzels while doing this?
YUP I GOT STAINS ON MY TIGHT, WHITE T-SHIRT ALSO.
April 27th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
ha ha brother..enjoy!
April 27th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
#5 – Bill Green – i also am adding to the food riots. i am a farmer and i put the minimal amount of fertilizer on my fields to drive down yeilds. ha ha
April 27th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” (Rev. 6:5, 6, NIV).
13*
April 27th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
the infowar is primarily being fought by the youth through the internet. The youth of the world need to realise that the whole system into which we’ve been born is a lie. The only things inside our world that have remained true, are our friends, our family, the need for food water and shelter, documented history, and love.
Everything else in our society is a lie, the war on terrorism, consumerism, global warming, the media, the economy, religion and politics.
We all need to take measures in our daily lives to restrict our contribution to these institutions of enslavement.
f--- THE NEW WORLD ORDER! KILL THEM ALL OR THEY WILL KILL US ALL!
April 27th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
@ Bill Green:
The rising cost of food is hardly due to a “shortage” of crop; there is actually enough grain in the world to support our population. Read this article from the independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/o.....16123.html
April 27th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
…Ah-bdi…There are too…b…bdi… busy building weapons , noodling around with their computers , and scheming and scaming in their…bdi…secret labs and think tanks ( sink tanks ?), to worry about this famine…b…bdi…biness !!!
April 27th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
#5 Bill Green, I am so sick of this assanine argument for eugenics. Iraq used to export food to surrounding countries before “Operation Iraqi Liberation”, and the U.S. in the 60’s could feed the world many times over.
The root of the problem in the simplest of terms is GREED.
If there were 50 billion people on Earth they could be sustained, people like you just don’t want to share your toys.
DTTNWO, LLTR
April 27th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
@6 ANARCHYisKING
You suck and by the way drivin’ a car on food is a crime against umanity biofuel is genocide.
The rise in foodprices is a scam of a corupt systeem, the US in a leeding role, using up 40% of all natural resouses f--- the USA systeem the EU only uses half of wath the US is using wiht 30% more people
April 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
ANARCHYisKINg
YUP I GOT STAINS ON MY TIGHT, WHITE T-SHIRT ALSO. you wanker, go f--- your go f--- a cow!!!!!
April 27th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
If there is no food the world might have to start to sungaze. A man went 411days without eating, based on a diet of water, and having sungazed over a nine month period. His website is http://www.solarhealing.com. This is something that food agencies should promote because they won’t have enough food to distribute.
April 27th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
check these videos out…
http://www.uaff.us
April 27th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Um. ANARCHYisKING…. where do you think the more intelligent and resourceful of the hundreds of millions of people who have been “suckered into death traps(large cities). ” will be coming to look for food when they can’t buy anything to eat in the local Walmart?
The recognition that “county folk” had (whether in hindsight or with condsideration to the future at the time) made a better choice about where to live than they had, isn’t going to make any difference to how hungry they are.
I’m afraid desperate people do desperate things. Crack addicts and heroine addicts have long been renowned for the lengths that they’ll go to when they’re in the depths of withdrawal. I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid addiction to either of those substsnces so far this life, but i know i’m addicted to at least one substance that is far more addictive than any illegal drug. Now i think my mum is probably the one to blame for this, habit of mine, because i was still in her womb when i got hooked on it… the substnace in question is called food.
Food is an inescapable addiction for our species. You don’t just feel like death warmed up, like the average junkie would when short of crack/smack, when you are suffering from food withdrawal you actually know for a fact that you’ll be dead soon if that addiction doesn’t get fed.
Do you really think that poking fun at those who, for the most part were blissfully unaware that there may be a problem with food shortages, who thought they were safe to live in the cities, will be enough to make them give up and die in an acceptance that the better man/woman won,
when the supply chain for the substance they need is so transparent…. Let’s face ir. scpromg outside of the city you live in is a lot harder when you are after crack/smack to feed your addiction than if you’re after food to stop the pain of hunger.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
the food shortage is real, ok? if you don’t believe me google: CBOT(chicago board of trade)
if you look at the history of grain prices you will see that we recently tripled the old record for wheat.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Since the 911, everything are going bad and bad.
We live in a sin country. Without the truth things will turn more worse.
April 27th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Ever think about making money online?
affiliateamoney.com
its free to sign up!
April 27th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Read your history…they ( NWO ) have been using this tactic of scaring the population for years. they were scaring people back in the 30’s with overpopulation, oil scares etc…they distract the sheep with prohibition etc…giving out credit by the buckets. While everybody is grazing, they are murdering, torturing causing great depressions so they can consolidate land and resources. Prep’ing for their New World Order…this is old news to some, many even, but this problem is way deeper than it appears and it will take lots of DEEP thought to come to the real conclusion or rather SOLUTION
. …Constitution —nope—charter of rights—nope….Christianity…nope…communism…nope…capitalism…NOPE!!….
think about this…
Spiritual socialism…no money…everybody contributes and everybody UNDERSTANDS this one truth…WE ARE ALL EQUAL AND NEED TO LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER AND CARE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD NO MATTER IF IT IS HAPPENING TO YOU OR NOT…KEEP CORRUPTION AND EVIL DOERS IN CHECK….ALLOW IT NOT TO FESTER…EVERYBODY GOING TO WORK AS THEY ALREADY DO only instead of a 40-60 hour work week, it would be 20 hours a week for all people of the planet. We could use the idea of a CHIT to make sure everyone has what they need and a few luxuries such as UN_POLLUTED TV…and internet…etc..anybody under this system could SIGN OUT a boat or whatever…everyone would have free time for themselves which is what we are all after. Very little crime…etc…I could go on and on….others have already but we are in need of a refresher course with regards to our options…we owe it to our kids to look into this very closely and re-organize our world society without a hierarchy or class system. Watch your world change then. How will it happen…train your self to think the way a SPIRITUAL Socialist would think and wait till someone like maybe myself decides to run on that platform. Voting in a one term world MANAGER VIA THE INTERNET could be workable…real-time voting…well, it wouldn’t matter anyway. It would merely be a power check. Evil will always try to rear it’s ugly head. Think about how what I advocate could change EVERYTHING…EVERY LITTLE ASPECT OF OUR SOCIETY..it’s bound to happen someday, hopefully sooner than later, but, that is up to you and you and you and all the rest of us to speak to our fellow man. Neighbors, families and friends. There will be a day where this could all happen. Ron Paul could be the way if people would wake up quick enough. Sadly, I don’t think it will happen this time by the way things look, however, he did light the fire, we need to keep fanning it.
KEEP YOUR GUNS PEOPLE AND GET MORE…when the s--- hits hard ( very soon ) do not turn into savages…everybody share and be responsible. Be wise also. Talk to your friends and family who are cops or armed forces…get them thinking about what they are going to be asked to do…start appealing to the human being that is buried deep inside them.
Print up a deck of cards with the 13 elite family names on them so people are aware of who their masters are so that they know where to direct their anger when there is no money or food. Wouldn’t it be sweet sweet sweet to be alive to witness those families being drug out of their huge mansions that we all paid for, and led off to jail for the rest of their lives…all of them…and then we work DOWN the pyramid…picking up Ted Turner…The Clintons…Walton’s….etc…you get the picture. I’m sure many of you have had the same dream for a long time. I’m with you brothers and sisters of all colors. Forget the punk on the corner selling weed. Look at who really brings in the hard dope. The CIA…the Clintons in the 80’s…etc..I believe once we have critical mass awareness of this reality, we will have a wonderful revolution but we can’t wait for others to do it for us…time to put away the video games, guitars ( in my case ) stop chasing money and nice cars…stop watching the hockey game or football game…all of that has to wait now. It has to wait until we take care of business. Then we can go back to a responsible level of mindless recreation.
I writing a detailed book about how to bring this about. Just hope I have enough time to get it completed and out there. I may just distribute it on the net free while the net is still available to us big mouths.
take care y’all
April 27th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
21__Nice post…let’s make it sweet like the kossacs did in russia with last tsar Nikolas II , the romanian with Caesescu…I keep a look out for your book.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Hi guys….well, I’m thinking that when people understand that we shouldn’t need a leader ( who wants to be led? Not me ) when we are responsible folk who now understand a guy on a horse descending from the sky may or may not happen, but I would bet on waking up the human spirit because that is the only weapon we have at our disposal. I refer to Reagan’s speech where he mentions, “what if we were invaded from outer space?” ” Wouldn’t we all find out we all had a lot more in common that we thought?” That resonated with me as teen at first because I used to think the same way, as most do I think before the corruption takes hold of some, most to some degree my self included in that lot
I don’t need a big house. I have two kids…so…something suffice would do..I mean, of course there would be different house styles and colors..I would say build it your way..here is what we will give you to build with..do what you can…you see what I mean…we might even see some really interesting architecture instead of boring stamp houses..( those are the small details in my opinion really, anyone who wants to fight over who gets what would be flagged for fluoride under my system …lol) …I definitely believe in curing humanity of it’s wanting to be better than the next. The only thing that leads people astray from “GooD” instead of God and leads them to EVIL or the Devil…is money…and the constant system of haves and have nots..IMO…I don’t believe my father at 60 yrs of age needs a corvette. I would like to recommend a very good read to you..it has become my bible…I preach from it because it could truly lead humanity out of the hell that awaits. The book is by G Bernard Shaw…most of you probably are aware of his socialist views but this book delivers his thesis in a well layed out, plain as could be, any idiot could understand what he is saying, work of literature. The book: The intelligent women’s guide to socialism, capitalism and fascism.
I’m not new to this topic, having spent most of my 40 years thinking about injustice and corruption and later investigating on my own at the behest of one of my neighbors and sub-teacher. She was well read and knew the score. My point being, this book of Shaw’s is really well thought out. I don’t know how any person alive who claims to be all about team work and equality and would claim to be a caring spiritual person deserving of a good life without corruption where practices of fairness and love for all people and distribution of wealth, could ever disapprove of Shaw’s socialist ideals.I would call that person a dead soul and non-thinker. Guess they have to wait for “GOD” to tell them that it is good before they can think. I think once you toss these fluoride pushers into a sell, humanity will sort itself out anyway. We can’t forget mother nature’s role in all of this. I believe it is possible that they will get their one world gov and reside at the UN in NYC, and that is where we will be taking them from. While we are there, we can give the place a new coat of paint and use it to administer the world’s affairs and distribute the wealth. lol.. I have put a great deal of thought into this as well as exposing the system that we are enslaved by today. I find it fascinating, I just wish it were ancient history I am reading and instead of real life horror film.
Best wishes
April 28th, 2008 at 1:20 am
NOW THEY ARE THREATENING US WITH FOOD? THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCK FOR SURVIVAL? these rich motherf---ers must die. how can they die if they are protected by an evil forcefield? you need a whole lot of guns and some brave people to die for a righteous cause. not cowards who agree with whatever these f---ers tell us on tv. f--- that s---. i dont listen to terrorists in suits. i’d rather believe osama bin laden rather than a govt official.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Time to go into survival mode, stock up on food while you can for can good last a good ways. I’ve been through being snowed in to drought to no food except what my grand daddy grew in the summer time and grandma put up for winter.
when we knew a storm was brewin thats when we would stock up or go into survival mode with the nesessities of life. batteries, extra gas in the shed, oil lamps, lamp oil, candles, food and then even go get seeds to grow our own garden which is better for ya anyway,
I am stocked up at all times just in case. I even make my own home made bread and know how to survive a crisis. Was taught by the best of the best. Best thing I know is how to rough it, and i also hunt for my own food if need be like deer, go fishin, rabbit etc and freeze it etc. Glad i was taught this.
I am in survival mode now, and still stocking up for my newborn grandboy as well as myself to make sure he has enough formula food solids when he starts eating solids etc.
Things are not going to get better especially with fuel so high and an idiot in office who does not care about their people and won’t intervien until its too late.
some of the stores shelves were i live are already going empty so i can already see the difference in changes of our nation plus i am in the trucking industry as well. high fuel, low freight rates and drivers all over the usa are going out of business themselves, this to me is a warning sign. Has been for a few months now.
April 28th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Got family and friends who work for the government?
Look who helps screw the rest of us over! Let it load,
It’s worth the time.
http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com/new/crooks.pdf
Right about now, and if we could trust any of them, we
might be in better condition here and be able to ship
money to the starving.
I’d say these ‘citizens’/friends/family are traitors.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:38 am
this is from : http://www.cfc-swc.gc.ca/pubs/....._15_e.html
Canadian Trade Policy Issues
There needs to be a review of the kinds of services that might be affected by an expanded definition of GATS in Canada and a systematic examination of the gender impacts of this proposed change. The results would need to be reflected in any future negotiating positions presented by Canada at the WTO.
Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Standards Agreement
A number of powerful groups are lobbying for the reduction of restrictions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (i.e., food plants and products that have been genetically engineered to grow in a particular way and which were not previously part of the human food supply) (WEDO 1999: 10). Civil society organizations and researchers are concerned that there is no definitive research available about the long-term effects of GMOs on people’s health.
This debate falls under the responsibility of the SPS. The SPS requires countries to abide by the international food safety standards, but this system is often inadequate. This is because Codex Alimentarius, a self-standing body of government-appointed experts from outside the UN system, must approve the WTO international food safety standards. While this should provide an element of protection for consumers, WEDO (1999: 10) noted that the Codex system apparently operates on the principle that if a country’s health and safety laws and standards are inconsistent with Codex’s technical framework, they are presumed to be non-tariff barriers to trade and, therefore, constitute commercial discrimination. This means that the Codex Alimentarius tends to work toward the development of the lowest common denominator in terms of the standards it sets and has led to Codex standards actually being lower than those of some WTO member countries.
The use of the lowest common denominator as a negotiating principle has also led to a practice whereby the onus is placed on the individual country to prove the products it is questioning are unsafe and require regulating. A particular gender spin on GMO issues is that Codex’s risk assessment process does not consider the differential impact of various food additives on women, especially those who are in poor health or who are pregnant or lactating (WEDO 1999: 10).
There is also concern about the current lack of controls and accountability in biotechnology research and the fact that GMOs are not subject to rigorous premarket safety testing. Environmentalists fear that future patenting of micro-organisms and GMOs could lead to an acceleration of biodiversity loss and undermine natural ecosystems (Kohr 2001: 47). In general, there is considerable controversy about GMOs and the jury is still out on whether or not they are a boon to humanity or a health hazard. Studies also show that some GMOs have much higher levels of toxicity than plants that have not been biologically modified. There is particular concern that the long-term health effects may include pesticide residues in the body and increased immunity to antibiotics (WEDO 1999: 10).
If it turns out that GMOs and hormonal additives are harmful to human health, the burden of caring for the illnesses caused by these foods will fall disproportionately on women. Women also are the primary decision makers regarding food expenditures for their households. Therefore, women have considerable power in terms of their ability to refuse to purchase specific kinds of foods. At another level, they need to be told about the potential health risks of those newly developed foods, so they can make informed decisions.
Canadian Trade Policy Issues
What kind of impact are these standards issues likely to have on the Canadian consumer? How does this need to be taken into account in the development of future negotiating positions? Should Canada be advocating for more rigourous international standards?
Agreement on Agriculture
White (2002: 3) observed that the key to the gender implications of the AOA is understanding its purpose: to promote a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system as opposed to working toward the achievement of global food security. Food security is a major issue for women in developing countries.
Williams (2002: 7) noted that the primary problem stems from the fact that women’s traditional dominance in food production in developing countries has been rapidly losing ground to the encroachment of cheap food imports from the North. She observed that the downward pressure this puts on farm-gate prices combined with the removal or reduction of subsidies that generally accompany trade liberalization has created extreme hardship for women farmers as well as for women in their roles as the providers of family well-being. Thus, women farmers’ income has gone down as the price of their products has fallen. When they try to compete by switching to export crop production, they find they don’t have sufficient cash income or access to credit to be able to buy the improved seeds and fertilizer export production requires. Their decreasing incomes also mean they have to increase the amount of time they spend in home food processing, since they can no longer afford to buy prepared foods. This combination of factors spells out nutritional disaster for many farm families and has serious long-term health and physical development implications for all family members.
The AOA also puts pressure on member countries to lower or eliminate domestic subsidies for agricultural production that affect the individual farmer. Williams (2002: 7) noted that there is no commensurate decline in this kind of government support for corporate agriculture in the North and argued that given the structural gender inequalities that exist between women and men in the South and in the North, it is highly likely that women food producers will feel the potentially negative impact of the AOA the most.
The reduction in subsidies is also promoting the corporatization of agriculture as has happened in the fruit juice industry in Guyana. A similar process has been documented in Colombia and has led to a dramatic increase in the number of women working for wages in the flower industry where they are exposed to high levels of pesticide and other unsafe working conditions.
At the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the WTO at Doha in November 2001, the International Gender and Trade Network stated that agriculture should be removed from the WTO disciplines on the following grounds.
Food should be available and guaranteed for all generations, and each nation has the right to maintain and develop its own capacity to produce people’s basic food while respecting cultural diversity.
The process of trade liberalization, privatization and commercialization has diminished the domestic infrastructures that support traditional agriculture.
The diminishment of the local and national agriculture sector undermines the social fabric, cultural values and stability of the extended family (IGTN 2001).
Many civil society and academic sectors have serious concerns about the potential impact of this agreement on women in developing countries.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Iuggnutz-28___Bravo for this EXPOSÉ. Homogenic agro. and market is a plague.
1982 , India , 500,000,000 pop. , has the highest demographic growth and is the worst place to live if you are a little hungry.
WTO and WB gives France the contract of finding a way to stop the inevitable famin under way…Food master plan in progress(GMO’s testing ground). And it worked perfectly.
2002 , India is a few souls less then 1,000,000,000 pop. , and the biggest agro export on the planet.
Now that’s an open road , let’s put the pedal to the metal…NOT!!!
April 28th, 2008 at 6:47 am
See what I find at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/c…..es_e.html:
Recommendation 4
In the context of the recommendations stated above, the Codex General Principles should continue to be followed.
Support for and concerns about adherence to the Codex General Principles
Many of those who supported this recommendation were concerned about how the General Principles for the Addition of Essential Nutrients to Foods(10) established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex General Principles) would be interpreted. It was pointed out
repeatedly that Canadian interpretation and application of the Codex General Principles has, in the past, been stricter than other countries, particularly that of the US. There was also a widespread view among these respondents that interpretation of the Codex General Principles should in fact more closely mirror that of the US to facilitate trade.
A couple of respondents believed that adherence to the Codex General Principles was already entrenched in the proposed policy recommendations as they are already referenced in current Canadian regulations and because Canada is obliged under international trade agreements to follow these principles.
Lastly, there was support for Recommendation 4 provided that “in applying the Codex Principles, Health Canada adheres to the requirements set out in the Federal Regulatory Policy” (Food industry).
April 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Source: © 2005 Peter Byrne. Peter Byrne is an award-winning investigative journalist. He hangs out at http://www.peterbyrne.info
If you use vitamin and mineral supplements for health, you might want to fly over to Rome, Italy and crash the July 4-9 meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a little-known international body that wields immense power over the global food market. Should the Codex Commission approve the Draft Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements on its agenda, 300 of the 420 basic vitamin and mineral products commonly used by European consumers will be banned from manufacture and trade inside the European Community.
The ban will seriously impact the export business of U.S.-based supplement companies and could eventually result in similar product restrictions being implemented here. The Codex story has received almost no attention in the corporate press and media; although badly garbled versions of the tale zing about in cyberspace, confusing many readers with conspiracy-laden mixtures of fact and fantasy. Which is not to blame the authors of these emails, since the Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “food code”) Commission is so pathologically bureaucratic that its real intentions, and the probable consequences of its actions, are difficult to discern when wading through thousands of pages of jargon in its public reports. For example, it is not true that over-the-counter vitamins and minerals will be banned in the United States after August 2005.
There are so many self-interested players in the “L’affair Codex,” that it is nearly impossible to get a straight answer about what it all means from any single participant. It is possible to piece together the basic story from public records, and by listening to what the various interest groups have to say (with several tons of heavily iodized salt). The bottom line of the story is that the emerging Codex regulations on vitamins and mineral supplements have almost nothing to do with promoting human health, and everything to do with facilitating the profits of multinational food and chemical corporations.
The Five Major Codex Players
From the point of view of the American health consumer, there are five major players: the Codex Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration/U.S. Department of Agriculture. All of these institutions are involved in formulating rules and regulations to govern the production and distribution of food supplements. It is easy to conflate their separate, but related, institutional efforts. The fate of food supplements is not dependent upon any one of these institutions, but upon how they interact as a whole. The five organizations are working syncretically to transform the supplements market, not in favor of the consumer, but in favor of certain multinational corporations that stand to benefit from the resulting restriction of trade under the guise of promoting “free trade.”
The History of Codex and Their Guidelines
Codex was created in 1962 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) to “harmonize” world food trade. The several hundred regular “participants” at Codex meetings are drawn from the ranks of government regulatory agencies; food, chemical, and pharmaceutical corporations; industry trade groups; and non-profit “watchdogs” with various political agendas. To date, Codex has established 250 sets of rules regarding the manufacture and distribution of a variety of foods, from sardines to peanuts to pineapples, and including food additives and infant formula. (It is illuminating to learn that Codex has approved the use of cyclamates and saccharine—artificial sweeteners long banned in the U.S. as health risks—as well as Monsanto’s aspartame.) After more than a decade of wrangling over political aims and technical details—far removed from the public eye—the commission will likely approve the Draft Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in July.
The Codex guidelines begin: “Most people who have access to a balanced diet can usually obtain all the nutrients they require from their normal diet.” Vitamin and mineral food supplements are defined as concentrated forms of nutrients whose purpose is to supplement the normal diet when the vitamin and mineral intake from food is insufficient. From the point of view of universal healthcare, deciding exactly which nutrients, and how much of each, constitute a “normal” or a “balanced” diet is a large variable when attempting to prescribe a single standard across hundreds of dietary cultures.
But Codex is not about health. The guidelines define the minimum level of supplement use as 15 percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) suggested by the manufacturer. Maximum levels of use, or upper safe levels, are not to be calculated by reference to RDAs, but, and this is important, by “scientific risk assessment” based on generally accepted scientific data, taking into consideration, as appropriate, the varying degrees of sensitivity of different consumer groups and the daily intake of vitamins and minerals from other dietary sources.
The key phrase here is “scientific risk assessment.” This investigatory technique is, according to many experts, more properly reserved for testing safe usage levels for chemicals and substances known to be inherently toxic or poisonous, not for evaluating nutrients that are known to be generally safe as ordinarily ingested. This emphasis in the guidelines, according to expert critics, closes the door on the possibility of setting upper safe limits based upon the benefits of using a particular nutrient. And by setting upper limits based upon the sensitivity of the most sensitive group—say, pregnant women who probably should not use a lot of Vitamin A—the legitimate needs of the rest of the population for healthy doses of Vitamin A are ignored; indeed, the masses may be forbidden to use more Vitamin A than pregnant women, except, perhaps, by a doctor’s prescription. The “safe” upper limit paradigm is further driven downwards by the admonition that it be reduced in accord with the amount of, say, Vitamin A obtained from a normal diet. Under Codex, labels will advise the consumer not to exceed the maximum daily amount; and that the product “should be stored out of the reach of young children,” (replacing a sentence in an earlier draft that required containers to be child-proof).
The Codex Commission, which is composed of voting representatives of most of the world’s nations, has not yet set the exact maximum doses for vitamins and mineral supplements, but it is looking to the European Union Parliament, and other arms of the FAO/WHO for “scientific risk assessment” guidance in that regard. And that is basically all that the Codex guidelines say at this time.
April 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Right now on CBC Radio, they have a scottish farmer who’s trying to get GMO foodstuffs and what not passed and accepted in Scotland. CBC’s question is ‘ Shoule we review our views on GMO foods in the face of recent food shortages?’. So there you go. You wanted to know why we are having a false food crisis thrown at us? Because we are on to the fact GMO’s have been passed and approved WITHOUT proper scientific testing and risk assessment. Recently , farmers have rioted and burnt GMO freaks being introduced into their natural ecosystems. So, famine=good excuse for GMO approval.
They can limit vitamins and minerals and treat them like poisins and toxins, but genetic freaks that make Monsanto money get through without a question. We’re truly f---ed!
April 28th, 2008 at 6:56 am
x
April 28th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Are you hungry yet?
April 28th, 2008 at 7:57 am
food isn’t going anywhere, food will be plentiful. well.. organic food may disappear. but you can bet there will be o0dles of gm food just ready to force down your gullet. what would a proper eugenics plan be without the rat poison. so i guess in a month or 2 they will tell us they have a special eugenics program for poor kids, with new gm foods designed to be “extra nutritious” to help those poor kids out.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:42 am
A lot of this is engineered, as Alex Jones points out.
What the mainstream media consistently fails to report is that meat-eating places a very heavy strain on the environment but a more vegetarian diet produces far more kg of food from the same acreage. Check out the statistics. Huge amounts of crops go towards feeding livestock.
I eat meat sometimes and I don’t want to sound like I’m preaching but the figures are unequivocal. One of the factors contributing towards China’s increased food demands is a massive increase in it’s consumption of meat as the middle class explodes.
Also a lot of the world’s land is used for cash crops like sugar and coffee for export to the first world.
The upshot of it all is that there’s plenty of food for everyone and any crisis is a result of mismanagement, individual selfishness and outright manipulation…
April 28th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’LL BE f---ING PISSED OF THE PRICE OF A BIG MAC GOES UP!.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I spend on average of $120-150 per month on food.
My secret to low spending is….
1. Buy vitamins & minerals your body needs.
2. Lot’s of toilet paper rolls.
3. Tamatoo paste.
Mix-them together, using tiolet paper as a filler and there you go! Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner: Good taste, lot’s of vitamins at a low cost.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Righ on the money….when the masses are hungry, their main focus will be food and if they are weakend by hunger, then you have ’starved’ the fight right out of them.
You can bet, that they will ensure there is enough food to feed the troops, because they need them to keep us in line. Hunger is a great suppressor…..and a great motivator for us all to do something now.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
You guys dont even get it. We arent at a food shortage yet but we are close. If you were smart enough to stock up on food prior to all this news publicity then you did the right thing and you went under the public eye. Now its going to be harder and harder for people to stock up on mass quantities of food because theres a chance people will notice you, worse yet maybe there will be media watching Sams and Costco for a news story and your face could end up on it lol.
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For the past week the media has been putting a very bad image on people who stock up food using the key word “hoarders”. You can put money on the fact that when the food shortage gets worse these are the people that will be blamed for it. Imagine going to spend YOUR money to stock up food only to be accused by mass amounts of people as a Hoarder. Worse yet hoarders could be deemed as Terrorists for intentionally causing food shortages. It can happen so quick and the groundwork is already in place with the media putting out that there might be “Western Terrorists”.
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Guys the tell-tale signs are all around. If you still have the chance stock up on canned goods and try to not be obvious about it. If you walk out of a Sams club with an entire flat cart full of canned food your going to get attention and more than likely its going to be negative.