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Vol 1 No 5

WHO REALLY REGULATES OUR FOOD SAFETY?

This subject seems to be like the Energizer Bunny – we can’t shut it off! 

(That doesn’t mean we don’t want your feedback. Please! Keep it coming!

We really appreciate those of you from other countries who have expressed their concern and see the same problems we’re seeing here in the US. Looks like this isn’t just our problem!!! Note to Maneem - Yes, we’re sorry too that you don’t have our Constitution. We can only hope that we still have it!)

 

If you’ll remember, we approached problems with imported food quality in earlier newsletters and in the course mentioned some foreign (international) organizations which severely affect our ability to determine and enforce our own food standards. These organizations all sourced back to the United Nations and treaties resultant from our membership in the UN. Some of the comments we’ve received are tantamount to saying “Can’t happen - that’s unconstitutional!”. Not being jurists, we can’t comment competently on that idea. But, we can tell you how governments commonly get around internal restraints on conduct. It’s done through the treaty route. In many cases, treaties abrogate rights and privileges domestically mandated. Whether any treaty can contravene the American Constitution or not is for you to decide, since you’re the “sovereign citizen”, but this has clearly happened by any traditional test, on many occasions prior and up to the present day.

 

When it comes to the UN and food safety, the World Health Organization (WHO) formed the Codex Alimentarius Commission which, in turn, has committees meeting to make recommendations on world standards for the different food safety considerations. Regarding importation of foods, the following is an executive summary of a recent Codex Committee meeting:

 

Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems - 8th Session,

Adelaide, Australia  -  21-25 February 2000

 

The Committee agreed to:

Revise the proposed draft guidelines for food import control systems for further comment and consideration at its next meeting;

Forward the proposed draft guidelines for generic official certificate formats and the production and issuance of certificates to the Executive Committee for preliminary adoption;

Revise the proposed draft guidelines for the utilization and promotion of quality assurance systems for further comment and consideration at its next meeting;

Proceed with the development of proposed draft guidelines on the judgement of equivalence of sanitary measures associated with food inspection and certification systems subject to approval by the Executive Committee as new work;

Proceed with the development of proposed draft guidelines on the judgement of equivalence of technical regulations associated with food inspection and certification systems for comment and consideration at its next meeting;

Examine the Codex Guidelines for the Exchange of Information in Food Control Emergency Situations to determine whether or not the development of risk management guidelines for food control emergency situations involving international trade was necessary; and,

Examine at its next meeting a document on the need for guidance on food export control systems.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(We’ve emphasized a couple of phrases because they contain a word we’ve run across before – equivalence. Remember also that equivalence is determined by whether an inspection rule exceeds the Codex’ standards, not those of our USDA or FDA. See the Post Script to this newsletter.)

 

Is the picture clearer now? This is how treaties take away national control – our elected representatives voluntarily give up our sovereign powers and willingly place us in the hands of others. Like Blanche (in “Gone with the Wind”), we “depend on the kindness of strangers.” Because we’re still at the top of the food safety chain, “equivalence” can only mean lower food safety standards since no one else has chosen to achieve our levels of expertise and effectiveness. It’s also why we now have extreme concern about our foods.

 

Being in the food industry, we naturally have far more information than you do. We also have a duty and desire to share this information with you, so you can judge for yourself whether things are going the way you want or not. Very clearly, we’re disturbed across the board and alarmed in some instances. For now, all we can do is urge you to protect yourselves and your children from the decline in our food safety inspection systems. Not all the problems are regulatory in nature. Technology has created processing speeds and distribution systems which the USDA and FDA have not been equipped to handle. The states regulate a lot of food safety considerations. They’re even farther behind (with a few shining exceptions.) The upshot of all this??

 

If you and we don’t do whatever it takes, politically, personally and as the American community, our situation will simply continue to worsen.

 

Is this what you want?

 

P.S. Those readers with Internet capability can go to:  

http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org/english/nafta/chap-071.htm

This site contains the Codex statement that its standards for food safety will govern all international (read: big NAFTA problem) trade in foods. As UN members, we are ruled by these standards. So, don’t blame your FDA, USDA or state inspector when we get clobbered or killed by imported diseases or poisons from time to time. Again, their job’s currently impossible. And, we’ll import at least 30 billion tons of food this year! We will

probably see an expansion of NAFTA in 2003 - 2005 from Ellesmere Island, Canada in the Arctic to Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina – almost Pole to Pole! At least, that’s the plan as of now. Are the USDA and FDA - are we - really ready for this?? Hmmmmmm??

 

(At this writing, Bar-S and USDA have just announced the recall of 14,500,000 pounds

of processed meat products due to listeria contamination. Listeriosa is a potentially fatal food contamination disease. We have serious domestic food safety problems, too!!) And we had exported some of this to Mexico, so the NAFTA problems aren’t all one-way!!

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