Divesting the FDA of Food Authority

It's been a year since an official government study of the FDA said:

1) The FDA cannot fulfill its mission because its scientific base has eroded and its scientific organizational structure is weak.
2) The FDA cannot fulfill its mission because its scientific workforce does not have sufficient capacity and capability.
3) The FDA cannot fulfill its mission because its information technology (IT) infrastructure is inadequate.
4) FDA does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of food for the nation.
5) The development of medical products based on “new science” cannot be adequately regulated by the FDA.
6) There is insufficient capacity in modeling risk assessment and analysis.
7) The FDA science agenda lacks a coherent structure and vision, as well as effective coordination and prioritization.
8) The FDA has substantial recruitment and retention challenges.
9) The FDA has an inadequate and ineffective program for scientist performance.
10) The FDA has not taken sufficient advantage of external and internal collaborations.
11) The FDA lacks the information science capability and information infrastructure to fulfill is regulatory mandate.
12) The FDA cannot provide the information infrastructure support to regulate products based on new science.

From: the November 2007 Report of the Subcommittee on Science and Technology, "FDA Science and Mission at Risk."

The FDA is a failed agency that, in Dr. Ron Paul's words, engages in "abuse of power."

Even the FDA's own scientists are complaining about the corruption that pervades the agency: http://www.naturalnews.com/z024910.html -- and this is not the first time conscientious scientists have raised these issues.

I believe that due to its focus on the drug industry (80% of its funding comes from Big Pharma "user fees") and its failure to protect the safety of the food supply, while engaging in international "HARMonization" that degrades organic standards and allows ever-increasing levels of toxins (including antibiotic residues) in the food supply, the FDA is incapable of administering food regulations.

The FDA's prejudice against nutrient supplementation and traditional, natural remedies means these advanced healthcare alternative competitors to pharmaceuticals are denigrated, marginalized and regulated against.

See also the Natural Solutions Foundations recent comments to the FDA condemning the agency's latest moves against nutrients: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=1449

What is the answer? It is to, in the immortal words of John Galt, "Get out of the way." We need to engage market forces to stimulate advanced alternatives to a medical system that is now the major source of death in our society. We need to divest the FDA of any authority over foods. Maybe then it can focus on the dangers of pharmaceuticals, including the uninsurable risks of mandatory vaccination.

We need to free Foods (including nutrients and natural remedies) from the deadly hands of the FDA.

Natural Solutions Action Item on Divesting the FDA:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=1601

Natural Solutions at "End the Fed" Rally

I attended the End the Fed rally in New York city earlier today and delivered a message from Natural Solutions Foundation's President, Gen. Bert Stubblebine (USA ret). Here is the YouTube coverage of the rally and my presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PSETSdTgw

More videos of the rallies around the country:
http://www.seektress.com/fedrally.htm

Here is what Gen. Bert asked me to tell the participants:

“War is bad for your health. Unstable money systems are the tool of those who generate wars for their own financial health. Health freedom implies the freedom to live free from the threat of engineered wars to enrich the few and kill and subjugate the many. It also implies the right to earn enough real money to support the health and well being of your body, your family, your community and your world.”



I continued:

Without a stable and sensible, non-fiat currency to direct and drive both our foreign and domestic policy, we have no hope of health, of peace or of freedom. I urge you to become active in the twin campaigns to secure your health freedom from the forces which are destroying it as we speak and your financial liberation from the same forces which are enslaving you through fiat currency and the diabolical Fed system, again, even as we speak and rally.

Natural Solutions Foundation and the Natural Solutions Foundation Peace Research Institute offer natural solutions to these complex, intertwined and devastatingly dangerous problems. We urge you to link minds and efforts with us to lead the successful battle against these twin dangers.

Recall for a moment the chilling and famous statement of Meyer Rothschild who said, "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws ...." and the history of the fiat money managers who have engineered and financed every war since the American Revolution by creating bellicose causes on both side, financing both sides and creating the fiat funds to purchase the resulting devastation… and doing it over and over again.

And make no mistake. This greed and inhumanity has no religion. It has no economic or political theory or creed, but its own well being… and it has neither mercy nor compassion.

The Federal Reserve, like Codex Alimentarius (the world food code), is a complex, globalized and globalizing system of domination designed to enslave and/or kill you, either rapidly or slowly.

But we are not slaves. We are free men and women who must choose our own destiny and reject the nefarious plans of those who would control us through inauthentic means and through guile.

Now is the time. The system of central state control of the value of our money has been exposed as corrupted and as a failure. Through peaceful, intelligent and persuasive means, we must wage a war of peace and health for ourselves and our future. We call for a true return to a real commodity money standard set by markets, not politicians. As the Constitution teaches, no state shall make anything but gold and silver a legal tender for debt.

We reject the usurpation of Constitutional right which the Federal Reserve represents. That usurpation, over a century old, known as the “Legal Tender Cases” abrogated to the US Government the unconstitutional power to declare legal tender and led directly to the crisis of the moment. This usurpation must end: End the Fed! Return to Constitutional money!

During the hundred years before the Fed, twenty dollars was one ounce of fine gold. At the end of that hundred years, the gold dollar bought more than at the start. Today, after nearly a hundred years of the Federal Reserve fiat money fraud, the dollar has lost 99% of its value! Today, if you can find it, a one ounce gold coin will cost about one thousand Federal Reserve Fraud Notes.

The Natural Solutions Foundation welcomes you and your creativity and capacities. You can reach us at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and join our community of strength by signing up for our free, urgent eAlerts and letting everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, you know understand that this is a major issue and you are an activated citizen urging them to become the same - an activated citizen.

Again, that's www.HealthFreedomUSA.org for the eAlerts.

This IS our country. It IS our monetary system. It IS our Health and, ultimately, it IS our freedom which is at stake. Thank you.

Emergency: FDA & USDA attacking foods, supplements

I am reproducing the introduction to the Emergency Health Freedom eAlert distributed by Dr Rima Laibow and Natural Solutions Foundation earlier this evening. The link to the entire eblast is:

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=1445

"ADMINISTRATION USING FDA, USDA TO FORCE FEED INDUSTRIAL TOXINS - GMOs, DRUG CROPS/ANIMALS - KILL SUPPLEMENTS

"PLEASE FORWARD AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN
Protect Your Health and Your Health Freedom

"Urgent Action Alerts In This Issue
Can You Afford Not to Take These Actions?"

~ 5 DAYS LEFT TO PROTECT SUPPLEMENTS FROM ILLEGAL FDA ATTACK

FDA has "...come up with another ploy to make it illegal to ship supplements across state lines IF THERE HAVE BEEN ANY PUBLISHED HEALTH STUDIES ABOUT ANY INGREDIENT! And we have only 5 days to stop them...."

Action step:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26269

~3 DAYS LEFT TO STOP USDA FROM SURRENDERING ALL OVERSIGHT TO BIOTECH CORPORATIONS

Original FDA announcement:
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/E8-17356.pdf

"...USDA has released a proposed rule gutting any meaningful oversight of GMO (genetically engineered) crops and allowing biotech companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals without protection for conventional or organic crops..."

Action Step:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26267

Mouse warriors do make a difference!

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

PS - Here is what we posted to FDA online comments:
Comment tracking number is 807b59c0 FDA Docket No. FDA-2008-N-0389

Natural Solutions Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) consumer group organized as an exempt entity in the United States (State of Nevada) and in several other countries. Our primary web site is www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and we have over 185,000 supporters, primarily Americans.

These comments address the third question raised by FDA in its call for comments, namely how the Section 301(11) restrictions on commerce might apply to dietary supplements, thereby restricting consumer choice.

National Solutions Foundation was one of the institutions that helped educate members of Congress and other decision makers regarding the relationship of Dietary Supplements regulated under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) to the enhanced authority granted FDA by Congress in the 2007 Food and Drug Act Amendments.

Due to determined public expression, including messages to Congress by hundreds of thousands of citizens, section 1011 of the Act was included, the Rule of Construction that states, "Nothing in this title (or an amendment made by this title) shall be construed to affect-- (1) the regulation of dietary supplements under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-417)"

The 301(11) restrictions must be interpreted under the exemption for DSHEA products intended by Section 1011. As a result, DSHEA products must be allowed in interstate commerce without interference by the provisions of section 301(11).

However, the same requirement of law does not apply to food products that contain "trace" or more amounts of extraneous hormones, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, irradiation break-down products and other toxins introduced to food during its processing. Such adulterated foods should not be on the market.

In its unseemly reach for more authority to restrict consumer choice in nutrients the FDA seeks to ignore the plain Congressional intent of Section 1011 and the unanimous Congressional intent of DSHEA that Dietary Supplements are foods, deemed safe when used as directed.

In this way, FDA continues to exhibit why it is time for Congress to consider divesting FDA of its food authority. FDA has failed to protect the American food supply and is institutionally incapable of responding constructively to consumer choice in nutrition.

Ralph Fucetola JD
NSF Trustee

Musings on Health Freedom in the Coming Period

There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding out there when it comes to the relationships among our right to truthful information about nutrients, and national and international regulation of speech about nutrients. Nutrient purveyors and distributors need to know what the regulations say about what they can and cannot say about nutrients. Those regulations are complicated and constitute significant barriers against commerce in nutrition.

Simply put, nutrients nourish the normal structure and function of the body. You cannot say that nutrients "treat, prevent, mitigate or cure" any disease. This is, of course, a restriction on free speech since sometimes nutrients may very well have powerful health benefits.

At one end of the spectrum we have the libertarian ideal of free and open discourse, exemplified to some degree by Justice O'Connor's stirring words in Thompson v. Western States Medical Center, decided on April 29, 2002 - 535 U.S. 357:

"If the First Amendment means anything, it means that regulating speech must be a last - not first - resort... We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making [even] bad decisions with the information... Even if the Government did argue that it had an interest in preventing misleading advertisements, this interest could be satisfied by the far less restrictive alternative of requiring ... a warning that the [product] had not undergone FDA testing and that its risks were unknown."

At the other end of the spectrum is, for example, the Codex Alimentarius (world food code) "Vitamin and Mineral Guideline" of 2005 that, in my opinion, seeks to treat nutrients as though they were industrial toxins or drugs, rather than foods. I've extensively researched the VMG and together with others developed what Dr. Rima E. Laibow termed "The Codex 2 Step" about how countries can opt out of Codex restrictions without WTO trade consequences.

My brief video about that is on the Ntural Solutions media site,
http://www.naturalsolutionsmedia.tv

We prepared, for the Two Step, an alternative VMG that is friendly to nutrients and a model International Dietary Supplement Act that countries can adopt; it follows from the Alt VMG and is modeled after DSHEA with some of Dr. Paul's innovative legislative proposals included. These texts are available in the Codex eBook, from www.globalhealthfreedom.org

Will, as the rumor has it, all vitamins be banned in the next couple years? Not if we can help it! But innovative, high potency products may likely be harder to find. Innovation drives markets while status quo bureaucracy and regulation stifle markets.

You can't see the VMG in isolation. It is part of a broad "new world order" agenda supportive of Big Pharma and Big Agra, implemented through the FDA's illegal policy of HARMonization of our freedoms with international regulations -- the North American Union may be more central to those plans right now than even Codex. We've petitioned the FDA to stop these bad policies, but, unlike "citizens petitions" from the likes of the recent GSK "petition" attacking weight control nutrients, our petitions, supported by hundreds of thousands of Americans, do not receive mass media or FDA attention.

We are, though, gaining influence, and last year, when Congress rushed through what I call the 'FDA Enabling Act' granting more power to that failed agency, strong public protests secured language in the bill exempting DSHEA products. We do not know what the new Administration will bring, but see my recent blog on the potential for innovative change during the Obama presidency.

http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/11/president-obama-and-health-freedom.html

There is no specific "proposal" now pending in Congress to ban nutrients outright.

Rather there is a continual wearing-away of availability through excess regulation. More toxins are allowed into the food chain. More non-organic ingredients are allowed in so-called USDA "organic" foods. More herbs and nutrients are forbidden at meaningful intake levels. The process goes on and on, in Codex committee meeting after meeting, in FDA regulation after regulation. It is a cumulative effect. And its result is to stifle a vibrant nutrient market.

And that is where the danger truly lies. That is why, with Health Freedom as well, "eternal vigilance" is the price of freedom. One place to keep that vigil is through www.HealthFreedomUSA.org where you can join the free Health Freedom eAlert [just click on the "Join Mailing List" link at the upper right corner] to receive urgent updates.

Remember, alone we are each just a "voice in the wilderness" of cyberspace, but together we are growing strong!

President-elect Obama: Change for Healthcare Freedom of Choice?

It is truly an historic moment, with the election of a candidate for president of the United States who identifies himself as a member of a minority ethnic group. One therefore hopes that president-elect Obama will be open to hearing dissenting and alternative opinions about issues such as healthcare freedom of choice. Surely, an administration built on the idea of "change" should be willing to listen to advocates of change.

We are, however, concerned that candidate Obama offered very little about issues that are of concern to health freedom advocates. The campaign chose not to respond to the Health Freedom Presidential Candidate Questionnaire -- although several of the Principled Third Party candidates did so; you can see their generally pro-health freedom responses at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?p=1303

We could not find any major media mention of vaccine mandates directly by the winning candidate, but in September, when Sen. Obama and the New Jersey governor passed a demonstration of pro-health freedom parents, some of whom were attending a fund raiser in an upscale community with the politicians, there was a report from the fundraiser,

"I'm afraid Barack Obama was asked by someone at the fundraiser if he supported the parent's right to choose to vaccinate, and he said he did not!"

The governor, however acknowledged,

"We get more e-mails and letters on this than any other issue other than tolls."

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/09/obama-and-corzi.html

On another touchstone issue for health freedom advocates, Genetically Modified products foisted on the public without truthful labeling, the new President may not take an entirely pro-industry position. In a pre-election report we learn,

"[Obama b]elieves GM plants are beneficial with tests for environmental and health effects and regulatory oversight."

The requirement for testing, while falling short of truthful labeling, would be a change from current policy which "deems" GM products safe without third party testing.

On issues such as international harmonization, the "new world order" advisers surrounding the president-elect suggest that it may be difficult to focus any attention by the new administration on this important issue. We can expect the US Codex delegation to continue to have a free hand in supporting the international agenda of the "bigs" - Big Finance, Big Agra, Big Pharma, et al. Codex Alimentarius (the world food code) must continue to be a focus of the movement.

And finally, last year, when we were in Washington several times to help educate Congress about health freedom, we were not able to discuss with Sen. Obama's staff the important issue of divesting the FDA of its food authority, so that food (including dietary supplement) regulation would not remain the neglected step-child of the FDA's focus on supporting Big Pharma. However, discussions with other left/liberal legislative aids at that time, including people who will be allies of the president-elect in Congress, suggests a basis for pursuing the divestment issue.

Divesting the FDA may therefore be one health freedom issue that will have some "play" in the new Congress. What will be necessary, of course, will be for several Democratic members of Congress to be willing to co-sponsor a divestment bill. And for hundreds of thousands of Health Freedom Mouse Warriors to demand an end to FDA abuse of power.

The prospects for healthcare freedom of choice are mixed in the coming period.

Advocates of health freedom will need to redouble their efforts, especially to protect our children from vaccine mandates and to prevent ever more HARMonization of our health freedoms with international restrictions.

Divesting the FDA of its misused food authority appears to be a policy for which we may have some hope for real change...