A number of health freedom websites reported after the recent meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome that a “miracle” had occurred, and that the WHO and the FAO had expressed “significant displeasure with the anti-health approach to nutrition taken by Codex over the past 4 decades.”
These reports also claimed, variously, that a WHO Under Secretary for Food Safety had spoken “sternly, sharply and scathingly of the fact that little contribution to human health had been made by Codex”; that WHO had stated that “things would be different in the future”; that the Terms of Reference of the Codex Committee on Food Labeling and the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses are going to be changed; that “Codex will implement the WHO Global Strategy for world health through diet, physical exercise and nutrition”; and that “Codex will make a yearly report to the World Health Assembly about its progress in implementing the WHO Strategy.”
So, is there any truth behind these claims? In the following article we attempt to set the record straight, and describe how these assertions are largely either mistaken or exaggerated.
Financial and budgetary matters
The majority of the confusion surrounding the claim that a “miracle” occurred in Rome this year relates to three specific discussions that occurred during the Codex Alimentarius Commission’s meetings.
The first of these discussions related to financial and budgetary matters. During this debate, three speeches were made by officials from the WHO: in each case the significance of which was subsequently either overstated or misunderstood by the health freedom community.
Dr. Jorgen Schlundt was the initial WHO representative to speak on this issue, and an excerpt from his speech is reproduced below:
In order to also strengthen the Codex mechanism itself we initiated together with FAO the evaluation of Codex, and the outcome of that evaluation was taken to the World Health Assembly, who clearly stated, again a clear statement of the importance of Codex, and, the importance of the WHO support to Codex.
As a result, the WHO contribution to the Codex budget increased by 26 percent, from 02/03 to 04/05, and the FAO contribution increased with this, approximately with the same percentage.
So, I think, if you look at the figures, they give the clear picture that the mother and father, or is it two mothers, or…..are really providing a lot to the kid. We would now also hope that the kid will be able to deliver at the end.
And might I here also just put in a small remark that when the outcome of the Codex evaluation came out, and when the discussions were there in the World Health Assembly, there was a clear direction that we need to do more for human health through the Codex mechanism.
We would hope that some of these initiatives that have been going on over the last six years would also result in some tangible outcomes, so that we can show the world that Codex is actually helping also in relation to public health.
But I think the figures show the picture that there is a commitment, and that there has been, over that long period, a strategic redirection of funding into scientific advice and into the Codex system.
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Provided by The Dr. Rath Health Foundation on 10/27/2005