Declarations of Health and Food Rights against the enclosure of the food and health commons

[Michel Bauwens]

Via Heidi Stevenson, Editor, Gaia Health :

 

A stunning theft of our rights is happening now—right under our collective noses. We're losing the right to manage our personal health as we see fit. It's a right so basic that no one ever thought to list it among the rights of free speech and assembly. Who could ever have imagined that something so basic might come into question?

That, though, is exactly what is happening. Some of us try to do battle, but we've been focusing on losses as they occur. We combat genetically modified foods, loss of access to vitamins and herbs, and much more. The war is being fought on so many different fronts that we're all suffering battle fatigue. We win an occasional bout, but lose most, which adds to our frustration.

Can this war on our personal rights be won? Are our children destined to have no choice about what they eat or how to treat illness?

I believe it can - but we need to take the battle to the next level. For a further discussion, please read The Theft of Health Rights: Can It Be Stopped?  

We need to address the methods by which these thefts of our health rights are being taken. To do this, a new petition has just been started to stop the redefinition of foods as drugs. There are two essentially identical petitions, one for the US and one for the EU:

US Declaration of Health Rights: Foods Are Not Drugs and

EU Declaration of Health Rights: Foods Are Not Drugs

The text reads:

The people's ability to manage their own health as they choose is being undermined by a proliferation of claims that foods are drugs. These declarations, based both on claims of health effects and substances that have been isolated from foods and also used as pharmaceutical drugs, have the potential of bringing every aspect of our lives under control.

This is a dangerous path, threatening every citizen's access to foods of their choice and self-determination in health management. This redefinition of terms supports draconian controls over the people's food supply and health management.

We call on our representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate to stop this dangerous pattern of limiting access to the foods, including herbs, vitamins, and minerals that are ingested as nutrients. Please assure that the following statement, or its equivalent, is enacted into law:

"No substance that has traditionally been considered a food or source of nutrition may be designated or redefined as a drug. No natural substance derived from foods may be designated as a drug. No newly discovered natural plant or animal that people find palatable as food or nutrition may be designated as a drug. No food may be controlled as a drug. All existing redefinitions of foods as drugs must be removed and any controls placed on them as a result of that redefinition must be reversed."

Please, sign one of these petitions!

US Declaration of Health Rights: Foods Are Not Drugs or EU Declaration of Health Rights: Foods Are Not Drugs

Then forward this message to everyone you know.

If you can manage, please make a small donation.  The health and welfare of you, your family, and future generations depends on getting the word out!

In solidarity with health rights advocates,