Do you take supplements and want the freedom to continue?

This is a letter Green People has recently received from the Consumers for Health Choice (CHC) that may be of interest to those who take dietary supplements.

23rd August 2010

Dear friends and supporters,

This is to provide you with a brief update of Consumers for Health Choice (CHC) activities to keep dietary supplements available. As always, I must thank you for your kind support and constant willingness to provide practical help when I ask. Our long run battle to get the best result for the Food Supplements Directive (FSD) is endless and our activities continue. Please let me tell you how successful the “Time is Running Out . . . . “ campaign has been. The 1,250,000 postcards that were send out to customers of Green People and those you collected from health food stores and sent them on to Westminster had a major impact on MPs – so again, I thank you.

It seems ages ago but it is just one-hundred days since the General Election. Subsequently there has been much political upheaval; many of our closest political allies have been moved into different places and are now no longer in a position to directly help us by influencing decisions on FSD other than by a friendly word to their colleagues.

Immediately following the Queen’s speech, we pressed the button on a new and intense activity programme in addition, CHC’s own London MP, Kate Hoey, was instrumental in gathering cross party support to set down a new Early Day Motion (146) in the House to reinforce our message and to demonstrate growing support for our Maximum Permitted (dose) Levels campaign.

In June, CHC met the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Anne Milton MP which was arranged by a constituent in her local office. The Minister specifically interrupted the discussion flow to congratulate CHC on its campaign, adding that it was in her view one of the two most effective campaigns of the last Parliament, and praising everything we have achieved. Such praise can only be helpful.

We made all the points you would have expected in the limited time available, especially in relation to the need to engage at a senior level now, not wait until the proposed dose figures are published, and it is clear from her response that she accepted the key messages which we sought to impart about the current way in which negotiations are being handled by the Food Standards Agency.

But there is a crucial point. Britain has just escaped the probably most pronounced recession in British history. But the impact of the recession and the dire ongoing consequences will stay with us for years, even when everything eventually seems OK again. This has never been truer than for those organisations like CHC who carry out vital work on behalf of others and whom cannot exist without the generosity of funders making regular voluntary contributions and who firmly believe in the cause.

But people are becoming increasingly fearful about the future and there are already early, but clear, signs of donor retreat.

Disruption to steady funding will mean we will be unable to do our job which will spell disaster for consumers and for the natural foods and supplements industry. Some monthly contributors have already dropped out and we have managed to replace them for now; the real worry is collecting new funding which we urgently need. It really is difficult.

CHC is now on borrowed time; without CHC the future is bleak for consumers and for the Health Food industry. Many of the much valued and beneficial dietary supplements could disappear if the EI continues along its current path.

Please, we need your help with our campaign ~

You know better than most that our work is vital; you also know that we run a very lean ship and have cut costs everywhere we can. But lobbying, briefings and campaigns are essential and cannot be run on fresh air. It would be a sad day if consumers lost their nutritional supplements – not by the severe financial crisis, but by an inadequate and unwelcome piece of EU legislation.

Please help us to help you, your friends and family, your local retailers and other companies who produce natural health care products.

1. As soon as you can, visit our website and download the draft letter to the Commissioner; use it as a guide to send your own message to the Commissioner. www.consumersforhealthchoice.com
2. Can you join those already generous consumers by making a donation to keep the campaign going please? Any amount you can manage will help make a difference. Thank you. The on-line payment system is fast, safe and secure.
3. One final thing I would ask you to do; please forward this note to your own E-address book contacts, both in the UK and Europe, asking them to also take action as we have suggested. We are all in this together and together we can win!

The officials in Brussels are now giving the details of the Directive much thought and attention – our concerns on behalf of consumers continue to be hammered home at every opportunity. While it may still be a few more months before we have sight of the EU dose proposals we must always be prepared!

Thank you again so very much for anything you can give and for everything you are doing. This is so important for us all.

Very best wishes

Sue Croft

Director, Consumers for Health Choice