Wake up, African Heads-of- State and Health Ministers! The world's largest maker of two neurotoxic food additives, Ajinomoto, has bought into grocery chains to guarantee that tens of millions will be further poisoned, at an unprecedented level. The author asks OpEdNews readers to recognize this issues's gravity, and then be activists to prevent its possibility of happening to this entire continent. Please share this widely

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INTRODUCTION: Over the past ten years, I have written several times at OpEdNews about the proven neuro-degenerative and other medical effects of the artificial sweetener, including about Dr. Betty Martini, the foremost opponent to Ajinomoto's lies in the entire world, most recently, her testimony to the California Carcinogen Identification Committee, which she and her husband followed up with a round trip from Atlanta to Sacramento for both of them, for her to be able to speak for five minutes. Of all of the hundreds of articles she has posted globally over the past 25 years working (as a volunteer, never asking for contributions), in this context of Ajinomoto's advances in Africa, this one may be the most important, posted at her website, Mission Possible International:

AJINOMOTO, ASPARTAME & BRAIN TUMORS: RECIPE FOR DEATH! www.mpwhi.com/recipe_for_death.html

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[from Stephen Fox: This so shocked me as it came through the following article by Lily Kuo, that I wrote this article, to ask your participation in an effort to connect to Africans, and to the few Americans who care about Africa enough to write to several health ministers and Heads of State to let them know what a ruinous and disastrous damaging effect this news from Ajinomoto will have on populaces that are already struggling with hunger.

In my 3 decades of observation of such things, this company, Ajinomoto, is right up there among the most destructive corporations in the world, a distinction they share with Monsanto and Rio Tinto Mining of Australia (Rio Tinto plans soon to turn Arizona's Tonto National Forest into North America's largest copper mine, with the green light to do so it will probably get from the new Administration and from the Republican Majorities in Congress).

I don't understand how these African nations collectively can be so complacent and so oblivious about this danger! Or any nation, for that matter, including the United States, since Donald Rumsfeld forced the approval for aspartame through the FDA in 1981. Perhaps it is because their leaders don't understand the slightest thing about the harm done by this killer sweetener, aspartame?

About ten years ago, after writing to all of the heads of state and health ministers in the world several times, about ten years ago, in the context of the United Nations Resolution I wrote about Nutrition and Consumer Protection, I received strong responses from heads of state there, the present King of Morocco, Mohammed VI and the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni.

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Please read my UN Resolution, although parts of it are dated a bit now having been written in 2006:

A Resolution to Create a New United Nations Undersecretary General for Nutrition

http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2006/03mar/UNnutritionsecretary.html

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To be quite honest 11 years later, absolutely nothing corrective resulted from their apparently strong response letters about banning aspartame, but we have to continue to try! All 2016 correspondence could be done on the internet and would include short letters to the editor of various African newspapers. We should at a minimum let these African officials know about the newest developments in this struggle for consumer protection, that California is moving much closer to requiring all aspartame containing products to carry a carcinogen warning label. That in itself is shocking enough that they might put the brakes on Ajinomoto's ruinous onslaught and its evil efforts to subvert African health.

What an amazing level of deception at the highest of levels, to weasel people in every nation into buying a vast array of products like Diet Cokes, Equal, and sugarless gums, all of which contain aspartame. The methyl ester in the aspartame molecule breaks down in the stomach acids into methanol, which is then transformed in the liver into formaldehyde and then lodged in the RNA as formaldehyde.

Thus, Ajinomoto has succeeded in getting billions of people to pay for their own self-embalming before they are actually dead! In all fairness, and to be as egalitarian as I can get herein, I must point out that aspartame was patented by G.D. Searle in 1966; the patent was later sold to Monsanto, and then they sold it to Ajinomoto, which at that point was already the world's largest maker of another neurotoxic poison, Monosodium Glutamate.

This biochemical mayhem on developing nations is one of the most devastating 21st Century forms of genocide, but a few letters to heads of state and to Health Ministers could completely put a stop to all of this, maybe....despite the fact that the twin forces of government ignorance and bribes, plus a set of meticulously planned corporate strategies and tactics could make our effort much more difficult than it really should be than if we were dealing with a saner set of parameters and historic precedents.

We should let these African officials know about one vital development in this struggle for consumer protection: California is moving towards requiring all aspartame containing products to carry a carcinogen warning label! That in itself is shocking enough that they might put the brakes on Ajinomoto's ruinous onslaught and its evil efforts to subvert African health.

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Following is a summarized version of Lily Kuo's article in Quartz. She is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya, who covers East Africa and China in Africa from Nairobi. She previously reported for Quartz from Hong Kong. Before that she covered general news for Reuters in New York and the Los Angeles Times in Beijing. She holds a dual master's degree in international affairs from the London School of Economics and Peking University, as well as degrees in English and Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She won the 2014 Society of American Business Editors and Writers award for best international feature for a series on China's water crisis.

Japanese food giant Ajinomoto, whose name is synonymous with the flavor enhancer it invented, monosodium glutamate (MSG), is now targeting Africa's middle class, by buying a 33% stake in Promasidor, which sells powdered milk, drinks, and seasonings in more than half of the African Nations. The $532 million deal is a major bet that middle-class Africans will increase their appetite for packaged processed food, which already makes up one third of food purchases for families in southern and eastern Africa, according to a 2014 Michigan State University study, increasing to half in the next 30 years. Although Ajinomoto products have been present on the continent for many years via importers and affiliates, this is a major corporate move into Africa by the 100-year old company.

In 2015, Kellogg's spent $450 million on a 50% stake of a Nigeria-based food distribution company. Now Africa's largest retail chain, South Africa's grocery chain, Shoprite, has expanded to 14 African countries.

Indomie, an Indonesian instant noodle brand that first entered Nigeria in the 1990s, helped create an $600 million instant noodle sector of which it had a 70% market share, by 2013. (From Stephen Fox: the hidden implication, if it is not already clear to you, is that all of those noodle products contain Monosodium Glutamate, another proven neurotoxic food additive.)

More processed food, which is increasingly being consumed by both rural and urban African households, raises public health questions. Ajinomoto is the world's largest manufacturer of aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in brands like Equal and Nutrasweet that has been under scrutiny for years over potential health problems.

Ajinomoto is relying on developing markets elsewhere too. Ajinomoto began manufacturing in India last year and earlier this year bought the Turkish food company Orgen Gida Sanayl for $67 billion. ( from Stephen Fox: that amount is actually an error. From Ajinomoto's own Nov. 16 2016 press release: "Ajinomoto Co. said Wednesday it will acquire Turkey' major food company Orgen Gida Sanayl ve Ticaret A.S. for around 220 million Turkish lira (about $67 million or 7.4 billion yen), to cater to rising demand for seasonings and processed foods."

One of Lily Kuo's conclusions: There are major health concerns that while Africa's middle class consumes more processed foods as part of urban life style, there will be a corresponding increase in non-communicable diseases. For example, the prevalence of diabetes in African adults has more than doubled since 1980.

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Stephen Fox: TALK ABOUT SPIN DOCTORS and CORPORATESPEAK AND SMOKE AND MIRRORS! Ajinomoto's public relations writers deserve a prize for their ignominious PR accomplishments, as well!

Did I fail to mention this? Ajinomoto has exercised so many insidious public relations moves to enhance their image in Japan that we can safely say that the Japanese Government seems to love this company. It is the size of General Motors and has its finger in all sorts of biomedical endeavors, and one of the largest stadiums in Tokyo is the Ajinomoto Stadium which somehow confers upon them among the sports-loving Japanese public a kind of street credibility as producing something that must be healthy....

Here is a summarized recent press release that shows what I mean:

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ajinomoto Co., Inc. and its consolidated subsidiary of Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Group, Inc. were awarded the EcoProducts Grand Prize "The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Prize", one of the highest honors in Japan, to commend the products for environmental protection, for their long time business efforts of L-Lysine amino acid for animal nutrition.

"The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Prize"

The award evaluating their animal nutrition business from the view point of sustainability is meaningful to Ajinomoto. Since being founded in 1909, they have been engaging in initiatives to resolve social issues through business. By improving economic value with local communities and society as a whole, these initiatives have contributed to the Group's growth. Ajinomoto is encouraged by the award for the evaluation of the social value of our animal nutrition business over 51 years of history. Keeping the aspiration of our founding in our hearts, Ajinomoto executives will continue to contribute to a healthy future for the humanity and the earth through products and services supported by science and technology through our overall business activities. ---From Tamotsu Iwamoto, Executive Deputy President of Ajinomoto Co., Inc. and in charge of sustainability of the group. [Iwamoto has been with Ajinomoto for the past 42 years]

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One of America's greatest physicians, the late H.J. Roberts, Internist of Palm Beach, Florida, wrote a 1200 page medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, the definitive book on complications from the use of "diet" products. It details two decades of extensive corporate-neutral research involving 1200 victims in the author's database. Even though his health at 85 was waning, he still took the time to testify in letters to both New Mexico and Hawaii legislators who were considering my bill bin to ban aspartame in both states.

Photo of book cover, Aspartame Disease

https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51TOyZQa3tL._SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg

He wrote: I coined the term "aspartame disease" to encompass reactions to the chemical sweetener aspartame, commonly known as NutraSweet and Equal" To place its magnitude in perspective, over two-thirds of the population now uses thousands of "diet" sodas and products--including an ever-expanding list of new ones having greater potential for adverse effects (e.g., strips placed on the tongue to freshen the breath.

For orientation about the gravity of this public health dilemma, I shall mention just a few of the published associations in aspartame reactors. They include the initiation or aggravation of diabetes mellitus, hypoglycemia, convulsions, headache, depression, other psychiatric states, hyperthyroidism, hypertension and arthritis; the simulation of multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and lupus erythematosus; increasing aspartame addiction; an apparent causative role in brain tumors; a neurologic condition in overweight young women known as pseudotumor cerebri; and even the carpal tunnel syndrome.

In comparison: Here is an example of their PR department at work in Ghana, one of the most transparent and tragic ploys, bogus marketing foreplay, and calculated corporate perfidy that I have ever seen. What insidious balderdash!

"What is the Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project?"

[Photo: Starving children in Ghana:

https://i1.wp.com/arabiangazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Starving-Child-Africa.jpg?w=830 ]

"Since its foundation, the Ajinomoto Group has built up a wealth of knowledge in the fields of food and amino acids, which it today utilizes to help solve the pressing issue of malnutrition in developing countries. The Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project was launched to achieve the aforementioned aspiration via a social business. Under this project, we manufacture and sell a supplement that improves the nutritional balance of weaning food, thereby helping improve the nutritional status of local children in the weaning period. [Stephen Fox: Poison those babies before they are weaned!]

Ajinomoto started this project in fiscal 2009 as part of initiatives to commemorate its centenary (Fox: but also to deceive all Africans in a long range marketing plan). The Group has since been steadily implementing the project in cooperation with the government of Ghana, the University of Ghana, and other international NGOs and corporations. Eating nutritious food is essential to the lives of people. Starting with the project in Ghana, we will continue to take on the challenge of helping improve the nutritional status of children for their brighter future."

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Photo: One African Marketing Map as Planned by Ajinomoto

click here

Here is Ajinomoto's own list of Major Subsidiaries and Affiliates (even more widespread worldwide than the Mafia! This compilation shows that by comparison with Asia, Ajinomoto is just getting started in Africa, and that they have massively expanded long ago into China, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam):

http://www.ajinomoto.com/enm/aboutus/data/global.html

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Los Angeles Progressive readers certainly are perceptive enough to see right through the nonsense of the above and what follows, at the heart of this especially banal message from the President of Ajinomoto, Takaaki Nishii, who has been with Ajinomoto for 35 years:

"In the area of healthy living, we strive to improve nutrition and support the healthy development of all forms of life, including humans, livestock (including farmed fish), and agricultural crops. We do this by drawing on the unique strength that has been ours since our founding: world-leading amino acid and seasoning technologies, and the health benefits and deliciousness these technologies provide."

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By comparison, following is the much grimmer medical truth, a sample of the consumer concerns you will find in Dr. Martini's article, the one I cited in the introduction: Ajinomoto, Brain Tumors, and Death:

"When aspartame manufacturers are involved laws are ignored. My Citizens Petition for ban of Aspartame by law must be answered in 180 days. The FDA told me they have more important things to do. It's been over 3 years. Is the FDA Ajinomoto's Washington Branch office? Aspartame interacts with all drugs and toxins and vaccines and children are afflicted with ADD, ADHD, Tourette's, Autism and behavioral problems. It also has a synergistic and additive effect with MSG.

A study by Sharon Fowler of University of Texas links diet pop with obesity. In recent national news they say they will leave in schools the diet and low calorie (Coke Zero with aspartame) pop, and this is the biggest cause of the obesity epidemic.

Aspartame can precipitate diabetes, aggravate and simulate diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy, destroy the optic nerve; it even interacts with insulin. Nobody seems to care, not even the American Diabetes Association, which takes money from industry and pushes their propaganda.

Don't think American Beverage doesn't know how deadly aspartame is and that it was illegal to add to pop since they quoted the law making it a crime, Section 402 of the FDC Act 21. They may have changed their name from National Soft Drink Assn, but the news on the toxin remains the same."

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Here is Ajinomoto's own list of Major Subsidiaries and Affiliates (even more widespread worldwide than the Mafia! This compilation shows that by comparison with Asia, Ajinomoto is just getting started in Africa, and that they have massively expanded long ago into China, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam):

www.ajinomoto.com/enm/aboutus/data/global.html

Here is an example of their PR department at work in Ghana, one of the most transparent bogus marketing ploys and foreplay and calculated corporate perfidy that I have ever seen. What obvious balderdash!

What is the Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project?

Since its foundation, the Ajinomoto Group has built up a wealth of knowledge in the fields of food and amino acids, which it today utilizes to help solve the pressing issue of malnutrition in developing countries. The Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project was launched to achieve the aforementioned aspiration via a social business. Under this project, we manufacture and sell a supplement that improves the nutritional balance of weaning food, thereby helping improve the nutritional status of local children in the weaning period. [Stephen Fox: Yeah, right! Poison those babies while they are being weaned!]

The Ajinomoto Group started this project in fiscal 2009 as part of initiatives to commemorate its centenary. The Group has since been steadily implementing the project in cooperation with the government of Ghana, the University of Ghana, and other international NGOs and corporations.

Eating nutritious food is essential to the lives of people. Starting with the project in Ghana, we will continue to take on the challenge of helping improve the nutritional status of children for their brighter future.

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I know OpEdNews readers certainly are perceptive enough to see right through the nonsense of the above and what follows, at the heart of this special message from the President of Ajinomoto, Takaaki Nishii, who has been with Ajinomoto for 35 years:

"In the area of healthy living, we strive to improve nutrition and support the healthy development of all forms of life, including humans, livestock (including farmed fish), and agricultural crops. We do this by drawing on the unique strength that has been ours since our founding: world-leading amino acid and seasoning technologies, and the health benefits and deliciousness these technologies provide."

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By comparison, here is the much grimmer truth, a brief sample of the level of medical writing with consumer protection concerns you will find in Dr. Martini's article, the one on Ajinomoto, Brain Tumors, and Death:

"When aspartame manufacturers are involved laws are ignored. My Citizens Petition for ban of Aspartame by law must be answered in 180 days. The FDA told me they have more important things to do. It's been over 3 years. Is the FDA Ajinomoto's Washington Branch office? Aspartame interacts with all drugs and toxins and vaccines and children are afflicted with ADD, ADHD, Tourette's, Autism and behavioral problems. It also has a synergistic and additive effect with MSG.

A study by Sharon Fowler of University of Texas links diet pop with obesity. In recent national news they say they will leave in schools the diet and low calorie (Coke Zero with aspartame) pop, and this is the biggest cause of the obesity epidemic.

Aspartame also can precipitate diabetes, aggravate and simulate diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy, destroys the optic nerve and even interacts with insulin. But nobody seems to care, not even the American Diabetes Association which takes money from industry and pushes the propaganda.

Don't think American Beverage doesn't know how deadly aspartame is and that it was illegal to add to pop since they quoted the law making it a crime, Section 402 of the FDC Act 21. They may have changed their name from National Soft Drink Assn, but the news on the toxin remains the same."

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Here is Calvin Ebun-Amu's conclusion in Market Mogul, a publication that prides itself on its being read by executives at Goldman Sachs:

"Despite varying notions, contrasting ideologies, and multifaceted challenges, the stance taken by large corporations in Africa is clear. Onward and upwards. Coca-Cola invested in Nigerian drinks firm Chi in January. Kellogg's carried out an investment in the same region in Multipro last year. The scope for rapid growth cannot be ignored.

Many investors may find some of their risks countered by the striking rate of growth in the continent's population and diversification of resources. Ironically, it is these same surges in growth that may define the foundations of new risks for these organisations.

The emerging markets of Africa also bring many challenges, which I am excited to carry out detailed research on as I am confident that once such challenges are overcome, the golden opportunities in Africa's economies can be effectively capitalized on."

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Appearing in the Los Angeles Progressive: California May Label Aspartame as Carcinogenic, the only CA publication or news venue to carry one word about these vital matters:

www.laprogressive.com/label-aspartame-carcinogenic/

Here is the most recent OEN article by me about Dr. Betty Martini: Requiring Carcinogenic Label on Aspartame: The Most Important American Consumer Protection Effort of Early 21st Century

click here

This article consists of my own testimony to the Carcinogen Committee in Sacramento as well as that of the most progressive New Mexico Legislator:

New Mexico State Senator Ortiz y Pino Supports California Labeling Aspartame as Carcinogenic, plus Stephen Fox Testimony

click here

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Finally, when PepsiCo ditched aspartame from Diet Pepsi in US, this was their brilliant intentional understatement, worthy of another prize, if there is such a prize for Ludicrous Corporate Misspeak and Understatement:

'While decades of studies show aspartame is safe, we recognize that consumer demand is evolving.'

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As the razor across the throat of the aspartame industry is now becoming clear as a result of the California considerations for requiring carcinogen labeling under Proposition 65, the big boys at Ajinomoto are worried, but are no doubt working on continue to increase their products' market share in nations in Africa and South America wherein health officials can be more easily manipulated by bribery.

This is a sad state, and getting worse. Please help us further truth however you are able, by writing letters to the editor, communicating to friends in other parts of the word, forward this article to your friends on Facebook, particularly in groups, and in other social media. No matter what California does, Ajinomoto will spend million to prop up whatever domino is falling so that it won't knock all of them over"..

The #1 Task at hand, right now, is to communicate these medical facts about aspartame to heads of state in Africa, and, if you prefer, to those heads of state worldwide that you hold in high esteem. If we fail, their citizens and all Humanity are doomed to medical catastrophes beyond imagination, several billion people suffering from all of the aspartame-derived formaldehyde they have ingested.d formaldehyde they have ingested.

(Article changed on December 9, 2016 at 12:46)

Authors Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/592985284186083/

Authors Bio:

Early in the 2016 Primary campaign, I started a Facebook group: Bernie Sanders: Advice and Strategies to Help Him Win! As the primary season advanced, we shifted the focus to advancing Bernie's legislation in the Senate, particularly the most critical one, to protect Oak Flat, sacred to the San Carlos Apaches, in the Tonto National Forest, from John McCain's efforts to privatize this national forest and turn it over to Rio Tinto Mining, an Australian mining company whose record by comparison makes Monsanto look like altar boys, to be developed as North America's largest copper mine. This is monstrous and despicable, and yet only Bernie's Save Oak Flat Act (S2242) stands in the way of this diabolical plan.

We added "2020" to the title.


I am an art gallery owner in Santa Fe since 1980 selling Native American painting and NM landscapes, specializing in modern Native Ledger Art.


I have always been intensely involved in politics, going back to the mid's 1970's, being a volunteer lobbyist in the US Senate for the Secretary General of the United Nations, then a "snowball-in-hell" campaign for US Senate in NM in the late 70's, and for the past 20 years have worked extensively to pressure the FDA to rescind its approval for aspartame, the neurotoxic artificial sweetener metabolized as formaldehyde. This may be becoming a reality to an extent in California, which, under Proposition 65, is considering requiring a mandatory Carcinogen label on all aspartame products, although all bureaucracies seem to stall under any kind of corporate pressure.


Bills to ban aspartame were in the State Senates of New Mexico and Hawaii, but were shut down by corporate lobbyists (particularly Monsanto lobbyists in Hawaii and Coca Cola lobbyists in New Mexico).


For several years, I was the editor of New Mexico Sun News, and my letters to the editor and op/eds in 2016 have appeared in NM, California, Wisconsin, New York, Maryland, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, and many international papers, on the subject of consumer protection. Our best issue was 10 days before Obama won in 2008, when we published a special early edition of the paper declaring that Obama Wins! This was the top story on CNN for many hours, way back then....


My highest accomplishments thus far are

1. a plan to create a UN Secretary General's Pandemic Board of Inquiry, a plan that is in the works and might be achieved even before the 75th UN General Assembly in September 2020.


2. Now history until the needs becomes clear to the powers who run the United Nations: a UN Resolution to create a new Undersecretary General for Nutrition and Consumer Protection, strongly supported ten years ago by India and 53 cosponsoring nations, but shut down by the US Mission to the UN in 2008. To read it, google UNITED NATIONS UNDERSECRETARY GENERAL FOR NUTRITION, please.


These are not easy battles, any of them, and they require a great deal of political and journalistic focus. OpEdNews is the perfect place for those who have a lot to say, so much that they exceed the limiting capacities of their local and regional newspapers. Trying to go beyond the regional papers seems to require some kind of "inside" credentials, as if you had to be in a club of corporate-accepted writers, and if not, you are "from somewhere else," a sad state of corporate induced xenophobia that should have no place in America in 2020!

This should be a goal for every author with something current to say: breaking through yet another glass ceiling, and get your say said in editorial pages all over America. Certainly, this was a tool that was essentially ignored in 2016, and cannot be ignored in the big elections of 2020.


In my capacity as Editor of the Santa Fe Sun News, Fox interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev: http://www.prlog.org/10064349-mikhail-gorbachev