Posts
1 week ago
June 23, 2009
R CALF Explains Why NAIS is Flawed
This YouTube video explains many of the reasons why NAIS or the National Animal Identification System that the USDA is trying to force on every US livestock owner is fundamentally flawed. If you are unfamiliar with NAIS it is important that you know what it is and how it will affect every livestock owner and most likely every US citizen. You can start by watching the following two YouTube videos that explains what NAIS is, what it will and will not do and just who is responsible for its conception. (As usual ... follow the money, or rather who stands to make lots more of it if NAIS is made mandatory nationwide.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu9oKmqQpD4 (NAIS Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgoVpgQm4fQ (NAIS Part 2)
Also check out this video concerning what you should know about HR 875, HR 759, NAIS & Monsanto by Shelly Roche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGZL6q-3LOw
It doesn't matter if you own a large cow/calf operation or just a backyard pony for your children, if NAIS becomes mandatory you will be forced to participate in this expensive and unnecessary program. This will include registering your "premise", tagging your animals and tracking their births, deaths and every movement on and off your property and then reporting that information to the government.
Maybe you don't own a few backyard chickens or a dairy goat. Maybe your kids do not participate in 4H and your family doesn't have any desire to ever own a horse or any other type of livestock animal. Do you eat and pay taxes? The fact is if you care about having food choices and access to local, healthy and organic foods then NAIS will affect you too because the plight and survival of the small farmer is your plight as well. Not only will NAIS hurt small farms by increasing their cost but that cost increase will likely be passed on to consumers through higher taxes to pay for this bureaucracy and increased food costs with fewer food choices for everyone.
To learn more about NAIS and what you can do, please visit the following websites.
http://nonais.org/
http://libertyark.net/
http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/
Since this is my blog and my farm and life is what NAIS will affect I make no bones about the fact I am very much against mandatory NAIS. However in the interest of information I will also provide the link to the USDA website and the governments information about this program. I only ask that it be kept in mind who has something to gain (like the companies that sell animal IDs & large CAFOs) and who has something to lose (basically everyone else, especially small farmers) if NAIS is made mandatory. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post and allowing me to share this important information with you.
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/ For the governments take on NAIS.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
Very informative and clear! Many of us in our area are against NAIS too, but as usual,most of the U.S. population does not understand how big government can adversely affect them, and as usual, if and when they suffer the consequences of such governmental abuse, they will blame the wrong people.....the livestock producers themselves.
I have to fill out a lot of forms for the government scrapie program. I have to tag all my animals and they cannot be sold without identifying tags.Since I have under 20 sheep, the paperwork is not to prohibitive, but wow! To fill out this paperwork for a big production....tedious, time consuming and inefficient, and invasive.
Thank you so much for your visit! I can not even begin to imagine what a paperwork nightmare that legislation would be. Ugh!
Hear, hear! I cannot believe how little press this is getting, seeing as most Americans eat meat several times a day. It's hard to get the majority of the population to think about their food, since we've become so disconnected from the sources.
Our local paper did a spoof list of spinoffs of the word "locavore." The one that's stuck with me is the "gimmemore:" people who don't care what's in their food, as long as there's lots of it! We're a nation of Gimmemores.
This crazy thing is picking up steam. It was drafted by the NIAA, not a governmental agency, but a bunch of pharmaceutical, chemical, agribusinesses, and cooperations who hope to profit from manufacturing the tracking equipment.
For instance, every backyard chicken would have to be registered and chipped. Your home/farm would have to be registered and you must pay your fees. Somebody has to pay for all this oversight.
So the egg farm with 100,00 chickens needs 100,000 chips? No, those chickens are seen as one unit.
If any of the backyard chickens go in the pot, run away, are given to neighbors. dies, etc all has to be logged and records sent to Uncle Sam. All movement of animals must be recorded. 4H events, parades, fairs. If you don't report every move or exchange of your animals and every egg you hatch to a bureaucrat within 48 hours, you're breaking the law.
So what are the penalties? None written yet because they want the law enacted before they discuss your citations, property seizures, or jail time.
The reason is much bigger ($$$$) than this explanation - It's supposed to put in place a way of tracking animal diseases in our food system. However, I am totally unaware of diseases running rampant through the animals we raise and the need to be tracked.
Now the USDA is supporting the proposed law and has the financial backing from the big boys at NIAA. There doesn't appear to be enough little voices to stop it. The NAIS has not been written with regard to our rights, and is not being debated in Congress. Will be implemented by faceless corporations
Found your blog through SITs - wow, very interesting blog post this is. I think government is getting way out of control and living in a fairly rural area of the North East - I always support my local farmers first.
Thanks for the info! Have a great day! :)
it's good to be informed, thanks for posting!
I hadn't heard about this because I don't live on a farm. This is just plain crazy. Sounds a lot like the law they were wanting to pass on vegetables, to trace where every little pod, fruit, or tuber came from. I don't know why people think ALL their fears can be taken care of by enacting new laws. I think they're working at the wrong end of problems.
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.
It just plain sucks!
I am very much against it too! I want less government involvement in my life, not more!
I've been reading about this for months now. I can't hardly believe it. This legislation goes against many of our country's fundamental rights and values.
wow, this is destressing. I cant believe the government is putting even more roadblocks in the way of small farmers, how frustrating! Sort of reminds of the half-hearted lead-free toy legislation they tried to push through...sounds good in theory, but it would have put small homegrown businesses out of business in favor of large corporations that could afford it. Our government needs to start thinking about PEOPLE not business...(ok, getting off soap box!)
thanks for the read. Its terrible the way things are run.
stopping in from the sits to say hello
Great post!Stopping by from SITS!
As you are aware, Jennifer, I have had a premise number for quite some time. I was strong armed in the state of Ohio to obtain one (because I was/am a part of the USDA Scrapies program). As a part of the movement with NAIS, I received a brochure and letter a few days ago. They will be visiting my farm to complete "a survey" within the next couple of weeks. The letter is written as if I have an option, but it also states that they hope I do participate, written in a double language that tells me that I might not have a choice. It even states, "If funds are available," they will begin doing blood tests on livestock on the farms that they visit to obtain the information that they need to learn about our animals and control disease. I am paraphrasing a lot here, very tired right now...but I do not plan to be home, nor am I answering the telephone. I do not like the smell of any of it. They spent a great deal of money on the brochure and the letter, made it seem like such a great thing...but it is quite the infringement. I love my animals. I do not mind sharing information about them, but they are obviously well taken care of, and I do not need gov officials wandering around my place for any reason, even if I am chosen "randomly" to participate in "their survey." Our rights are going down to the tube, so are our dreams. I could go on and on, but I will stop for now.
All of this proposed legislation is a big joke, and it will not solve the problem if someone contracts salmonella, etc. Tracking every lil animal is tedius and time-consuming and just plain ridiculous, and like you say, it is all dollar-oriented. I am always disgusted at the way dollars oil the machinery within our gov't, and laws get passed that should NEVER even be considered.
Thx for coming by my blog -- we need a tractor too, so we can plant and harvest our own hay. Hubby's big on quality, so it would sit wrong with him if a partner wanted to plant for quantity! I hope by next year we can maybe get a used tractor - we'll see!
And we'll see how my green peppers do -- maybe this lil won't get very big? Time will tell!
Thank you for your comment Kathy! I don't really mind the scrapies program for the reason in KS the tags are free and it is not cost prohibitive to the farmer and it doesn't seem to give them the right to come onto one's property with no reason at all. NAIS is a whole different animal from the scrapie program and in some states people have been rolled over from the scrapie program to NAIS without their consent or even knowledge until after the fact from my understanding. That is wrong, especially since they tout NAIS as being "volutary at the federal level". From what I have read and some of the tactics that have been used this is only going to be voluntary until they strong arm enough people into signing up then they will push for mandatory again. Which was their plan from the beginning, before the uproar about it.
Blueviolet - Thanks for your comment! A paperwork nightmare is exactly right. They have a program like this in Australia and while I don't have the exact number I think they have thousands of "ghost" cattle in their system because their data base has mistakes in it. There are videos on Youtube about their animal identification and tracking program and according to them it has been a nightmare over there.
I can't believe how little press it is getting either Flartus. You don't see anything about it mentioned on the major TV news networks.
Wow, great comment and information Joanna! Thank you. And you are right they make it clear there will be penalties but they don't say what they will be exactly...yet.
Moonshadow - That is a big part of the problem, most of America doesn't even know about it. It isn't on the news.
Pricilla that pretty much sums it up! :-)
I couldn't agree more Nancy and carolyn.
It sure would be nice if our government did think about people and not big business, until that happens there will always be legislation that hurts the small farmer, business owner and benefits big business. It is really sad I think.
Thank you so much Mary for the very good comment on my blog. All the great things they say about NAIS on the USDA website I sure didn’t see any mention of random blood testing! I am like you, I know my goats are healthy…we test them ourselves for some diseases and they show no signs of anything else. Our herd is pretty much closed other than bringing in a new buck every few years which is quarantined for at least 30 days. Still, the thought of the USDA traipsing around my place and testing my animals is unsettling. Maybe I am a little paranoid about them but I think a lot of people are these days, with good reason. Strangely I wouldn’t mind nearly as much if they used UC Davis or another good, unbiased lab. I have heard they are doing a goat survey and I am sure it is nothing to worry about but the idea that you were randomly chosen to participate just because of being in the program is annoying to you I am sure! It would annoy the heck out of me. Another thing that bugs me is those obviously expensive, glossy brochures they send out. Farmers in Kansas got them too. Many of the cattle farmers I know volunteered because their brochure made it seem like “well it is free now but if you wait to sign up it will cost you”. How much tax payers money is being spent on those things?
Thanks Oz girl- You are right, NAIS stops at the slaughter house door where things like ecoli and salmonella find their way into food and despite the mind boggling amount of tax payer and small farmers money that is being spent on NAIS and will be spent on it.. it does nothing to address contaminants and diseases that find their way into food in the factories (it doesn't even address all the non-meat food like cookie dough, peanuts, etc)and slaughter facilities. Good point!
Jennifer, you're right! The problem with all the paperwork is that when I get right down to answering the questions on it, many of them seem to have no bearing on on scrapie prevention, etc., but recording a lot of info that I believe can be used for the very reasons I object to NAIS. What does the number of poultry, bees, other livestock on my property have to do with scrapies?
Also, the paperwork for that program could very well be prohibitive for a busy, underpaid, overworked farmer...and the paperwork hints at serious consequences should I NOT answer all questions! guess you hit a nerve here, thanks for the informative post, and I learned even more from some of the commentors.
Wow - this sounds crazy! I wish we could own live stock by daughter would love it.
You have a great point there Kathy. Just why is so much information that doesn't pertain to scrapies etc.. being collected about people these days? It just isn't right. Sometimes it feels like we just don't have much privacy or freedom anymore.
Together-we-save - Thank you for commenting on my blog! It sounds so crazy because it is truly excessive I think.
Thanks for the blog encouragement, lol. I don't think I'll be gone for long, maybe another day or two is all I need.
Oh, and I broke my own rule and commented back to you in my comments. I think so any people that comment thereafter will see that I responded to your thought of how long I might be gone.
And... we love your goats! :)
Hi, Jennifer; just wanted to let you know I've given you a blog award. Stop on by sometime to check it out!
If you can stop it then do so, we already have something like it in Canada. What a useless pain in the a**. It only creates more jobs for government workers and more cost for the farmer. The kicker came this winter, after five years of my parents keeping tabs on their cattle, a blip happened in the main government computer and many farmers were told that all their info was lost, however they said the farmers would have to go through all their book work and re-enter all the data for the last five years. You will have city kids entering data, who could not tell a pig from a duck! Now for us they say they want to bring in a system that will track every fruit and veggie grown here. What for... I never heard of "mad tomato disease"!
We are so NOT FOR NAIS, but over here, if you want to show an animal in the fair you have to register. We do NOT show, we are not registered. Nor are we going too!!!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Post a Comment