10 Aug 2010
USDA Animal ID Meetings Redux

They're baaaaccckkk ...

The USDA failed to get support for their proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Last year they got a resounding “NO!!!!!” from the public and farmers both at the hearings and in Federal Registry comments. Yet, they keep trying to shove this dead horse down our throats…

(link) [NoNAIS]

22:08 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

07 Feb 2010
U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock

I don't know what to say: NAIS has been nixed! I never expected this, never. I'll read it as all good news, but Walter over at NoNais has a good write up and a caveat:

I hope that Vilsack is serious about taking input from ordinary people and not just government, industry and vets. Disease prevention programs will live and die by the hand of the many, not the few. It is education that fights disease as has been historically proven time and again. Heavy handed mandates and regulations will simply produce scoff-laws, rebellion and unenforceable systems. He does not have the money or man power to drive every back road of America.

Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak

(link) [New York Times]

22:31 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

06 Oct 2009
E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection

They say all we have to do is to track every head of livestock from birthing barn to slaughterhouse and we'd eliminate all food poisoning cases. If we know where the sick critters are, the reasoning goes, we can keep them out of the system. But how in the world would NAIS cure this? Most food borne illnesses are not diseases in livestock, but are introduced through factory farming methods and piss ass poor slaughterhouse procedures. Not to mention a supply chain that boggles the mind...

The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant Cargill, were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.

Until and unless we are ready to come to grips with the fact that it's the system of food processing that's the culprit, and not the livestock producer, we will be utterly powerless against these outbreaks. And more people will be paralyzed, or worse.

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

(link) [New York Times]

13:42 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

19 Jul 2009
Court ruling forces release of FSA databases

I'm sure the NAIS database would be entirely confidential...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Producers may have reason to be concerned about confidentiality after a court ruling recently forced the Farm Service Agency to release its databases to a national publishing company.

(link) [Ag News/updates from www.theprairiestar.com]

08:15 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

01 Jul 2009
Ranchers Have Beef With USDA Program To ID Cattle

Geeks discover NAIS, and the results are, well, read through the comments for a look at the levels of ignorance out there about ranching (and farming in general). It's just amazing.

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The NY Times reports that farmers and ranchers oppose a government program to identify livestock with microchip tags that would allow the computerized recording of livestock movements from birth to the slaughterhouse. Proponents of the USDA's National Animal Identification System say that computer records of cattle movements mean that when a cow is discovered with bovine tuberculosis or mad cow disease, its prior contacts can be swiftly traced. Ranchers say the extra cost of the electronic tags places an onerous burden on a teetering industry. Small groups of cattle are often rounded up in distant spots and herded into a truck by a single person who could not simultaneously wield the hand-held scanner needed to record individual animal identities. The ranchers also note that there is no Internet connection on many ranches for filing to a regional database. 'Lobbyists from corporate mega-agribusiness designed this program to destroy traditional small sustainable agriculture,' says Genell Pridgen, an owner of Rainbow Meadow Farms. The notion of centralized data banks, even for animals, has also set off alarms among libertarians who oppose NAIS. One group has issued a bumper sticker that reads, 'Tracking cattle now, tracking you soon.' 'They can't comprehend the vastness of a ranch like this,' says Jay Platt, the third-generation owner of a 22,000 acre New Mexico ranch. 'This plan is expensive, it's intrusive, and there's no need for it.'"

(link) [Slashdot]

06:05 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

13 Mar 2009
Tag, We’re It

Wonderful op-ed in the Grey Lady on NAIS and why it's so pernicious. I've heard no rumblings out of the new Administration (yet) either way on this, so now's the time to speak up (again, if necessary) and keep speaking up. The alternative is the potential destruction of baseline American agriculture.

The burden for a program that would safeguard agribusiness interests would be disproportionately shouldered by small farmers, rural families and consumers of locally produced food. Worse yet, that burden would force many rural Americans to lose our way of life.

(link) [New York Times]

17:59 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

10 Jun 2008
EU orders horsemeat and chips in equine passport scheme

It seems as though the folks in the EU are a leg up on us in implementing total animal tracking. And look what they're starting with: equines. Whose aficionados here have been a driving force in keeping keeping NAIS at bay. So far. Interesting.

The European Union will kick off a single passport and chip system next year - but only for horses and donkeys. Well, for now anyway.

(link) [The Register]

07:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

13 Mar 2008
Meat Packer Admits Slaughter of Sick Cows

Could somebody please explain to me how implementing NAIS would've prevented or even mitigated this situation? I'd be willing to bet that, given access to existing purchase records right now, we could tell with a great degree of certainty exactly where the cow in the video came from. NAIS might make this identification easier. But how does that knowledge keep the downer cow from entering the food supply?

The short answer is: it doesn't. That's the long answer, too.

The president of a slaughterhouse at the heart of the largest-ever meat recall grudgingly admitted that his company had apparently introduced sick cows into the hamburger supply.

(link) [New York Times]

06:08 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link

27 Jan 2008
RFID Tags: A Threat to Privacy in the Near Future?

Excellent article, but they haven't figured out the half of it: somebody needs to tell this reporter about NAIS...

Radio frequency identification technology, which enables objects, pets and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly, is likely to be ubiquitous in the not-so-distant future. Almost no aspect of life may soon be safe from the prying eyes of corporations and governments.

(link) [Wired: Top Stories]

07:32 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Jul 2007
RFID a 'technical blunder', report says

Somebody should forward this to the USDA... we wouldn't want a major policy initiative based on a technical blunder, now would we?

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology bubble ready to burst according to a new report by Dublin-based firm Heavey RF.

(link) [The Register]

05:43 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Jan 2007
Premises registration will minimize losses, says Knight

Note that there's no explanation of exactly how NAIS is going to stop disease, only the bland assurance that it will "help". How? Sarpy Sam did a great little riff on this fallacy the other day.

As for the simplicity of premises registration, well, the government already has my premises "registered": I file farm tax forms every single year. The county health department issues me a license. The Indiana State Egg Board issues me a license - and I always have to list my address. Do I really have to fill out another form ...

Well, maybe not - according to Mr. Knight, it's all "voluntary". I just wonder if the USDA's definition of that word matches the IRS's. Betcha it does.

Bruce Knight, USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, urged livestock producers attending the American Farm Bureau Federation s 88th annual meeting to participate in a voluntary nationwide program that could help prevent an animal disease outbreak from becoming widespread.

(link) [The Prairie Star]

07:17 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

08 Sep 2006
State helps turn up heat over CAFO public relations

What a way to wake up: I'm a terrorist!

I'm against huge confined animal feeding operations, I'm opposed to NAIS, and our farm is listed in the Eat Well Guide, which is run by the GRACE Foundation. Therefore, I'm a terrorist:

"Incited by GRACE activists' inflammatory rhetoric, some extreme elements of the anti-agriculture movement may take matters into their own hands," the Animal Agriculture Alliance said in a news release. "Documents recovered from al-Qaeda training camps indicate that the USA's food supply is a high-priority target. Domestically, terrorist/activists within our own borders have declared war on modern food and agriculture."

Checking into this Animal Agriculture Alliance that seems to be receiving "technical assistance" from the State (and therefore my tax dollars) I find it to be nothing but a shill, an "astroturf" group for large agribusiness interests. Just check out their links page. Oh yeah, and just search their site for info on NAIS: it's a wonderful idea, don't you know, that's only opposed by terrorists!

I wonder if this makes me a "pagano-fascist", too? Everybody that opposes these people seems to be a "fascist" of some sort or another. They do this so often that I'm beginning to suspect that their fixation on "fascism" may be similar to those cases where the loudest homophobes are really homosexuals who're still locked in the closet.

Just in case you're looking for the real terrorists, I'd suggest that you start here. It's a whole site devoted to combating agricultural terrorism, and, perhaps not surprisingly, a site I'm sure that the State of Indiana and the AAA would love to see shut down.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and several Hoosier agricultural organizations are firing back in the public relations battle over concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

(link) [Muncie Star-Press]

via Ring Family Farm

07:12 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

31 May 2006
RFID chips for migrant workers in the US?

Two more reasons to oppose this insane scheme: who really believed that NAIS would stop at tracking livestock? And note the admission by the good chairman, that his technology often fails and is prohibitively expensive.

VeriChip chairman Scott Silverman's appearance on American TV this week has raised fears of the introduction of RFID technology, but tracking tech 'not ready for prime time'.

(link) [The Register]

11:01 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link

24 May 2006
Amendment to Defund NAIS Fails

The amendment offered by Rep. Ron Paul of Texas to defund the NAIS scheme has failed. Only 34 members of the House voted for it - you can see the complete roll call here. In the Indiana delegation it appears that only Dan Burton and John Hostettler supported it: the rest, including such politically diverse personalities as Steve Buyer, Julia Carson and Mike Pence, voted to put the small farmer out of business.

Read the roll call. Remember in November.

15:43 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link

18 May 2006
An Opportunity to Stop the Madness

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) has introduced an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill (H.R.5384) that will defund the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) effectively blocking the USDA from implementing NAIS. Because the USDA is giving federal money to states to fund the state level Premises ID and NAIS this will effectively block virtually all development of NAIS in all fifty states. The vote is tomorrow, Thursday, May 18th, 2006.

And now I'm going to beg for a donation. No, don't hit the donate button to the left, what I'm after is your support on this. If you live in the US (or if you're a US citizen resident in foreign parts) please call your Congresscritter and ask them to vote for Rep. Paul's amendment.

If NAIS proceeds unchecked, it could quite literally be the death knell for Hammerstead Farms - and many other small farms and ranches around the nation. If you value your food supply, if you value American agricultural independence, or, Hel, if you just like reading my rants, get a hold of your representative and urge him to support this amendment.

End of begging...

Update: According to Ron Paul’s office the vote has been put off until next week. This gives you more time to get a hold of your Congressman... do it!

10:26 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link

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