Urgent Nais Action Alert!, We only have the next 10 days to stop MANDATORY NAIS. Options

[Cyn]

Stop the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee and Congress from
Fast tracking mandatory NAIS.

If you care about saving small sustainable and organic farms, if you are concerned about the rising cost of food, then please, make this your top priority this week. Take action and pass this information along to everyone you know. We need all the help we can get to defeat this. We only have the next 10 days to accomplish this.

Message from the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association

February 26, 2009
The U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry will hold a hearing on NAIS on March 11. Bills to put NAIS into law, HR875 and companion Senate S814, are being pushed through Congress, as well as an Appropriations Bill with funding for NAIS. This hearing is critical to blocking mandatory NAIS.

***ACTION ALERT***

WHAT: Congressional Hearing on the National Animal Identification System

WHEN: Wednesday, March 11

WHERE: Washington, DC

ACTION: Please call and fax all members of the subcommittee. Go to http://www.nicfa.com for member list and instructions.

Yours for freedom,
Deborah Stockton, Executive Director
National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)

nicfa@earthlink.net
http://www.nicfa.org

***************************************************************************

Information on NAIS

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/what-is-nais

NAIS Information
http://www.vicfa.net/NAIS.html

Video: National Animal Identification System - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu9oKmqQpD4

Video: National Animal Identification System - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgoVpgQm4fQ

Video: Linda Faillace, author of Mad Sheep, talks about the NAIS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBmh6SQjPEI

[Cyn]

Why aren't more people up in arms about this?


Everyone, PLEASE, the NAIS is a HUGE threat to our organic, sustainable community!

Whether you're a small farmer, rancher, a person that owns just one animal, or just an average consumer, we are all gong to suffer for this. If you think food prices are high now, just wait when the NAIS becomes mandatory. You can forget about buying healthy, free range, or organic meat, milk and eggs because it will become price prohibited. Most likely you wont be able to get it at all, because the cost of NAIS for small farms and ranches will put them out of business.

The NAIS has absolutely nothing to do with food safety. We already have laws already on the books for food safety not being enforced. It has everything to do with big corporate factory farms gaining full control over our food.

If your planning to have a small sustainable homestead with maybe a few chickens, a cow for milk, or a horse, you would have to register your property (premise) with the USDA. Every animal you own will have to be chipped or tagged with a radio-frequency identification device. Every time a tag is applied, a tag is lost or an animal needs to be re-tagged, an animal is killed or dies, or an animal is missing, the event would have to be reported to the government within 24 hours. “Commingling events” will have to be reported, including private and public sales, regional shows and exhibitions.

Think that you can just hide your animals? Animal health providers, veterinarians, service providers (police, butchers, gas, electric, telephone, etc) will be required by law to report unregistered animal sightings to the government. Failure to register your premise and animals or to report movements will result in non-compliance fines of up to $1,000 per incident per day. Under NAIS the government may enter your property without a warrant and confiscate, redistribute or kill your animals without any form of legal appeal by you (http://www.countrysidemag...).

Animal owners will have to pay the tab for premises registration fees, individual animal ID fees, reporting fees for events such as animals leaving a given premises or being slaughtered, and for equipment such as RFID tags, tag readers, or software needed to report to the database.

NAIS Negative Impacts
From Farm and Ranch Freedom

Drive Small Farms and Ranches Out of Business.

Family farmers and ranchers already face huge challenges financially. The USDA has not done an analysis of what the NAIS will cost, but it will undoubtedly be significant. The cost of the microchips and RFID tags is just the beginning. Someone has to pay for the computer hardware and software, the personnel for database entry and management, electronic scanners and other equipment, and the labor for the tagging, and the personnel for filing and managing reports. These costs may fall directly on the animal owners, or be imposed indirectly through fees on sales barns and slaughterhouses. We can assume that our cash-strapped federal and state governments will not absorb the bulk of the costs, even though millions of our tax dollars have already been spent. Estimates for similar programs in other countries have ranged from $37/head to $69/head as an average. Given economies of scale, one can assume that the costs per animal for small producers will be much higher.

Increase Our Vulnerability By Reducing Options for Local Foods.

The NAIS is touted by the USDA and agri-business as a way to make our food supply secure against diseases or terrorism. But the concentration of our food supply in the hands of a few companies makes it vulnerable, as noted in the 2005 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office: “the highly concentrated breeding and rearing practices of our livestock industry make it a vulnerable target for terrorists because diseases could spread rapidly and be very difficult to contain. For example, between 80 and 90 percent of grain-fed beef cattle production is concentrated in less than 5 percent of the nation’s feedlots.” Decentralizing and reducing the corporate control of our food supply would increase our security. Yet NAIS was developed by and for large producers, and will only lead to increased corporate control of our nation’s food, in turn increasing our vulnerability.

Destroy Personal Property Rights as We Know Them.

Legally, livestock animals are a form of personal property. The NAIS plan refers to a “national herd,” and the plan as a whole clearly indicates the government's vision: no one will be allowed to own animals or do anything with them without government involvement. We will not even be able to take our animals to shows or simply enjoy the company of other animal owners without reporting to databases.

Invade Personal Privacy.

It is unprecedented for the United States government to conduct large-scale computer-aided surveillance of its citizens simply because they own a common type of property. The only people who have to report movements to the government at this time are sex offenders. Animals do not move themselves – the NAIS would require people to effectively report their own movements, whether it is taking animals to a show or selling an animal to a neighbor. Details on our land, our animals, our business affairs, and our movements would all be required to be placed in the hands of private companies, with access given to the government.

Harm Animal Welfare.

Small farms offer an alternative to the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms. Many people who raise their own animals or buy from small, local producers do so because they object to the industrial-scale production of animals. These people will be forced either to sacrifice their personal privacy to government surveillance or to stop raising animals by humane standards.

Burden Religious Freedom.

Groups such as the Amish and Mennonites raise their own food and use animals in farming and transportation for religious reasons, and at the same time have well-known religious objections to registrations and technology. Other groups believe that the NAIS violates scriptural prohibitions on marking. The NAIS will force these people to violate their religious beliefs.

Create Technological Problems.

While the technology companies claim that they can deliver a working system under NAIS, this technology carries many problems and dangers of its own. RFID chips can be reprogrammed or even infected with viruses. Want to place the blame for a sick animal on someone else? Just reprogram the tag. Want to create chaos at a livestock auction? Infect the tags with viruses. Want to steal a horse? Simply destroy the microchip embedded in the horses' neck and insert a counterfeit one of your own. The databases will provide tempting targets to terrorist and hackers. The technological infrastructure for farms, sales barns, slaughterhouses, and show facilities will provide ample opportunities for problems to arise. Australia has instituted electronic tracking of just its cattle – a far smaller project than the NAIS – and has experienced many problems with the databases.

Increase Food Costs, Taxes, and Government Bureaucracy Without Value

The NAIS will cost far more than it will deliver. The disease control claims are specious, as they ignore that disease control methods must be designed based on the species and disease involved, and the vectors of transmission. One system, even if it was useful for one species, will not fit all. The numbers of annual reports and the size of the database will dwarf any other database in existence in the world. How can the government expect to coordinate among dozens of state and private databases, or track hundreds of millions of annual reports of tagging or movement of chickens, horses, cattle, etc.? In other countries, costs have multiplied to twelve times the original estimated fees per animal. These costs will have to be paid by animal owners, consumers, and taxpayers. And we will receive no real value in return. Our resources, both government and private, should be spent on actions that will truly improve animal and human health and security.

More at: http://farmandranchfreedo...

LETS GET ACTIVE FOLKS AND DO WHAT WE DO BEST!

[Craig Minowa]

Thanks for this posting. Over the years, NAIS has been an issue that has been important for the OCA to monitor. Our most recent alert on this topic was a couple of weeks ago. If you feel more comfortable using OCA forms for taking part in alert, please feel free here:

-----------
NAIS Alert:
Protect your right to farm and to eat local food!

The USDA has proposed a rule to require all farms and ranches where animals are raised to be registered in a federal database under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for existing disease control programs. The draft rule covers programs for cattle, sheep, goats, and swine. It also sets the stage for the entire NAIS program to be mandated for everyone, including anyone who owns even one livestock animal, for example, a single chicken or a horse.

It is critical that the USDA and Congress hear from the hundreds of thousands of people who will be adversely affected by the NAIS program. This includes not only animal owners, but also consumers who care about local and sustainable foods, taxpayers who object to wasteful government programs, and advocates for a safer food system.

Take action today!
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16812.cfm
--------------

[scnv]

Why aren't more people up in arms about this?


Everyone, PLEASE, the NAIS is a HUGE threat to our organic, sustainable community!

Whether you're a small farmer, rancher, a person that owns just one animal, or just an average consumer, we are all gong to suffer for this. If you think food prices are high now, just wait when the NAIS becomes mandatory. You can forget about buying healthy, free range, or organic meat, milk and eggs because it will become price prohibited. Most likely you wont be able to get it at all, because the cost of NAIS for small farms and ranches will put them out of business.

The NAIS has absolutely nothing to do with food safety. We already have laws already on the books for food safety not being enforced. It has everything to do with big corporate factory farms gaining full control over our food.

If your planning to have a small sustainable homestead with maybe a few chickens, a cow for milk, or a horse, you would have to register your property (premise) with the USDA. Every animal you own will have to be chipped or tagged with a radio-frequency identification device. Every time a tag is applied, a tag is lost or an animal needs to be re-tagged, an animal is killed or dies, or an animal is missing, the event would have to be reported to the government within 24 hours. “Commingling events” will have to be reported, including private and public sales, regional shows and exhibitions.

Think that you can just hide your animals? Animal health providers, veterinarians, service providers (police, butchers, gas, electric, telephone, etc) will be required by law to report unregistered animal sightings to the government. Failure to register your premise and animals or to report movements will result in non-compliance fines of up to $1,000 per incident per day. Under NAIS the government may enter your property without a warrant and confiscate, redistribute or kill your animals without any form of legal appeal by you (http://www.countrysidemag...).

Animal owners will have to pay the tab for premises registration fees, individual animal ID fees, reporting fees for events such as animals leaving a given premises or being slaughtered, and for equipment such as RFID tags, tag readers, or software needed to report to the database.

NAIS Negative Impacts
From Farm and Ranch Freedom

Drive Small Farms and Ranches Out of Business.

Family farmers and ranchers already face huge challenges financially. The USDA has not done an analysis of what the NAIS will cost, but it will undoubtedly be significant. The cost of the microchips and RFID tags is just the beginning. Someone has to pay for the computer hardware and software, the personnel for database entry and management, electronic scanners and other equipment, and the labor for the tagging, and the personnel for filing and managing reports. These costs may fall directly on the animal owners, or be imposed indirectly through fees on sales barns and slaughterhouses. We can assume that our cash-strapped federal and state governments will not absorb the bulk of the costs, even though millions of our tax dollars have already been spent. Estimates for similar programs in other countries have ranged from $37/head to $69/head as an average. Given economies of scale, one can assume that the costs per animal for small producers will be much higher.

Increase Our Vulnerability By Reducing Options for Local Foods.

The NAIS is touted by the USDA and agri-business as a way to make our food supply secure against diseases or terrorism. But the concentration of our food supply in the hands of a few companies makes it vulnerable, as noted in the 2005 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office: “the highly concentrated breeding and rearing practices of our livestock industry make it a vulnerable target for terrorists because diseases could spread rapidly and be very difficult to contain. For example, between 80 and 90 percent of grain-fed beef cattle production is concentrated in less than 5 percent of the nation’s feedlots.” Decentralizing and reducing the corporate control of our food supply would increase our security. Yet NAIS was developed by and for large producers, and will only lead to increased corporate control of our nation’s food, in turn increasing our vulnerability.

Destroy Personal Property Rights as We Know Them.

Legally, livestock animals are a form of personal property. The NAIS plan refers to a “national herd,” and the plan as a whole clearly indicates the government's vision: no one will be allowed to own animals or do anything with them without government involvement. We will not even be able to take our animals to shows or simply enjoy the company of other animal owners without reporting to databases.

Invade Personal Privacy.

It is unprecedented for the United States government to conduct large-scale computer-aided surveillance of its citizens simply because they own a common type of property. The only people who have to report movements to the government at this time are sex offenders. Animals do not move themselves – the NAIS would require people to effectively report their own movements, whether it is taking animals to a show or selling an animal to a neighbor. Details on our land, our animals, our business affairs, and our movements would all be required to be placed in the hands of private companies, with access given to the government.

Harm Animal Welfare.

Small farms offer an alternative to the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms. Many people who raise their own animals or buy from small, local producers do so because they object to the industrial-scale production of animals. These people will be forced either to sacrifice their personal privacy to government surveillance or to stop raising animals by humane standards.

Burden Religious Freedom.

Groups such as the Amish and Mennonites raise their own food and use animals in farming and transportation for religious reasons, and at the same time have well-known religious objections to registrations and technology. Other groups believe that the NAIS violates scriptural prohibitions on marking. The NAIS will force these people to violate their religious beliefs.

Create Technological Problems.

While the technology companies claim that they can deliver a working system under NAIS, this technology carries many problems and dangers of its own. RFID chips can be reprogrammed or even infected with viruses. Want to place the blame for a sick animal on someone else? Just reprogram the tag. Want to create chaos at a livestock auction? Infect the tags with viruses. Want to steal a horse? Simply destroy the microchip embedded in the horses' neck and insert a counterfeit one of your own. The databases will provide tempting targets to terrorist and hackers. The technological infrastructure for farms, sales barns, slaughterhouses, and show facilities will provide ample opportunities for problems to arise. Australia has instituted electronic tracking of just its cattle – a far smaller project than the NAIS – and has experienced many problems with the databases.

Increase Food Costs, Taxes, and Government Bureaucracy Without Value

The NAIS will cost far more than it will deliver. The disease control claims are specious, as they ignore that disease control methods must be designed based on the species and disease involved, and the vectors of transmission. One system, even if it was useful for one species, will not fit all. The numbers of annual reports and the size of the database will dwarf any other database in existence in the world. How can the government expect to coordinate among dozens of state and private databases, or track hundreds of millions of annual reports of tagging or movement of chickens, horses, cattle, etc.? In other countries, costs have multiplied to twelve times the original estimated fees per animal. These costs will have to be paid by animal owners, consumers, and taxpayers. And we will receive no real value in return. Our resources, both government and private, should be spent on actions that will truly improve animal and human health and security.

More at: http://farmandranchfreedo...

LETS GET ACTIVE FOLKS AND DO WHAT WE DO BEST!

[loy.w.dunkel]

This is the same chip they were reportedly pushing to get mandatorily installed on human beings. Isn't this just a back door approach with the same final goal?

[hogwash1]

Ok, I took a closer look through the bills. Written in typical lawyer/politics language which makes every normal citizen just shy away from reading. Any words can mean all and everything and is so broad that it may even affect backyard organic growers.

I also wonder if this is on mainstream news, but I haven't seen anything at all. I came across this article:
Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Goodbye-f...090303-287.html

Seems like another under-the-table deal, so people don't act against it. They don't wanna rock the boat with that one. When reading between the lines, it doesn't sound too pretty why they are trying to push this through so quick and it very much smells like Codex Alimentarius. I don't care who the president/administration is who approves of something like this, be it Mickey Mouse, Obama or whoever, it's just plain wrong and obviously NOT being done in benefit FOR the people but rather a play by giants like Monsanto to further monopolize food production.

I encourage everyone to actually read these bills for yourself.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875

Here some excerpts from HR 875 with some of my comments in "[]"

H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009:

To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health [oh thank you, more protection from the government for me. Just what I need, someone to tell me what to eat] by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.[ sounds lovely, what other purposes would those be?.....maybe population control as in de-population through food control and feeding the people GMO food?]


Program Elements- In carrying out the program, the Administrator shall--

(1) adopt and implement a national system for the registration of food establishments [I suppose food establishment can mean ANYONE who produces food to be consumed?]and foreign food establishments, as provided in section 202 of this Act;

(2) adopt and implement a national system for regular unannounced inspection of food establishments [wonder how the little farmers from the farmers market would feel about that?]

(3) require and enforce the adoption of preventive process controls in food establishments, based on the best available scientific and public health considerations and best available technologies [Does that mean they can REQUIRE and ENFORCE the adoption of whatever they say will make my food "safe", regardless of whether I agree or not?];

(4) establish and enforce science-based standards for--

(A) potentially hazardous substances that may contaminate food [wonder who is deciding, Monsanto?] what standards and what they are. Anything "organic" can be hazardous on some level or at least they can claim it to be so, even if it is not]

B. safety and sanitation in the processing and handling of food;

(5) implement a statistically valid sampling program with the stringency and frequency to independently monitor that industry programs and procedures that prevent food contamination are effective on an ongoing basis and that food meets the standards established under this Act;

(6) implement appropriate surveillance procedures and requirements to ensure the safety and security of imported food;

(7) coordinate and collaborate with other agencies and State or local governments in carrying out inspection, enforcement, research, and monitoring;

(8) implement a national system to identify the food products posing the greatest public health risk and to analyze the effectiveness of existing food safety programs [meaning organic life food is more dangerous to the public than dead GMO food ?], in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other Federal agencies;

(9) develop public education, risk communication, and advisory programs;

(10) implement an applied research program to further the purposes of this Act;

(11) coordinate and prioritize food safety research and educational programs with other Federal agencies and with State and local governments; and

(12) provide technical assistance to farmers and food establishments that are small business concerns (meeting the requirements of section 3(a) of the Small Business Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder) to assist with compliance with the requirements of this Act.

....

This is part is really spooky......

(4) LIST- The Administrator shall annually compile a list of domestic food establishments and a list of foreign food establishments that are registered under this section. The Administrator may establish the manner of and any fees required for reregistration and any circumstances by which either such list may be shared with other governmental authorities. The Administrator may remove from either list the name of any establishment that fails to reregister, and such delisting shall be treated as a suspension. [!!!]

....

© Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall--
[when the bill states science-based minimun standards, if GMO seeds and foods are considered the safest by scientific standards then couldn't all organic foods (which aren't patented by folks like Monsanto) will become illegal?]

(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;

(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;

(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;

(4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal's health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;

(5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;

(6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and

(7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.

....

Well, well, it speaks for itself and looks like a lot of control and power away from the farmers and into the government, who will tell us what food is good for us and what not.
Is this the change we can believe in?

Over a year ago I saw this lecture(below) on Codex Alimentarius, thinking to myself, no way they'll be able to pull this off.

This bill sounds just like it.....
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...aibow&hl=en

Spooky Times.....
-M

[Cyn]

Everyone here must see this!


Bilderberger Plot to Control U.S. Food Supply
March 7, 2009
If left to the soft kill eugenicists in control of the government, healthy organic food produced by independent farmers will soon be a thing of the past.
featured-stories - Bilderberger Plot to Control U.S. Food Supply

On February 23, the Federal Times reported on HR 875, a bill that would grant the FDA sweeping new powers to regulate food. It was introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro and arrived shrouded in hype, specifically the hysteria surrounding a recent salmonella outbreak linked to products from Peanut
Corp. of America.

Read the article here: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberger-plot-...-us-food-supply

Criminalize Organic Farming? EXCUSE ME?! BILLS: HR 875 and S 425
INN report taken from FreeSpeechTV on HR 875 and S 425
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXNJNjYBvw

Remember to sign the OCA petition here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/c...paign_KEY=26665

[radicalmom]

House Ag Committee to review national animal ID program
Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 3:32 PM

A subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee will hold a public hearing Wednesday to review the National Animal Identification System--NAIS.

Farmfutures.com quotes a senior aide to the House Ag Committee as saying it will be a general overview of NAIS, including how many premises have been registered and if there has been improvement in the prospect of trace back in the event of a disease outbreak.

House Ag Committee chairman Collin Peterson has made review of NAIS one of the committee’s top priorities this year, and several public hearings will be held on the topic. Peterson has been a strong proponent of making the program mandatory.

[ecomeaux]

HR 875 is waay more than just Mandatory NAIS, this bill seeks to create sweeping regulation of all local food production, be it any farm (the term farm is not defined in the bill), orchard, vineyard, closed animal enclosure, or aquaculture. This bill would create the Food Safety Administration (FSA), headed by the Food Czar who will level fines upwards of $500,000 on any farmer who doesn't register with the new bureaucracy and does not comply with labelling, transportation, production, etc regulations.

HR 875 - The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=12671

Ultimate Civil Liberties Threat!
American's to Become Serfs on the King's Estate!
http://www.americanpolicy.org/sledgehammer...l-liberties.htm

[radicalmom]

Vet Medical Association urges mandatory animal ID program
Thursday, March 12, 2009, 2:09 PM

The American Veterinary Medical Association—AVMA—is urging Congress to make animal identification mandatory.

Testifying at a House Ag Committee subcommittee hearing this week, AVMA CEO Ron DeHaven said that a mandatory nationwide program that tracks livestock is the most effective way to minimize the effects of an animal disease outbreak. DeHaven says the U.S. cannot afford to wait for a crisis to make a mandatory animal ID system a reality.


Related Links:
Link to AVMA web site