That logo scares me a whole bunch!
"the cooperation of many"
Most people cooperate after a flash bang wakeup followed by the customary mp5 stitching
Posted on 11/29/2005 12:01:43 PM PST by Dumb_Ox
The Latest Tyranny: Tagging Terrorist Chickens
Have you heard about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)? The radio ads feature a “farmer” telling us how hard it is to make a living farming today - harder than it was for Momma and Daddy. Worse yet, now we’ve got the risks of all these new diseases. But - golly, golly, gee -- the government is going to help. They’ve come up with a voluntary program to register our farms and animals to protect us and our animals from diseases. All good Americans will sign up.
Characteristically, the radio propaganda-speak beareth no likeness to the truth. To prove that for yourself, visit www.usda.gov/nais and click on the “Draft Strategic Plan” on the upper right hand side.
FOOD SECURITY
We all know that there is no pandemic or epidemic now sweeping through the livestock population would demand such drastic measures. If so, government’s first act wouldn’t be punching an ear tag into every chicken they could catch. Any eighteen-year-old mother who knows to hand testing a forehead for fever can tell you that tagging ears to fight disease is ridiculous. No, during epidemics government agents kill the infected animals and all animals in the herd. Then they spread out and test neighbouring herds and destroy those that test positive.
IF THEY’RE NOT FIGHTING DISEASE, THEN WHY NAIS?
Follow the money. Ask, Cui bono? Who benefits?
Agribusiness lobbied the USDA to create a system to protect them from legal liability if an epidemic does break out. More, NAIS would protect agribusiness market share, forestalling a public revulsion against their product by “confirming” that only a few animals were sick, rather than not thousands. NAIS enables huge agribusiness conglomerates that concentrate thousands of animals (and so concentrate the chance for spreading diseases) to point their finger at someone else. ADVERTISEMENT
Here’s the scenario:
# People in Sheboygan get sick from something they ate.
# It’s determined the meat came from a local fast food joint.
# That fast food joint gets its meat from ABC cow factory.
# ABC cow factory buys cows from XYZ feedlots.
# Those feedlots had cows numbered 1q10 through 1q500 in their possession and those cows came from 15 small farms in suburban Tempe.
# Goodbye 15 small farms in suburban Tempe.
# Hello scapegoat for fast food joint, slaughterhouse, and feedlots.
To protect themselves these large corporations will effectively to put small farmers out of business. Not only the program costs (which fall on the farmer), but also the threat of fines and jail time for not complying will drive small farmers off the land. At the same time, NAIS sets up the same corporations as the only entities granted the ‘privilege’ to raise animals, since they, of course are the only ones who can be trusted to follow such a plan to protect the “national herd.”
EXEMPTIONS?
But I’ve just got a few chickens and a horse. Not me, right?
Wrong. The NAIS plans provide no exemptions whatever. One chicken, one horse, one cow, one sheep, one goat, one bison, one llama, one alpaca, one turkey, one duck -- all must register, premises & animals.
GOODBYE PROPERTY RIGHTS
The NAIS abolishes private property rights in farms and in animals. The NAIS, run by a branch of the USDA, considers “your” animals to be not yours, but part of “the national herd.” Plainly, they are right. If they can force you to register your farm and your animals, you do not own them. They own them because they control them. You are only inventorying property & animals for their true owner, the federal government.
MANDATORY MEANS MANDATORY
The NAIS’s schedule fixes January 2008 for “mandatory” enforcement. Mandatory means “forced” and “enforcement” means “putting into force.” Not of your own free will. The government will fine you, put you in jail, or seize your animals for raising animals without registering them with the government -- “raising animals without a licence,” I reckon they’ll call it. That’s right, 6,500 years of historical right will be abolished. From now on, you’ll be breaking the law for being a farmer without government permission.
What’s more, “The Department does not plan to issue ‘alerts’ to inform livestock owners of the requirements until April 2007, only eight months prior to the date when it will be mandatory to submit the GPS co-ordinates of one’s home and the RFID of one’s animal[s] to the USDA database.” (Zanoni, 3)
MORE GOOD NEWS
Who will pay for NAIS? You will. It does not favour the small farmer, but corporations with huge budgets. These conglomerates get to write off government registration fees, etc., but the write off means almost nothing to small farmers, who must first come up with the money to comply. The NAIS is free now, but will not be in the future. On their website, the NAIS states, “Even with public funding, there will be costs to producers.” There’s a time tax, too. States, tribes, producers, managers of livestock shows and events, market operators, processing plants, service providers and third parties will all have to provide labour for this system.
AND TAXES?
By registering with the NAIS you open yourself for future taxes. By registering your car, you pay taxes. By registering yourself as the owner of your home, you pay taxes. By registering yourself with a social security number, you pay taxes. Taxes for being a farmer and taxes on your animals will come, too.
THOSE FOR AND THOSE AGAINST
Tennessee (and probably your state, too) is now implementing the voluntary premises identification section of this plan. In your state you’ll see the Farm Bureau, the cattlemen’s association, and the extension agents lining up. With new government programs comes new government money. They’ll push NAIS compliance by holding out carrots of new money available only to those who register.
CAN WE DEFEAT NAIS?
You bet. There’s still hope we can defeat NAIS.
Dr. Mary Zanoni, a lawyer from New York, has filed official comments with the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) decrying the NAIS. She has also founded an organisation – Farm for Life. In her brilliantly argued statement filed in June 2005, she put this whole scheme in perspective.
“The security of America’s food supply and the resilience of livestock in the face of diseases are best served by decentralising and dispersing food production and processing, and breeding and maintaining livestock. If more citizens could depend on food raised and processed within, say, 100 miles of their homes, the danger of large-scale disruptions would be minimised, the costs of transport would be less affected by volatile fuel prices, and any food-borne diseases … would be contained by the system’s natural geographic limits. Similarly, if animals, such as cattle, for example, are kept in small herds of, say, ten to a hundred animals, infectious diseases will have much more difficulty in spreading beyond a discrete geographical area.
WHAT TO DO?
State cattlemen’s associations may be backing this idea, but chances are their members won’t. Chances are, the members have no idea what’s going on. How many farmers -- not “agribusinessmen” -- have you ever met that would think registering a chicken with the government is a good idea? Talk to them. Encourage them not to sign up their premises. “The USDA is using farmers’ supposed willingness to enter a ‘voluntary’ program as a justification for making the program mandatory,” says Zanoni.
This is the old government game where a pitiful, haggard, selfless government employee pleas to the camera, “Look, all these other farmers have signed up on their own because they’re good Americans and it’s just a few renegades ( read the majority of the population) holding out. If we’re gonna be safe, we’ve got to make this mandatory because we just can’t talk sense to these people who, after all, we’re only trying to protect. It’s for their own good”
# Write Dr. Mary Zanoni at mlz@slic.com and support her efforts by signing up for her $25/year newsletter to keep you informed about this program and those fighting it.
# Contact your state veterinary office and complain.
# Call your state senators and representatives and tell them you oppose NAIS.
# Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
# Organise a public meeting.
But first, educate yourself. Go to www.usda.gov/nais. Click on “Draft Strategic Plan” on the right side of the page under the “What’s New” heading and read the 24 page implementation plan for yourself. (NOTE: A Summary follows in Appendix 2 below.)
-- Justin Sanders
You've got to realize that you are serving the Great Socialist Community of North America now and we'll have 200 million more (welfare chisler) mouths to feed.
How are we going to confiscate your livestock if we don't have an accurate database?
nobody who you vote for, the gubmint always wins.
I hate liberals so much I wish I could just shoot them.
Chickens don't have ears you could tag.
Somewhere along the line someone told me that if we could just get the Republicans in charge that this kind of crap wouldnt happen. I must not be remembering that correctly because then mandatory registration wouldnt be so because we have Rs in charge of WI and Fedcorp...
You could tag a chicken through the ears, it just wouldnt be much of a chicken any more.
Wasn't that the point? It's a farmer joke. Can't you imagine some government agency training its workers in the art of chicken ear-punching?
Black market steak-legging a specialty.
Warning: No revenooers need apply!
You can.
Just make sure you bag enough of them before you get caught to make the penalty worth while.
You can, but unfortunately it's still illegal.
Just a beta for the human tracking system
Guess I'll be raising laying hens (for sale and for eggs) until December 31, 2007.
Then, if this nonsense is still going on, I'll be crating them and taking them to my CongressLesbian Tammy Baldwin's office and releasing them. *Snort*
Mr. Frog is it getting hot in this pan? The march to a tyrannical socialist wasteland is progressing full speed Gives a whole new meaning to a chicken in every pot!
In Wisconsin you now only have until Dec 31 2005 to avoid being visited by the Ovinazis.
That logo scares me a whole bunch!
"the cooperation of many"
Most people cooperate after a flash bang wakeup followed by the customary mp5 stitching
1.Place stud and pin in applicator.
2.While holding stud and pin above chickens right ear, hold tag to chickens left ear...
Well, I guess Tammy will be seeing me sooner than later.
Screw 'em. When they shot up at my door, I'll kill 'em all instead of letting them tag or take them. Makes no matter to me.
"shot" = "show" but I can't say what kind of mood I'll be in that day, LOL!
"Government at work."
Isn't it great to be free? They'll be tagging us before long. I think it's time for some serious monkey-wrenching.
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