HenWhisperer just started a Vermont Against NAIS discussion group on Yahoo groups. I have added it to the List Discussions in the sidebar. This was instigated because she found out that the Vermont Public Radio program Switchboard (Tuesday, Jan. 31st, 7 pm to 8 pm ET) will have House Representative Bernie Sanders (VT-Independent) on for the discussion. Bob Kinzel is the host. Call 1-800-639-2211 to join the conversation. This is a widely heard program and an ideal time to get out the word about the dangers of NAIS.
Sanders is running for reelection this year so now is the time to get him to take a stand against NAIS. He needs to know just how bad an idea NAIS is and that people are against it. Write him at bernie@mail.house.gov and also call up the show to talk with him. This will give you the chance to ask him directly why he would support legislation that will hurt Vermont small farmers and homesteaders.
Vermont’s Agricultural commissioner, Steve Kerr and our state vet, Rood Kerry are both strongly pro-NAIS and want to take it all the way to the backyard level, registering every single animal and premise in Vermont. Someone who knows them said that they are buddies with members of the group who worked on the NAIS draft proposal for the USDA which strongly favors big corporate farms. So far, they’re really only getting input from the big guys who favor NAIS. They need to hear from common folk about how NAIS will affects us. In addition to hurting small family farms, homesteaders, 4H, homeschoolers and horse owners, NAIS could be the death knell for the Vermont Buy Local movement that the Vermont Department of Agriculture pushes publicly. NAIS will destroy the local supply.
On top of that, Vermont is highly dependent on tourists. If the small farmers are decimated, and they’re already hard hit, then they will sell out to the developers who’ll plant condos instead of corn. Do you think that people will want to come to Vermont to ooo-and-ahhh over the SUV’s parked in the driveways rather than the cows grazing in the fields. It’s a NAISty domino effect that could result in border to border development of Vermont.
How to contact Vermont People of Power:
Specific points I have been making in my letters are:
- NAIS will create an unnecessary burden of reporting for small farmers who sell direct to customers. We sell direct already have 100% track-back so it is not necessary. The best defense against BSE, and the like, is to buy from local farmers who pasture their animals instead of feeding them dead, ground up cow parts. The added costs of registrations, fees, tags, equipment and labor will drive many small farmers out of business. This is not an issue for the big farmers because they can use large group registration ID’s and have a large volume to spread the costs over. Small farmers will have to tag and track every single animal at a much higher cost.
- NAIS is not necessary at all for homesteaders and pet owners. The government has no business telling us how, or if, we can grow our own food. They have no business demanding that we register our homes as farms and pay for Premise ID’s. They have no business threatening us with $1,000 per day fines if we fail to report that a chicken crossed the road or a coyote made a mess of grandma’s little hen house. The last thing we need in our lives is more Big Brother government. This is not supposed to be a nanny state.
- NAIS will not prevent disease. Its’ goal is to provide 48-hour track back AFTER the problem is discovered. That could be weeks or months late. Good farming practices, like not feeding dead cows to your cows, are the thing to prevent Mad Cow Disease. Nothing is going to stop Avian Flu (H5N1) because the government tells us it is spread by wild birds (this is the same government that wants to send American chickens to die in China and return as dinner for American consumers. You know, China, the home of the bird flu…
- NAIS will destroy the Buy Local movement by eliminating small farms. Don’t try and tell me that Cargils and Tyson are going to want to sell at the local farmer’s market.
- NAIS will harm our environment by further moving farming into the hands of the big corporations with their factory farms. These farms create massive pit lagoons, sewage and stench. The US will produce only anti-biotic, chemical laced meats on paved over fields that are covered with factories producing bacon and eggs in little cages. Oh, joy!
- NAIS will exasperate our dependance on foreign petroleum because food will have to be shipped further.
- NAIS will make our food supply less secure and more open to terrorist activity by concentrating it in huge factory farms. Think, would Osoma Bin Ladin want to hit Waldo’s little dairy farm with its 50 pastured cows spread out over the mountain or would they go for the big 1,000 cow factory farm where all the cows are handily imprisoned in stanchions? The big target is what terrorists want. NAIS plays right into their hands.
- NAIS will result in more real estate development as farmers sell out. Even worse, because a great many small farms will all fail in a short period of time so when they go bankrupt, the real estate bubble will burst as their prime land floods onto the market to be snapped up by developers for pennies on the dollar.
- NAIS gives the government the right to violate your freedoms, come onto your property and confiscate and destroy your healthy animals without due process or legal appeal. There are no checks and balances. NAIS violates the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution.
- NAIS may be a good idea for the big farms, feed lots and factory farms who sell into the commercial food chain, but it is bad for everyone else.
- NAIS was originally conceived to create more export markets for the big beef producers. It is good for big Agri-Biz so let them have it. Make it voluntary. Just leave the rest of us out of it.
- NAIS will result in the consolidation of the production of food into the hands of fewer and fewer large corporations thus endangering our national herd and food security.
- NAIS is being slipped through as a regulation without sufficient public awareness, comment or legislative review. This is a violation of our constitution and our rights. What next? They’ll want neighbors spying on neighbors? Oh, right, that provision is right there in NAIS. Read it and weep.
Please write people. Talk with friends and neighbors. Get the word out. If everyone who reads this writes, we’ll tickle the underbelly of the beast.
What we need is a compromise: NAIS should be completely voluntary forever and we need the government to start respecting the Constitution. The big boys who want NAIS can have it, but it should not be forced on small farmers, homesteaders and pet owners. Our country is about freedom of choice. NAIS is about fascism. Add one letter and NAIS becomes Nazis. Just a coincidence, of course.
