In the latest release from our learless feeder:
Release No. 4169.08
CONTACT: Press Office (202) 720-4623
UNDER SECRETARY BRUCE KNIGHT DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE 2008 INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK IDENTIFICATION ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
WASHINGTON, July 14, 2008- Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight will participate in a roundtable discussion and deliver remarks at the 2008 International Livestock Identification Association Conference on Tuesday, July 15, 2008.
WHO:
Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce KnightWHAT:
Roundtable Discussion, Remarks at the 2008 International Livestock Identification Association ConferenceWHEN:
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
9:00 a.m. PDT (roundtable discussion)
7:00 p.m. PDT (remarks)WHERE:
Radisson Hotel Sacramento
500 Leisure Lane
Sacramento, CAUSDA News
oc.news@usda.gov
202 720-4623
I await his words of wisdom with baited breath…
Meanwhile, in other news:
OIE Wants Farm-to-fork Animal Traceability
As the U.S. government continues to struggle with the implementation of a national animal identification system, Bernard Vallat, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) director general, is calling for more comprehensive animal-traceability strategies worldwide. “There must be a means of linking the identification and traceability of live animals to products of animal origin so as to achieve traceability throughout animal production and food chain — from farm to fork,” Vallat said. For more, click here.
OIE, in collaboration with Codex, plans to organize an international conference on animal identification and traceability in Buenos Aires in March 2009. Vallat says the conference will emphasize the importance and benefits of identification and traceability, to raise awareness of existing OIE and Codex standards, to determine future requirements for standards and to provide advice and assistance on implementing standards, especially for developing countries.
-OIE.int
Which leads us to this ditty…
Animal identification and product traceability from the farm to the fork must be progressively implemented worldwide Marking animals to know who their owners are is a very ancient practice. Traditional livestock marking systems have existed since time immemorial. They were not generally motivated by health reasons. However, with the progressive intensification of animal production, new tools have been developed to enable animal marking methods to meet a multitude of new needs. Today, animal identification and traceability are important management tools in animal health and food safety. In many countries traceability of live domestic animals and of products of animal origin is a legal requirement.
-OIE.int
Wait one cottin pickin minute! Let’s replay that first sentence…
progressively implemented worldwide
Okay, so much for a voluntary program. Once again they reveal their hand, mandatory or underground. In the future it will be illegal to own livestock, sell animals, raise meat, etc without the express permission of the government along with the accompanying licenses, taxes, fees, fines, punishments and regulations. Traditional farming must make way to progress… and greed.
Now let’s look at the second sentence…
Marking animals to know who their owners are is a very ancient practice.
If you’ll remember the ‘mark on the beasts’ shall be only an official USDA number and it will be a violation of law to remove that mark. Since the marking is done by the ‘owners’ they have now made it eminently clear whom they consider to be the owners of all livestock - the governments. Tomorrow we will not own animals, we serfs will merely be allowed to feed, water, house them and shovel their shit. Once again the USDA, and the international organizations, tip their hand.
First Lesson of the Tipping Point
Starting epidemics requires concentrating resources on a few key areas.Second Lesson of the Tipping Point
The world does not accord with our intuition. Those who are successful at creating social epidemics do not just do what they think is right. They deliberately test their intuitions.Conclusion
What must underlie successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push; just in the right place; it can be tipped.
-Maxwell G.
In other words, look for levers and push…
Hat tip to Irene.
Curiously, our state vet and her right hand guy were on the locally produced NPR North Dakota community update hour this afternoon.
They claim to have sent out over 10,000 livestock producer questionnaires of which only 1400 were returned. (We didn’t receive one so I assume we aren’t on their livestock producer list.)
Out of the 1400 returned questionnaires 1000 felt that NAIS is a good thing.
I will try to find out what questions were asked in order to get a better idea what people were agreeing with.
Comment donna — July 14, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
There are two good articles at goodneighborlaw.com One is “Have Americans Lost Their Will To Be Free?” (mentions Nais) and the other is “Why stealing private and public property becomes easy pickens” . Look at the left sidebar for these 2 current articles…there are many more too.
Comment The Phantom — July 15, 2008 @ 3:07 am
“Out of the 1400 returned questionnaires 1000 felt that NAIS is a good thing.
I will try to find out what questions were asked in order to get a better idea what people were agreeing with.”
If it’s anything like Penn State’s horse owner survey, they asked if you are concerned about tracking disease and being notified. They are making the assumption that that means you think NAIS is a good idea.
Comment Barbara — July 15, 2008 @ 6:02 am
If you can, would you also find out how they came up with the list of 10,000 producers? ND has a high sign-up rate for NAIS - I wonder if these were the producers surveyed?
Comment Ann Nelson — July 15, 2008 @ 7:28 am
Ann, I will find out. It may take a couple of days. We are haying right now in between afternoon thunder storms. I’ll either call the State Vet or stop in her office when we go to Bismarck on Thursday. I would like to get a hard copy of the questionnaire myself. It wasn’t online.
Comment donna — July 15, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Comment #3 Barbara, I am very skeptical of any stats showing a majority of people in favor of NAIS, in any state. In fact I’ll go so far as to call stats showing a majority fabricated or manipulated, but then we shouldn’t be surprised by that.
How the questions are presented in a survey is the trick used to skew things.
If the question were rephrased to be something like, do you think Americans should have property rights or do we live in a free country most Americans would have answered overwhelmingly in the affirmative…Bottom line Americans are asleep and the bureaucrats know how to sing the lullabys to keep them that way…
Comment Bob Constantine — July 15, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
The government polls are are specifically done on biased populations and the wording of the questions is deceptive. There have been several independent surveys where the questions were asked directly. Those independent polls put the opposition to NAIS at about 92% to 96% with support for NAIS being only about 2% to 8%. [1, 2, 3]
Comment walterj — July 15, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
OK. I talked to the State Vet’s assistant in charge of NAIS this morning. At first she was a little ‘testy’ when I asked about the questionnaire and the results. After I made it clear that I simply wanted to know how the ‘producer’ list was compiled - from what sources.
According to this young woman the questionnaire was actually sent from the Ag Statistics agency (state arm of NASS) in Fargo based on a list of ‘producers’ in their data base. She told me that this questionnaire was mailed to between 15,000 & 16,000 ‘producers’. Here is the kicker. The questionnaire was sent two years ago and yet they are talking up the results on a current community affairs npr show as if they had just received results a minute ago.
Out of all those mailed questionnaires only about 1400 were returned. Out of those, 1056 returned the Premise Registration Form which had been included with the questionnaire.
Tomorrow I will call her when in Bismarck to see if she has found a copy of the questionnaire for me. I’m curious.
She also assured me that in ND NAIS is strictly voluntary and is being formulated on brand id for cattle and with a state plan in place that would trump the federal plan. I explained to her that so long as a state department accepts federal dollars they are essentially ‘FEDERALIZED’ in the event of a national emergency. She didn’t seem to understand that concept.
She told me that NAIS is to insure rapid response to animal health issues and food safety. I asked her why USDA sued Creekstone Meats over their BSE testing of all slaughtered cattle. She was aware of that suit. She said, “Yeah, I don’t understand that either.”
I think the local people are just doing a job and do not realize they are working for the devil.
Comment donna — July 16, 2008 @ 6:40 pm
Those employed by the USDA are like soldiers in the army. The generals send them to the front lines and do not tell them all their plans and soldeirs are not to question orders, only obey blindly.
Comment esbee — July 17, 2008 @ 11:33 am
10,000-15,000 forms sent out,1,400 returned,that should tell them something.as for the world telling and demanding the usda we need nais to be able to sell beef in the global market,i would hope mr knight and the usda would have the guts to tell the world that if it had not been for the good ole USofA they would all be speaking german or japanese at this time. the world has no right to demand anything from the usa.
Comment nick — July 18, 2008 @ 5:34 am
esbee can I borrow and mangle you NAIS as seen as selling car idea? I will be at a racemeet Monday?
The FDA has indicated it is getting onto the “farm to fork “ bandwagon (crops and veggies). FDA
. “In the EU, there is a list of ‘official’ vegetable varieties. Seed that is not on the list cannot be ’sold’ to the ‘public’ To keep something on the list costs thousands of pounds each year.” Realseeds.co
The European Union has actually inspected farms in Brazil. thecattlesite
This means we can now bring all those home gardeners on board. No one wants to deal with “the Guide to Good Farming Practices”, security checks, manuals, record keeping, and an inspector knocking on the door.
For anyone protesting it is for food safety….Throw these facts at them
If disease is an issue, then why has there been a decrease in government testing for bovie tuberculosis in California from 10,576 tests in 1995 to 5,100 in 1994 to 1,425 in 1999, Why turn border checks over to a Chihuahuan cattle producers’ association despite the high prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in Mexican cattle?
Because –the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the forming of the World Trade Organization date back to 1995. That was when a group of agribusinesses, tag-manufacturing companies and the USDA started work on NAIS, plus SPS requires no border testing! (Note that 1995 is the same date that USDA began its drastic reduction in disease testing.)
The USDA claims NAIS is to protect the “national herd”. So why was the Creekstone Beef plan to test every cow they process for BSE rejected by the USDA? Why did Creekstone have to sue for the right to test for BSE!
AND If you really want to know what the USDA’s position is on disease check out the Testimony Of Stanley Painter, Chairman National Joint Council of Food Inspection Local Unions, during the Hallmark investigation. oversight.house.gov
“…it frustrates me and many of my members when we are told by our supervisors… not to write non-compliance reports…the agency’s databases may not contain accurate information about the compliance history of meat and poultry plants because of pressure being applied not to write them up for violations….. agency officials subjected me to several hours of interrogation including wanting me to identify which of my members were blowing the whistle…I refused to do so. I was then placed on disciplinary investigation status. The agency even contacted the USDA Office of Inspector General to explore criminal charges being filed against me…”
Comment Snazy snezy — July 18, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
The push to market meat globally is certainly setting the stage for systematic destruction of livestock production at the local level.
I meant to post my question in regard to bovine leukemia on this thread but unwittingly posted it somewhere less appropriate.
According to what I am hearing, bovine leukemia (virus) - similar in outcome to the AIDs (virus) - exists in 90 percent of the cattle in the United States - including dairy cattle. This pathogen is not a threat to human health IF meat is cooked and milk pasteurized.
It becomes less clear what health threat there is to humans who drink raw milk from cows carrying the (virus).
My reading indicates that AIDs is actually not a virus but rather an ‘enhanced’ mycoplasma which wears the immune system to exhaustion thus allowing opportunistic diseases to kill the host.
It appears the bovine leukemia pathogen can be carried by mosquitoes. Now there is something to consider. Why is this ‘disease’ suddenly manifesting itself? I do not know.
I also know that it is crazy to be transporting food sources anywhere but to the nearest point of consumption.
Comment donna — July 19, 2008 @ 10:10 am
yes please use the car dealer analogy to help others understand that NAIS is a free ride for the big ag on our backs!!!
A shorter way is to say what if I had a disease but I force you to take/pay for the meds then I travel the world declaring I am disease free….that is NAIS in the nuttiest nutshell ever!
Comment esbee — July 19, 2008 @ 10:16 am
Thanks, (It is free to all)
Time to hand this to everyone with a garden or at the farmers market!
NAIS is the National Animal Identification System. But what is it, really?
Here’s a good analogy to explain NAIS. … Suppose I had a monster corporation, selling cars all over the world, and I wanted to show the world my clunkers have no mechanical problems, but I know they do. Gotta hide those lemons, blame them on someone else. So I write a business plan on how to show these cars are the best and run great, and arrange to have my plan made a law. As camouflage I add YOU to my plan, because you own a vehicle. No, it’s not one I made, but it IS a vehicle.
According to the new law (did I remember to tell you it’s MY law?), I get to build my cars, buy them, sell them and take them anywhere I want with very few restrictions. YOU, on the other hand, are loaded down with requirements. You must report to the government every place you go, and to microchip your car. I can make money off the microchip, too. (Check out who makes money from microchips that NAIS will be requiring.) Of course, my plan will have regulations that my corporation has to follow, too, but since I have so many cars, I get to make the rules and get special considerations so that I don’t have to spend a lot of money and effort reporting to the government. I even get to own the data base that tracks your car and you have to pay me money to track it! To make everything sound green and helpful, I’ll add to my plan a sweet cover story that forcing YOU to follow all the rules in MY plan will somehow help save the environment. Get it now?
“But (you ask) “isn’t NAIS is about tracking disease and keeping food safe? Not about microchips?”
Sorry, that is not so. NAIS is a business plan, says so right on the cover. Tracking disease was added to convince the public that it is a harmless and possibly worthwhile program.
Look at this–NAIS tracking ends at time of slaughter. Most food safety issues occur during processing. For disease tracking there are already protocols for that in place, and they work just fine.
A large “agri biz” producer gets ONE lot number per group of animals, and does not need to tag them. Any one of those animals could be sick. Small producers (and that includes anyone who owns a handful of chickens or a horse, perhaps YOU) must tag and track every animal individually and must pay for it. The big agri biz controls the data base that the USDA uses in determining the ownership of that diseased animal. Couldn’t have been them. Must be YOU! Perhaps a processing facility improperly prepares some beef, and it becomes tainted with disease. Gotta trace it back to a farm–YOU!
If disease is suspected, depopulation of an entire 6 mile radius (140 square miles) is what is prescribed in the NAIS business plan. This in spite of the fact that most diseases can be cured, inoculated against, or prevented. DEPOPULATION may mean KILLING your PETS, burning YOUR house and restrict YOUR movement
The USDA claims NAIS is to protect the “national herd”. (That’s genuine fascist or communist language. You don’t even own your animals!) So why was the Creekstone Beef plan to test every cow they process for BSE rejected by the USDA? The USDA claimed it would cost too much money when Creekstone was the one paying! Creekstone had to sue for the right to test for BSE!
If disease is an issue, then why has there been a decrease in government testing for bovine tuberculosis in California from 10,576 tests in 1995 to 5,100 in 1994 to 1,425 in 1999, Why turn border checks over to a Chihuahuan cattle producers’ association despite the high prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in Mexican cattle?
These plans have been in the works for a long time–the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and the forming of the World Trade Organization date back to 1995. That was when a group of agribusinesses, tag-manufacturing companies and the USDA started work on NAIS, plus SPS requires no border testing! (Note that 1995 is the same date that USDA began its drastic reduction in disease testing.)
If you really want to know what the USDA’s position on disease really is, check out the Testimony Of Stanley Painter, Chairman National Joint Council of Food Inspection Local Unions, during the Hallmark investigation. http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1870
“…it frustrates me and many of my members when we are told by our supervisors… not to write non-compliance reports…the agency’s databases may not contain accurate information about the compliance history of meat and poultry plants because of pressure being applied not to write them up for violations….. agency officials subjected me to several hours of interrogation including wanting me to identify which of my members were blowing the whistle…I refused to do so. I was then placed on disciplinary investigation status. The agency even contacted the USDA Office of Inspector General to explore criminal charges being filed against me…”
NAIS is just the first step in the plan for control of not only meat but vegetable food production in the USA and worldwide. Do you eat food? As an individual can you afford to allow ONLY large corporations the right to grow and sell food? Do you really want EUROPEAN UNION OFFICIALS knocking on your door to look at the records and manuals needed so your daughter can own a pony or granny can raise some eggs or you can plant a garden? I am kidding right? ASK the Brazilian farmers who was just inspected by the EU. Neither Brazil nor the US is a member of the European Union. Not yet…
What’s happening now?
Falls Church, Virginia, (July 14, 2008) (Business Wire) — Attorneys for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund today filed suit in the U.S. District Court – District of Columbia to stop the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) from implementing the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), a plan to electronically track every livestock animal in the country.
What can we do?
PLEASE HELP DEFEND US FARMERS RIGHT TO GROW FOOD:
The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund: The Fund defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of sustainable farmers, and protects consumer access to local, nutrient-dense foods. Concerned citizens can support the Fund by joining at farmtoconsumer.org or by contacting the Fund at 703-208-FARM. The Fund’s sister organization, the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation (farmtoconsumerfoundation.org), works to support farmers engaged in sustainable farm stewardship and promote consumer access to local, nutrient-dense food.
Comment Snazy snezy — July 19, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
More impt. reading at newswithviews.com today. Look at Tom Deweese’s article on “Barack Obama and the UN’s drive for Global Governance”…a quote:”Specifically, the Charter for Global Democracy was intended to give the UN domain over all the earths land, air and seas and power to control all natural resources, wildlife, and energy sources…even radio waves. Such control would allow the UN to place taxes on everything…” Also read Michael Shaws article: “Liberty or Sustainable Development” (part 3…has two previous ones)…Think Nais, as you read.
Comment The Phantom — July 20, 2008 @ 7:33 am
Snazy snezy…
WOW! You really spiffed up my NAIS/car analogy to a T, a Model T! You made it much easier to understand. And it really should relate to mosteveryone since the majority have cars. (Although with gas prices the way the are, not sure for how much longer!!!!)
Comment esbee — July 21, 2008 @ 3:50 pm