NoNAIS.org

For April Fools’ Day if you try to leave a comment my web server will give a fatal error to kill spam. Note that this will not harm you or your computer if you are holding onto a bottle of ant-acids, Pepto-Bismol or Off. It is not necessary to reset your computer or turn off the room lights. However, please do not try to drive immediately after this fatal error.

Comments on NoNAIS.org will be turned off for 36 hours starting now, spanning April 1st and a little into April 2nd to stop commenting from spammers. Due to the Conflicker* virus rampant spread and change date of April Fools’ Day I suspect it may be used to do comment spams on blogs among other things. Rather than my having to kill thousands of spams we’ll just have a short hiatus and comments will be turned back on after we’re safely past the deadline.

Save up any announcements for Thursday, April 2nd, when I’ll turn comments back on after I get back from deliveries.

Cheers,

-WJ

PS. Head on over to my other blog for details on our new adventure, Pig Farmers in Space!

*This virus affects Windows computers. It may turn the affected computers into a zombie that can be used to do things like sending spam, bot attacks and the like. If you have a PC you may want to do a virus check. This virus does not affect Macintosh computers. Wetware and livestock are also not affected by this virus and reporting is not considered necessary under current CDC rules.

The National Journal has an interesting interview with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. Below is the portion dealing with the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS):

NJ: John Clifford, the deputy administrator of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Service recently testified before the House Agriculture Committee about the benefits of a mandatory national animal identification system in preventing the spread of animal disease, but many ranchers oppose a mandatory system. What is your thinking on mandatory animal identification at this time and whether it should be mandatory?

Vilsack: Chairman Peterson certainly understands from a Homeland Security and mitigation of risk standpoint the importance of having some kind of identification system. We want to be supportive of the chairman’s efforts, but I think it will be important for us to create a process by which those who have serious concerns about this are in a position to articulate those concerns and to work with us to resolve or reduce them.

Those who are concerned about the government’s misuse of information, those concerned about privacy and confidentiality, those who are concerned that there is some motive beyond the obvious of making sure that we can mitigate the consequences of a disease because we know precisely where it started and we can quarantine effectively — it is up to us to create a participatory process that brings people to the table. Let’s work through that process and get us to the point that when we have a system, that people are not working to undermine the system or figure out a way around the system. Let’s try to figure out a way in which people can embrace it.
-National Journal

I also found the next question and response most interesting:

NJ: When you speak about the 125,000 largest farmers who produce three-quarters of our food supply, you speak more with respect than with personal fervor. You must have known big farmers in Iowa. What is your view of these farmers and their role?

Vilsack: [Big farmers] are obviously important. They produce 75 percent of the food that we eat and they produce the capacity to export, which allows us to have a trade surplus [in agriculture]. All farmers and all ranchers along the spectrum are important and none are more important or less important.

The folks who are small producers are important because they are the folks who are struggling to populate rural Iowa and rural America, and are struggling to make sure we eat nutritiously. They are the folks who are creating a sense of community with the farmers markets. The people in the middle — God, my heart goes out to them — those are the folks who are struggling every single day to get that pencil to be as fine a point as they possibly can so they stay in business and keep their kids on the farm.

The larger producers — we will really need to provide greater assistance in areas of biotechnology, in terms of export assistance. It’s tough to talk about biotechnology in an emotional way unless you tie it to feeding the world, which I’m happy to do. Everybody’s important.