NoNAIS.org

In the news:

A Cumberland, Wis., man pleaded no contest and was found guilty Tuesday of violating Wisconsin’s premises registration law, after being granted a new trial in Polk County Circuit Court. Patrick Monchilovich, 39, declined the court’s offer to allow him to register his premises rather than pay a $390 penalty, and reserved his right to appeal.
:
“The vast majority of Wisconsin’s livestock producers have registered their premises; about 60,000 to date,” Wisconsin State Veterinarian Robert Ehlenfeldt says. “We have a minority who have not registered, whether for religious reasons, anti-government sentiment, or whatever other reason.
-Dairy Network

Gee… He equates religious freedom and anti-government sentiment “or whatever”. Is he trying to call us terrorists? Notice the manipulation of language. Standard fascist behavior. From there our Learless Feeder Herr Ehlenfeldt goes on to say:

“But this law came about because our animal agriculture producers asked for it.”
-Dairy Network

HUH!?! No, we did not ask for it. It is being forced upon us. Comments in the Federal Registry about the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) run overwhelmingly against the program. Speakers at the listening sessions across the nation were almost unanimously against NAIS. Farmers and consumers in national independent polls are 92% against NAIS. We did not ask for it. We keep saying No! but they keep forcing it on us. What is wrong with Wisconsion’s government, Department of Agriculture and their state vet? Deaf as dung?

What part of the word “No!” do they not understand? NAIS is not about protection animal health. It is not about protecting our food quality. It is not about food safety. The USDA has stated this in writing. NAIS is not about the American consumer nor is it for small farmers. NAIS is about protecting the profits of Big Ag and they get to be excused from the tagging and tracking. It is a marketing scheme paid for by the American Tax Payer for the benefit of Big Corporations. As small farmers, we already know where our livestock are. It is Big Ag who can’t keep track of their asses.

The time has come to to stop the rape of American farmers by Government Agricultural Regulatory Bureaucrats And Global Exploiters (GARBAGE).

No means No.
Not Now.
Not Ever.
NoNAIS.

Montana just showed up on my radar as another state pushing NAIS despite Congress having defunded it.

The Montana Department of Livestock will host a public meeting on animal disease traceability in Helena, at 1 p.m., Aug. 2, at the Department of Public Health & Human Services Auditorium, 111 N. Sanders. Livestock producers and industry stakeholders are encouraged to attend and learn about USDA’s new traceability framework and provide feedback on the future direction of animal disease traceability in Montana.
-ThePrairieStar

They like to pretend that the resistance to NAIS never happened or that it was some fringe group. Don’t stop fighting now. Attend meetings in your state. Stand up for your rights. It is worth noting that virtually all livestock farmers came out against NAIS during the comment period and at the USDA’s national public meetings. Virtually all livestock farmers are small and would be heavily burdened by NAIS. We don’t export to international markets, we sell locally. NAIS is designed to benefit Big Ag. If they want trace back they should develop their own non-governmental, truly voluntary program which they pay for. Tax payers and small farmers should not be paying to provide Big Ag with the marketing benefits of traceability.

Links:
New USDA New Framework for Animal Disease Traceability
Questions and Answers: New Animal Disease Traceability Framework
Summaries & Transcripts of USDA national public meetings
State/Tribal Forum on Animal Disease Traceability

So why did they Summarize the transcripts? Perhaps they’re afraid of showing just how strongly people were against NAIS? Transcripts should be complete. Otherwise they are suspect. The powers that be, unelected bureaucrats, are manipulating the information stream in order to control people. Remember, they don’t work for you and I the voters. They don’t work for you and I the consumers. They don’t work for you and I the small farmers. None of us have powerful enough lobbyists and the cash to buy these people. The reality is they work for Big Ag, the chemical companies, Monstersanto, the Big Processors, Big Pharma and others who can pad their pockets while the bureaucrats expand their domains to pad their nests. Reality check.

Add Arkansas to the list of states still pushing for the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) despite the fact that Congress cut all funding and virtually all the people across the nation came out against NAIS:

Livestock chief pushing state cattle tracking system as national model
By Rob Moritz
:
Earlier this year, the federal Agriculture Department announced it was dropping the NAIS program in response to negative feedback gathered during a national listening tour in 2009.
The idea behind NAIS, Fitch said, was for the USDA to be able to trace diseased or infected cattle back to their original herds in a short time.
Fitch said 90 percent of those who attended meetings across the country opposed the NAIS program for a variety of reasons, including, among other things, the cost — $3 per cow, because the federal government would know exactly how many cows each farmer has and because the program would have been mandatory.
Now, he said, the USDA wants to provide a more flexible program for tracing cattle that would be administered and operated by the states.
:
Fitch said he plans to attend a meeting in late August in Denver where possible alternatives to the NAIS program are to be discussed.
He said he plans to lobby for Arkansas’ brucellosis program. “I’ll promote the state’s plan but also want to watch and make sure nothing is done that hurts the state’s current program,” Fitch said.
-Arkansas News

Big Ag and the Bureaucrats (sounds like a bad 1950’s rock band) keep trotting out international trade as a key reason for NAIS. Export markets mean nothing for the vast majority of livestock farmers - we sell locally. It is the big producers who ship out but who knows why… As Marsha noted in comments:

Cattle producers need to remind their organization that we are in the cattle business and not the beef meatpacking industry and the State does not need to mandate marketing requirements. Please, remember, for every cow that is exported 2.5 must be imported for U.S. consumption. The traceability plan absolutely has nothing to do with food safety nor will it prevent disease. In fact, it lowers safety standards for the purpose of international trade and invites disease into this country.
-Arkansas News

We don’t need NAIS in any form or flavor. Any way you cut it, NAIS stinks. It isn’t just the cost, and making it cheap to trample on the Constitution or invade our privacy just doesn’t make it acceptable.