Have at it, communicate and keep up the good fight!

Cheers,

-WalterJ

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.

Just a reminder that tomorrow, Aug. 27th is the big public meeting at Colorado State Univ. at Fort Collins, Colorado..where Sec. of Ag Vilsack and Attorney General Holder will be holding a meeting re: rural america…R-CALF has asked for as many people as possible to be there…For more information go to their website r-calfusa.com Then, you have the rally in Wash. D.C. on the 28th, I believe, that Glenn Beck has organized…I think the theme is around…”honesty”..in government…thanks again Walter for your writings and this website…

A second trial to be held in case of livestock registry law
BALSAM LAKE, WI - A second trial will be held today for the first person convicted of violating a law that requires farmers to register their livestock premises with the state. … Donna Gilson of the state agriculture department said a new trial was granted because the federal government had rejected a national law that’s similar to Wisconsin’s. … Monchilovich will be tried again in Polk County. And Gilson says other prosecutors will be watching, to decide whether to press ahead with similar cases in Grant, Vernon, and Price counties.
-Pierce County Herald

This is one of the many reasons why the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a baaahd idea according to my sheeple. They keep ramming it down our throats despite our bleats of protest. Apparently they missed the part about “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
-Abraham Lincoln

We do not need permission from the government to farm, to associate, to speak. The USDA, FDA and WI Dept of Ag and other agencies are violating the fundamental Constitutional rights of the people of our nation with their gradual implementation of restrictive laws and regulations that monitor and control our lives.

In the Burlington Free Press newspaper Sunday edition Green section there is an article by yours truly. It is part of a series of “I Believe…” The editor had given me the writing assignment a couple of weeks ago so I had some time to mull it over. It was an interesting angle to think about things from.

If you’re not yet familiar with our family’s “Big Project”, hop on over to read about how we’re building our own nano-scale on-farm inspected slaughterhouse and butcher shop here at Sugar Mountain Farm. Since banks aren’t lending (despite our bailing them out) we’re funding it by bootstrapping with money from our family farm, our sustainable forestry and the help of customers who are buying CSA Pre-Buys of our pastured pork. Concrete gets hard to pour in the snows and deep freeze of winter so our goal is to raise $30,000 more to close in the building before winter hits. Once we’re closed in we can continue working inside through the cold season.

A bit of reassurance: no, I have not gone over to the dark side by building a USDA/State inspected meat processing facility for our farm. I was actually doing research for regulatory information on this project many years ago when I found out about the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) via documents I dug up in their online files. I’m still solidly against NAIS, S.510 and all those sorts of things. I don’t like some of the aspects of how they apply Big Ag rules to small processors but I must deal with them to get our pork to the customer’s fork.

Keep up the good fight to prevent NAIS and it’s ilk in any of their various disguises from sneaking their way into our lives. If we ever want to see how bad it can be, all we need to do is look across the pond at DEFRA in England.

Normally I encourage people not to send money but rather to spend your money locally on posters, fliers and other ways of fighting for our rights. Paying for the server every few years is a bit of a special case and I’m low on cash this time so any and all support is appreciated.

Any amount you could send will help. If you would like to send a donation you can do it via paypal.com to walterj@sugarmtnfarm.com or by using the button

or you can send donations to:

Walter Jeffries
NoNAIS at Sugar Mountain Farm
252 Riddle Pond Road
West Topsham, VT 05086

I appreciate all the people that have sent donations previously. Do note that these are not tax deductible donations. After all, we are fighting the government here…

Dear Dr. Smith,

The USDA used to call “Animal Traceability” the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and at many points claimed they were going to literally force it down our throats as a mandatory system. Due to intense public scrutiny and pressure they backed down, first removing the word mandatory and then in February of this year they abandoned it, or so they said in their press release. Congress has eliminated all funding for this program. Vermont rejected this program two years ago. For a lot of history on this issue see:
http://NoNAIS.org

During this saga the Vermont Agency of Agriculture under Kerr tried to force this issue on Vermont and was soundly rebuffed both by the public, by farmers and by the legislature. Kerr had the audacity to literally claim he did not need legislative permission. The legislature stopped him and ordered that he get public input and then the legislature would consider it. Hearings were held here in Vermont and the program was dumped. Kerr ended up deposed by this issue. Small farmers and consumers almost universally spoke out against NAIS and its component programs. This is very well documented. Calling it a new name doesn’t change the game. We still don’t want Premise ID, Animal ID or Animal Tracking. For Vermont specific information see:
Vermont on NAIS
Vermont Says No to NAIS
Kerr Steps Down

Last year the USDA did a listening tour around the nation and just like what happened in Vermont they got a virtually universal “No!” from attendees. They also got thousands of written comments in the Federal Registry and directly to them. Virtually all of the comments opposed NAIS. For details see:
Listening Sessions
Federal Registry

Animal traceability will not lead to better food safety. Even the USDA has admitted that it is not about food safety. That is a ruse to call it anything to do with food safety.

The problem with food safety is not on the farm, the problem starts at slaughter and beyond with the big processors and their high line speeds. Big Ag has problems with feeding too much grain, with antibiotic overuse, with disease, with polluting, with dust and emissions. These are not our small farm issues here in Vermont. If Big Ag wants traceability, let them build their own private system and fund it themselves. American tax payers and small farmers should not subsidize Big Ag’s marketing programs.

For disease tracking we already have systems in place for contacting farmers. There’s an old invention called the radio and several newer ones like the Telephone, TV and more recently the Internet. We don’t need one more expensive bureaucracy eating up our tax dollars and paper work plus tagging increasing the overhead for farmers. There is no benefit to us farmers or consumers.

The fact is small farmers already have traceability. This is actually one small marketing advantage we have over Big Ag. We know where our animals are - they’re out in our fields from birth onward. Consumers buying from us know this too. They can drive by our farm any time and see our animals grazing in our fields. We do not need to add extra layers of government red tape and all the associated costs to accomplish traceability.

Government mandatory traceability is bad for small farms. It produces increased paperwork, costs for tagging and equipment and a waste of our time. Studies show that NAIS and related programs will result in a large increase in the per animal costs for small farmers because they can’t amortize the costs over many animals. Even worse, learn about the disaster in Australia with their 11 million phantom cattle in their similar system where small farmers can’t get paid full price for their meat because the system has failed and the tagging and tracking isn’t working.

Meanwhile, back on the factory farm, Big Ag gets exemptions by doing Group IDs where they don’t even have to tag their animals or do individual animal paperwork. This further lowers their costs and subsidizing their operations while stealing the benefit of traceability from small farms who do it already themselves. Big Ag already gets virtually all of the farm subsidies in this country. Why should we be subsidizing them further? If they want more market share and more profits let them earn it the hard way. Try Capitalism for a change. While we’re at it, cut all farm subsidies and let them see what it is like to compete with small farms on a level playing field. Even our dairy farms would be better off without the milk program which limits the price they can earn per hundred weight. Farm subsidies are a problem. (On a closely related note, the absurdity of taxing farm and forest land as if it were housing developments should be corrected - farm and forest are a benefit and should not pay any educational taxes and minimal municipal tax. Meanwhile, assets like 401K’s, IRA’s and other assets should be taxed if assets like homes and land are to be taxed.)

NAIS is a guaranteed work program for tag manufacturing and other companies in the tracking business. A mandatory tracking program forces farmers to buy products and guarantees the profits for the companies making those products. Government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. They screwed that up with the bailout and their “too big to fail” list. Let’s not repeat that mistake.

NAIS is also a work program for expanding government. It will take thousands of new government employees to administer NAIS. Otherwise they’re not going to be able to “Drive every back road” as the USDA said it would do to force NAIS on us. A smaller government would still be too much.

Realize that if the government tags it then they’ll start taxing it. They already do this in Barre, Vermont where they put a tax on chickens and even each honey bee. In England it is far worse where DEFRA has been destroying the rural economy for years. They it illegal for people to keep animals, move animals about or otherwise farm without their permission and paying all of the crippling fees and taxes. They’ve destroyed their rural economy through their kill programs and over regulating. Please don’t do this here in Vermont or in the USA.

In the end, there is no benefit to the consumer, the taxpayer or the small farmer. NAIS and any new program like it are a waste of money and time. You can call it what ever you want but a boondoggle is still a boondoggle.

What puzzles me is why we have to keep fighting against this. People overwhelmingly do not want NAIS or anything like it. In polls over 92% of the people say they don’t want NAIS. They said so in Vermont with a resounding “No!” at the listening sessions in 2006. They said so with a resounding “No!” around the nation in 2009. There are tens of thousands of comments in the Federal Registry and almost all of them say “No!” to NAIS. How many times must we say “No!” before we stop getting raped? No means No. It is that simple.

I hope that you will take this message to the powers that be and oppose the new animal traceability program. We don’t need it. We don’t want it. We have told them over and over before.

Sincerely,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm, LLC
Orange, Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog

Save 30% off Pastured Pork: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa
Butcher shop story: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
Literature: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/lit

Dr. Smith’s full press release:

Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:20:19 -0400
From: Julie Smith DVM PhD julie.m.smith@uvm.edu
Subject: Vermont Weighs in on New Traceability Framework

Some of you have probably seen the Dairy Herd Management article about the new approach to traceability being proposed by USDA. I am planning to attend a symposium at the end of this month where the new standards will be discussed. Please direct any comments or questions on this issue my way.
Thanks!
Julie

*Vermont Weighs In on New Traceability Framework*

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was replaced by a new framework for animal traceability to support disease control efforts as announced by USDA on February 5, 2010. Public meetings have been held across the country this summer with more scheduled for August. Transcripts of past meetings are available on the USDA website: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/traceability/meetings/meeting_summary.shtml

The US Animal Health Association and National Institute for Animal Agriculture are hosting a joint forum on animal disease traceability in Denver, August 30-31, 2010. The goal of the forum is to foster and facilitate discussion among State and Tribal animal health officials, animal producers, livestock marketers and handlers, and meat processors regarding standards being developed by USDA’s Traceability Regulatory Working Group. More information on the forum and how to register can be found on the NIAA website: Registration

The preliminary standards are expected to be released in mid-August, ahead of the forum. Dr. Julie Smith, University of Vermont Extension Dairy Specialist, will be attending the meeting and would like to represent the views of Vermont dairy farmers. Please convey your comments and questions to Julie by phone at 802.656.4496 or e-mail at julie.m.smith@uvm.edu.

Public Meetings

USDA is hosting public meetings to discuss animal disease traceability. Public meetings will take place from 8:00 AM-4:00 PM local time, with registration beginning at 7:00 AM.

Wednesday, August 18
Crowne Plaza Madison
4402 East Washington Avenue
Madison, WI 53704
Agenda for Wisconsin Meeting

Friday, August 20
Doubletree Hotel Atlanta Airport
3400 Norman Berry Drive
Atlanta, GA 30344

Tuesday, August 24
Red Lion Hotel
2525 N 20th Avenue
Pasco, WA 99301
Agenda for Georgia and Washington Meetings
Additional meetings will be scheduled in the coming weeks. If you have any questsion or comments regarding the meetings, please contact us at traceability@aphis.usda.gov.
-USDA Web Blight

What part of “No!” does the government not understand? Do you feel raped yet? Time to start screaming.

The regulations are being drafted six months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped an unpopular voluntary program meant to trace livestock movement, and they are expected to be implemented in 2013. [Get a clue, USDA. Smaller farmers and consumers overwhelmingly do not want NAIS.

“A voluntary system has not worked so far, and that’s why the USDA has gone back to the drawing board and created a system that relies much more strongly on compulsory or mandatory identification instead of voluntary,” said Marty Zaluski, the Montana state veterinarian and a member of the USDA working group drafting the new rule.
:
USDA is holding a series of public meetings on the proposed regulations and plans to have a draft rule ready in April 2011. The final rule is expected to be published a year to 15 months after that, with full implementation a year after the final rule is published.
-CNBC