Clark Co. Judge Rules in Favor of Amish in Premises ID Case
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 03/10/2010

A decision has finally been made in the highly anticipated case in which the State of Wisconsin was trying to sue an Amish man for not following Wisconsin’s Livestock Premise Registration law. On Tuesday, Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jon Counsell ruled that Emanuel Miller Jr. of Loyal does have a ‘religious right’ to be exempt from the law, which requires anyone who keeps, houses, or co-mingles livestock to register their premises with the state.
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Meanwhile, an official with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture’s animal health division says he expects the state to appeal the ruling.

The case at one time was referred to as the state’s first such prosecution, until a Polk County judge ruled in October that Patrick Monchilovich of Cumberland violated the four-year-old rule after he refused to register his premises. He was ordered to pay a $200 civil forfeiture and about $190 in court costs.
-WisonsinAgConnection

The state had the goal of persecuting farmers. Not prosecuting criminals but persecuting farmers. Thankfully one judge has put a stop to this nonsense. The USDA has said there will be no mandatory NAIS. Let’s see that reflected at the state level. It is time to cut government funding to the bone since they can’t seem to do anything better than attack citizens. No funds, no agents, no new regulations. When it comes to voting time, create deadlocks.

As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time - the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.

Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket chains compile. “It was really exciting. It was a break in the investigation for sure,” CDC epidemiologist Casey Barton Behravesh said. At least 245 people in 44 states have been sickened in the outbreak. That includes 30 in California, 19 in Illinois, 18 in New York and 17 in Washington state.
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So the CDC asked supermarkets for certain buying information on seven victims in Washington state, focusing on suspect products rather than everything the customers had bought, Behravesh said. “We didn’t care about the brand of toilet paper people were buying,” she said.

Of those seven people, five had bought Italian meats made by the Rhode Island company, Danielle International Inc., Behravesh said. Further investigation - including the use of data from other victims’ shopper cards - pointed to salami made by Danielle and, more specifically, the imported pepper it was coated in. That came from two spice suppliers in New York and New Jersey. All three companies have since recalled some products.

The CDC would not say how many patients gave access to their accounts or were asked to do so, but Behravesh said most agreed. “Most of the time when a person gets really sick with a food-borne pathogen, they’re very happy to talk with us and try to help out with the investigation,” she said.
-APNews

The fact that the CDC was able to so quickly and successfully use the voluntary consumer shopping cards of just the consumers who agreed to release their own data to track down the salmonella contaminated pepper is proof that we do not need mandatory tracking systems. People should have the fundamental freedom to opt-in or opt-out of any of these sorts of programs at their discretion. Their data should only be used with their permission.

Here’s a look at what the federal government has proposed:
– Age restrictions: No one under the age of 18 will be able to drive a farm vehicle, including implements, with a combined weight of more than 17,000 pounds.
– Medical certification: Drivers must receive a valid medical certificate to determine if they are physically qualified to drive. Drivers of farm vehicles weighing more than 17,000 pounds will also need a certification whenever the truck is operated more than 150 miles from the farm.
– Driver’s logs: Drivers will be subject to similar hours of service as trucking companies. Those standards include break time and keeping a log of driver’s activity.
– Vehicle inspection: Farmers will be required to conduct pre-trip inspections and complete written post-trip safety reports.
-Farm and Dairy News

Forcing farmers to act like long distance truckers will destroy small farms. Bureaucrats are ceaselessly looking for more ways to extend their domain by taking away our traditional rights to live our lives.

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

Cheers,

-WalterJ

Washington – In a landmark RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) lawsuit certain to have far-reaching implications for the animal rights movement, Feld Entertainment and the Ringling Brothers circus sued the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), its lawyers, and several other animal rights groups last week. The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) unearthed the lawsuit in federal court records today. CCF is making the lawsuit available online at its newest website, www.HumaneWatch.org.

“America’s farmers, ranchers, hunters, fishermen, research scientists, fashion designers, and restaurateurs have seen for decades how the animal rights movement can behave like a mobbed-up racket,” said CCF Director of Research David Martosko. “But it’s still shocking to see the evidence laid out on paper. In a treble-damage lawsuit like this, a jury could actually do the humane thing and finally put HSUS out of business completely.”

In its February 16 lawsuit, Feld leveled bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice, and money laundering charges against HSUS and two of its corporate attorneys; three other animal rights groups; the Washington, DC law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal; and all three of that firm’s named partners.

On December 30, 2009, Federal Judge Emmitt Sullivan ruled that these defendants collaborated to pay more than $190,000 to Mr. Tom Rider, a former Feld employee who was an elephant “barn helper” for two years in the late 1990s, in exchange for his impeached testimony against Feld in an earlier lawsuit—testimony Judge Sullivan declared “not credible” and disregarded in its entirety. That lawsuit was dismissed.

Feld is also suing Mr. Rider, and a nonprofit “Wildlife Advocacy Project” charity, claiming that Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal used it to funnel money from their plaintiff clients to Mr. Rider. These clients included the Fund for Animals, which merged with HSUS in 2004.

“The new HumaneWatch website is the only place the public will be able to read this lawsuit,” Martosko added. “We’re publishing a treasure trove of information about the Humane Society of the United States, including lots of surprising documents that HSUS would rather remain hidden from its contributors.”

Last week CCF launched www.HumaneWatch.org, an online watchdog project dedicated to analyzing HSUS’s activities and keeping the group honest. It includes a blog, an interactive document library, and a growing body of information about HSUS-related organizations and staff.

To read this explosive federal racketeering lawsuit, visit www.HumaneWatch.org.To arrange an interview, call Allison Miller at 202-463-7112

Premises registration database expunged? … NO.

Glenn Fisher. he’s proud of the scrapie program. Few modifications it could be make to fit other species. Traceability to a location.

Chuck Kiker. traceability to a location, how do you do that?

GF, tag denotes premises,

Prem ID tied to land. Any change to that?

JC Something that will be discussed

Adam from Holisten…state can continue to use established databases?

Clifford…USDA is not going to require PINs State will not have to have a system for ex…. using low cost tags, if a state wants to use official id silver, bruce program, tb, the state could just use that type of system if they so choose.

Nancy…

JC …up to the state to decide which level they want to go to. Don’t have to take it to a specific location. If they can’t find the location, there will be consequences, if you get a bruce trace into a state and you can’t find that, there are certain things that will have to take place

Nancy, what needs to be all that difference, enhancing current system, id of adult cattle, I don’t see what has to be so difference.

Joel…we didn’t see any reward for the risk, what is on the positive reward end, benefit for going above and beyond.

JC move your animals effectively interstate with little problems or issues

Joel, but we haven’t seen that, borders are still shut down.

Neil Dirks…

Bullard….what id meets USDAs needs…feeder cattle, health certs, brands….where is the system functioning properly?

JC..we haven’t take the levels of thresholds conversation, animals tracable back to the state or tribe. all current id that is recognized, no intent of changing that as long as it can get us back to the state or tribe.

Nancy…aren’t alot of those standards UMRs

??raised our fees 10 fold…is there going to be money available, otherwise it is coming out of our pockets. Our states ag dept has had layoffs

JC Non an unfunded mandate, we will be looking for funds from congress included in that to purchase low cost id tags to provide free of charge to producers. that’s our hope, if we aren’t able to get those resources, that will obviously affect what we and the states can accomplish.

??Funds for staff?

JC yes

Nancy…hope that money isn’t going to go into the bureacracy…if states decide to want to begin to tag adult cattle and one of the ways to get that done, cost share, pay the vets, that is where the money needs to be right.

JC I agree Interstae commerce…we recognize that after the fact, actually move across state lines or trible boundaries…

Nancy…hands off intrastate commerce?

JC intrastate is totally up to the states. USDA is only interested in interstate.

Neil… for those animals crossing state lines, potential, if a state didn’t do anything, in essence have a state quarantined until it got something done. Is it all the species…

JC regionalization is always available if needed , that is an option regardless. We know we aren’t going to get 100%, it is unrealistic goal.

JC Not going to be saying 48 hour traceability. Being able to trace a certain amount of time. Weeks instead of months. Not 180 days. Paper records work.

As I reported after returning from the NIAA (National Institute for Animal Agriculture) meeting last August, rumors of the death of NAIS have been greatly exaggerated. (Read) The USDA has finally admitted that they have too much negative publicity surrounding the name NAIS, and that they actually have to do what they tried to do in the first place: get the states to do their bidding on ‘animal identification’ and ‘traceability’ according to World Trade Organization standards. So yippee. They are only going to exercise their rule-making authority to control interstate commerce. Well, that’s all they had the authority to do at the outset. So we should be giddy with excitement that they are openly proclaiming they will do just that now.

Should we be happier than a pig in a puddle because they openly stated that they will leave animals which never exit the state out of the new plan? They never had the authority to deal with those animals anyway
unless, of course, you take money from the USDA. Otherwise, that authority rests with your state. The USDA will continue to fund the states and work in a ‘collaborative’ way with states and industry (continuing the Public Private Partnership otherwise known as fascism) to develop the “minimum standards” that must be followed in order to participate in interstate commerce.

So, as many conversations with my compatriots in the fight against NAIS have alluded to, at last the USDA is pulling the commerce clause out and holding it up as their hammer for “minimum standards” that will be required by forthcoming regulations for ‘disease traceability’. And why has the USDA taken to calling it ‘disease traceability’ instead of ‘animal identification’? Because they only HAVE authority over the diseases! The FDA has authority over live animals on the farm, even though the majority of people don’t know this, and it is a very useful poker chip in the globalization game. It is called misdirection, and those of us who have been deeply involved in the fight against the NAIS are very aware of this agency’s use of misinformation, disinformation, subterfuge and general sneakiness in foisting upon us their WTO driven desire that will create captive supply for export of the entire domestic livestock population.

The only official document available on the “NAIS not NAIS” program is a seven page Q and A available at the new page for “NAIS not NAIS” called Animal Disease Traceability. It’s only 7 pages, so if you have read the previous 1200 pages of USDA documents on this program, it’s a walk in the park.

One of the first questions that one asks when told “NAIS is Dead!”, (aside from “what’s it’s new name?”) is “What about all the people who are in the Premises Database with PIN’s already?” According to the 7-page document, they stay in that database.

How about animals that are already identified with the “840″ tags for NAIS? They also stay in the database. What about the “840″ tags themselves? Well, the USDA and States will keep using them.

Are they going to halt further registrations into the NAIS database? Heck no! They’ll keep registering properties and will also be using a ‘unique location identifier’ for this kinder, gentler NAIS that the States will run for us.

Why are they re-using the first two prongs of NAIS? Aside from the unstated fact that they are using them because they have to use them to be compliant with OIE (World Animal Health Organization) guidelines, they say it’s because of the tremendous amount of money spent developing NAIS already even though it is un-Constitutional.

How much money? It’s government math, so it’s likely done by consensus as opposed to literal whole numbers that add up- you know, like 2+2=4. Consensus would make it possible for 2+2 to equal 5. Anyway, figures cited by various officials are anywhere from $120 million to $180 million. Less than 60¢ per person, so almost nothing when compared to the monstrous 107 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities we are currently carrying. Believe me, when I say I am not for government waste at all, but when an agency has spent this much time and money on an unfruitful program, isn’t it better to simply fully knock it in the head instead of changing the name and playing “Hide and Go Seek” with the people who have adamantly opposed this program? Why couldn’t the USDA do the only truly Constitutional thing with this international-trade driven program and let those who want to deal in international markets do this to themselves through the Export Verification Services department of the USDA? Well, if they did that, not only would they have to actually be fully open and transparent, they would need to let the public in on the big secret that the United States is no longer in charge of its own policies, rather they are obligated to follow the Sanitary PhytoSanitary (SPS) directives of the World Trade Organization agencies, namely Codex Ailimentarius, the OIE and the IPPC (International Plant Protection Convention).

And we still have the very real issue of the massive database for premises registration (or the unique location allocator) having no public or verifiable oversight to check whether or not people who have been told they were removed were in fact removed from that database. So if NAIS is dead, why not allow the database to be annihilated? Obviously, they are still following the plan.

What about the states that have passed legislation designed to constrain NAIS from becoming mandatory within their boundaries? How will this new disease traceability program affect them? Well, since this is NOT NAIS and the regulations aren’t yet written, the states will have to wait to find out what requirements they MUST MEET in order to participate in interstate commerce. There’s your hammer.

So how powerful is the interstate commerce clause? Pretty dang powerful. And if people who dealt in the local food movement fully understood Wickard vs. Filburn, they would feel no consolation whatsoever from the USDA’s statement that they are not interested in regulating livestock that stay within the state.

In a nutshell, this 1942 Supreme Court case found that since Filburn had accepted money as part of the Agricultural Adjustments Act and then grew wheat to feed his own livestock, that he was not only subject to the regulation of the USDA by accepting that money, but also, since he grew wheat, he hadn’t purchased it, and had he not grown it, he would have had to purchase wheat which would have likely come through interstate commerce. Therefore, his planting of wheat affected interstate commerce and solidified the USDA’s jurisdiction over his actions.

If you transplant “tomato” for wheat you can see how sinister this ruling truly is. If you grow tomatoes, you won’t be buying them, so if you don’t buy them, and since the store bought tomatoes likely cross state lines in their movement, you are affecting interstate commerce by growing tomatoes
.This is precedent, and it is a very, very dangerous precedent. So taking money or help from the USDA to establish your local farmer’s market is going to put you into a relationship that is highly precarious for freedom.

The interstate commerce clause was not designed to hammer states into submission to federal or international agency trade objectives, it was to stop states from unfairly discriminating against each other and to enable us to be a strong union of sovereign states that could actually feed itself and prosper. The only thing to do is to keep fighting with full knowledge and to get the States to exercise their duty to protect the Citizens from an overarching Federal government. We need states to completely free up direct trade between farmers and consumers and we need states to work together to create their own criteria for exchange of goods across state lines.

Do we have to ’stay engaged’ in conversations with the USDA on this “New Not NAIS”? Yes, to keep telling them to go sell crazy somewhere else, we’re all stocked up here, thank you. They should tend the borders, control and actually inspect the imports, run the disease programs that worked and were not massive consolidations of power in federal hands, and for cryin’ out loud INSPECT the packing plants and stop trying to make consumers believe that farmers and ranchers are responsible for sloppy slaughtering!

Also, go ahead and leave a bunch of the milk chocolate rabbits for us. Chocolate is one thing we probably should import, but certainly not at the cost of our freedom and sovereignty.

© 2010 Doreen Hannes - All Rights Reserved

Another animal ID poll on TheHorse.com. About halfway down the page on the left. We need more people to respond to “Should some form of permanent identification be required for every horse in the United States?”

Poll

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