NoNAIS.org

One of the big excuses used by the USDA and states to argue for NAIS is bird flu, also known as Avian Influenza (H5N1) or Avian Flu and Exotic New Castle Disease. I have been receiving a lot of email from people about several new reports that Factory Farming is what is behind bird flu.

“The report says the deadly H5N1 virus developed inside intensive poultry units in Asia and has proliferated through exports of live birds and the use of chicken droppings as fertilizer. Its publication by Grain, an agricultural pressure group, follows an announcement that the virus has been found in a turkey farm in eastern France. Though the farm was close to where two infected wild ducks were found, all its 11,000 turkeys were kept indoors with no contact with wild birds.” -The Independent of the UK

I readily believe that factory farms have a harder time with bird flu because they have crowded conditions where they maintain weak mono-genetic cultures. All the individuals in the flock are nearly identical and thus susceptible to the same diseases. Any outbreak of disease runs through them like wildfire. It is most interesting that this new research pins the actual blame for Avian Flu on the crowded conditions within factory farms. Specifically that sometimes the viruses mutate from a relatively harmless, common form into more highly dangerous forms within the huge, densely packed populations of industrial, same age birds at factory farms. All this without any exposure to backyard poultry or wild birds.

This flies in the face of governments in a number of countries blaming small pastured poultry farms and then banning outdoor pastured poultry, claiming it is a risk for Avian Influenza. This report from Dr. Jacques Diouf, of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) suggests that it is the global factory farming of poultry that is the real culprit. You can read the whole thing at the link above or this summary of “Fowl play: The poultry industry’s central role in the bird flu crisis”. Interesting reading…

“our report shows clearly that industrial poultry operations are the source of the problems, not the solution. We also note that the notion of biosecurity in uniform industrial poultry operations contradicts the FAO’s own arguments on the problems with factory farming and the importance of local poultry races and genetic diversity” -Dr. Diouf

According to a report at Grain.org this same sort of situation caused the common and mild form of New Castle’s Disease to mutate within factory farms into the deadly disease that wiped out flocks at the large producers. This was then blamed on the small backyard flocks. Dr. Kerry Rood of the Vermont Department of Agriculture used New Castle Disease as an excuse for Premise ID at the March 3rd Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Animal ID in Montpelier. Yet the reality turns out to be that it may be the big producers who are the problem, not the small backyard flocks who were wiped out by the government in response to the discovery of Exotic New Castle’s Disease in 2002. Originally the government said that the path of infection was from the backyard flocks to the commercial flocks (thus disproving the factory farm claims of perfect bio-security) but newer research (see below) suggests the actual path of development of the disease and infection may have been from the factory farms and then out to the backyard flocks.

In California and other places they believed the factory farm corporations claims of perfect bio-security and responded by wiping out the backyard flocks. Australian authorities responded differently. Instead they investigated, found the big producers were the problem, mandated vaccinations for the big flocks and did not slaughter the backyard flocks. This program worked proving that the backyard flocks are not the source reservoir of the disease. Australian officials have this to say when asked if backyard flocks are a problem:

“No. A very mild form of Newcastle disease virus is present in all States. Providing that strain does not mutate into something virulent, it poses no threat to birds. The outbreaks we had on the mainland between 1998 and 2002 were caused by a mutation of the endemic mild strain (known as the V4 virus) into a virulent strain of the virus. All the available evidence indicates that, for such a mutation to occur, it needs a large number of birds in a small area to “generate” the virus mutation process. In simple terms, a small number of birds cannot generate enough virus for the mutation process to occur.” -Australian Government Handout about “NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN POULTRY”

In other words, the American government unnecessarily killed tens of thousands of hens from citizens backyards while ignoring the real threat of crowded factory farms and are using this as one of their excuses for implementing the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). We get blamed for Big Agri-Biz’s industrial sized problems because they don’t want to face the liability that they are the source responsible for the deaths of not just their own birds but also other birds outside their facilities. To admit this would be to prove the lie of their “bio-security” programs.

Democracy or Demonization?

Large producers want more market share. Right now one of their hardest competitors to crack is the small scale pastured poultry operations, both commercial with under 1,000 birds and those that are just homesteaders raising meat and eggs for their own private consumption. Big Agri-Biz is greedy. They want the whole market. They can’t compete on quality or health issues with their antibiotic, chemical laced meat. The pasture raised birds are not just healthier, they taste better and consumers recognize this. So big Agri-Biz is taking advantage of diseases, which they may have actually caused, and their lobbying power within the government is passing laws and regulations like NAIS to kill off their competition. Pretty soon the only eggs, milk and meat you’ll be able to get will come from officially government sanctioned Big-Biz factory farms with their “superior” genetically engineered confinement raised, chemically laced “animals.”

The big producers win by demonizing the small producers and out voting us with their dollars when they lobby lawmakers and rule makers. The solution is we need to vote out the current flawed administration that is taking their bribes and fire the bureaucrats that support Big-Ag and vote in new representatives. Phase two is to change the system. We need protection from big lobbying abuses like the Abramoff scandal that Bush just squashed and will now likely not see the light of day. This used to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We need to take down the totalitarian Big Brother state it has become, a Govi-Corp of the people, by the corporations, for the corporations. We can win and regain our rightful liberties.

Vegetarians Beware

If you are vegetarian you might think you’re just going to sail right through all of this smelling like roses. Not so fast! Realize that virtually all of the good organic manures come from small farms. No more small farms = no more nice manure compost for your garden or for organic farmers - that is no bull shit. Pray don’t tell me you were intending to use the arsenic and copper laced manures from animals at factory farms that have been hormone injected and antibiotic fed their whole lives? That is septic. You would be safer using your own.

[Update: Check out this article.]