NoNAIS.org

Whoa! Do you think we’ve got them nervous?

When the head of media relations met me he was very friendly. When he was introduced to Doreen Hannes, he physically started, like he might have gotten an electric shock. We laughed about that later.

All of the morning PowerPoint presentations will be provided to us media types, they even gave us memory sticks. When I get the PowerPoints, I’ll load them into the files section on Vermont Against NAIS and then post the appropriate notes to go along with each.

Weimers said NAIS is about filling the void in disease control and not about controlling the lives of people. (Oh, did I mention that if lies were rain, we would have all drowned in that room this afternoon.) He likened the resistance to NAIS to when credit cards were introduced. He asked for a show of hands, who had/didn’t have credit cards. Everyone had credit cards, so that supposedly proved his point about 100% compliance for a voluntary program. “I foresee a day when this is the way business is done.” Another nugget from Weimers: He told the activist from Wisconsin, “We will drive every road in the country and find every animal.” I am on purpose going to find him and get him to say the same thing to me. [See this later quote from Weimers too.] [Still later the USDA tries to deny this in the NYTimes and blames us for spreading missinformation. Apparently they are realizing how foolish they sound.]

As I have come to see it, the specific working groups have done what have to make the inevitable program more palatable. It has never occurred to them, apparently, that the program is fundamentally wrong and could be stopped if they put as much effort into stopping it as they have in writing their recommendations. Linda Campell and Doreen talked for over an hour and still she did not get it.

Interestingly enough, at the end of the q & a session, one of the NIAA staff brought up “the state who recently put premises registration on hold” (Vermont! -WJ) and they talked about the confidentiality issue. Confidentiality came up several times, always with that tone of voice, incredulous that anyone would find any problem at all with giving info to the gov’t. The conclusion about Freedom of Information Act was that all info will be FOIA exempt. Each state will have to look at the issue in relation to state’s laws, and this exemption will need federal and state legislation.

That’s all for now.

Pray for us. I mean it. We are in deep, over our heads, here.

-Sharon

[As Sharon sends me additional updates I’ll post them here on this article. -WJ]

Wednesday

From: henwhisperer
Subject: “I wish I’d taken the blue pill”
Date: August 23, 2006 7:20:28 PM EDT

General Session V - Effective Communications of NAIS
Session Summary: Education and outreach opportunities are key to a successful national animal identification effort….

USDA Communication Plan - Dore Mobley, USDA, APHIS Legislative and Public
Affairs.

Dore’s presentation was very short and to the point. A consulting firm they hired did blog research of 93 blogs to identify key themes. They found there were 5 major themes:

Burden on the small farmer 40%
Tracking of every animal movement 27%
Civil Liberty issues 16%
Economic Burden (didn’t get it)
Fines for non-compliance 10%

According to Dore, non-producers only need premises id “as cited in the Guide for non and small producers”.

Seemed to me to be the perfect time to ask the question that Walter brought up about how she and Neil have never answered his questions. Hey, I mean, the session WAS about communication, right?

So I go up to the microphone and introduce myself, acknowledging that she and I had talked before on the phone. Nice polite smile from her. “Since you brought up blogs, Dore, I know NoNAIS.org is one of the blogs you must have identified.” A yes smile from her. “So, we were wondering why you and Neil have never answered Walter Jeffries questions from back in April. What happened?” No smile this time, but that tone again.

“We get thousands of emails every week and we just don’t have the time to respond to each of them individually.”

“But you said in an email to him that you would answer his questions. It seems to me that if you are truly concerned about the misconceptions….” I was cut off. “We answered Mr. Jeffries questions in the Guide for Non and Small Producers. Have you read it?” I swear, if one more person condescendingly asks me if I’ve read it, I am sure…well, have you seen the Matrix?

Earlier in the day I looked right into John Wiemer’s eyes and told him I would not comply. I also got face time with Johanns after his speech was over. He never addressed any questions or made comments about the non-producers and so I walked up to his handler out in the hall and asked if I could ask him a question. She said to walk with them, so I did. When I asked him about the non-producers all he said to me was, “We are working on it.” And I told the Dr. (name is a blank right now) who is the American Quarter Horse Assn head (I think) that I would shoot my horse myself before letting anyone put a chip in her neck, 4 -5 vertebrae above her withers.

Met the Granny Warriors and took a picture of the scary protesters who were, by in large, elderly people in hover-rounds.

I videoed quite a few of the sessions and over the next week I’ll burn them on cds. If you want one, let me know, but there will be a charge to cover the cost of the cds and postage.

Folks, let me end this missive by telling you this: NAIS is a big cement ball rolling right at us and isn’t going to be stopped by the hand of USDA or NIAA. The time for asking questions of the USDA is over. I mean we should stay in their faces to keep them on their toes, they find us quite irritating, however they aren’t going to grant us any exceptions, give us any leeway. Now is time to turn our efforts on the state governments because it is there that “states rights” relief might be found. Also, Congress, we need to start getting their attention. I don’t know how we are going to do it, but we must.

You know me, I am never scared, but I am scared by what I’ve seen here.

Peace,
Sharon

[Stay tuned for continuing updates from the halls of the NIAA… -WJ]

Mary Zanoni at NIAA

Just in from an alert reader who spotted Mary’s name on the program:

“We’ll also have an opportunity to hear not only the attributes of NAIS but all viewpoints regarding the implementation of a National Animal Identification System,” explains Fourdraine.

“In a special session, several industry representatives and producers will be on the program to express their concerns. Amongst the participants in this session will be Mary Zanoni (PhD, JD), an outspoken critic of NAIS who considers herself an advocate for sustainable agriculture” says Fourdraine.

ID/INFO EXPO is a national event of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, a national trade association representing all sectors of animal agriculture. For more information and to register for the event and to make a hotel reservation online go to -AnimalAg

[Stay tuned for more news from the pits… -WJ]

Thursday

From: henwhisperer
Subject: Last Chapter
Date: August 25, 2006 6:40:43 PM EDT

After hearing Dore Mobley’s contemptuous answer to my question about why they wouldn’t answer Walter’s questions, I left the Expo and didn’t go back. I just couldn’t stomach any more of it.

This is my take home message and what you all need to understand. USDA means to tag every livestock animal in this country, every one of them. Chickens will have RFID tags glued to their wings (that is one thought they had anyway), horses will need a chip inserted in the nuchal ligament. Goats will need tags in their ears, but the La Mancha goats present a problem because they have small or no outer ear material. The working groups are only presenting a problem to USDA because the groups are in chaos. I spoke with a woman in the horse working group who works in the international horse industry, the US Olympics, etc, and some kind of identification system does make sense for them, but as she said, the international community can’t come to a consensus over what kind of id system will work best for them. But that is industry, isn’t it? She, herself, won’t be happy to have a chip inserted in her pet quarter horse. Did you know that Canada has scanners that can read both kind of ISO chips and both of those chips are used here in the US, but a dual scanner isn’t allowed by law. So, anyone with the wrong chip for the allowable scanner will have to buy new chips.

I found it amusing when I connected the dots between the CEO of NIAA who resigned recently to start a company that is on the list of technology vendors. That is what NAIS is all about…profit centers and the good old boy network. At the end of the day, NIAA/USDA/APHIS is made up of a bunch of cronies who think they have found the golden cow/pig/sheep/horse/chicken/llama/etc.

Which reminds me, the woman who heads up the camelid working group made the comment, when talking about “price point”, how sad it would be indeed to keep a 4-H kid out of competition over the price of a tag. That says it all, doesn’t it?

“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party”. That’s a sentence that we had to type over and over again in high school typing class. I type it now for a much different reason. We have to sound a serious alert to the people. Up to now we’ve been doing the best we can to inform people and we’ve done a good job given that we don’t have any real resources. Grass roots efforts aren’t easy to float. We are at a new point in the fight. It seems to me that the next logical step is to take NAIS to the state and federal representatives. We have to play hard ball now. The USDA means to chip every animal in this country. Voluntary means mandatory. The working groups aren’t going to help people like us, they are for their own particular industry. We have no representation in this.

Hammer time!

Sharon

[Sharon is safely home and has sworn off all future air travel. Drained, weary and alive. Thank you, Sharon for all your hard work! -WJ]