There is an interesting article in the recent Rutland Herald newspaper. The government is trying to scare farmers about Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). The government plan is to kill all our livestock and wild animals should foot and mouth disease be discovered. It is to be noted that the British, after releasing FMD from their own labs onto farms “accidentally” three times and killing over 6 million healthy farm animals has finally admitted publicly that this was a bad policy.
FMD is not deadly. The vast majority of animals survive it and become immune. The issue is the US government ban’s imports from countries that don’t do this kill-everything program because they didn’t used to be able to tell the difference between a diseased animal and an immune animal. Now they can.
There are vaccines to protect livestock from the disease. The FMD is not a deadly disease but merely an inconvenience for trade purposes. There is no rational reason for the government’s extermination program except that they are trying to wipe out small farms so that big corporate confinement operations can take over that last 15% profitable part of the market.
The “Greater Good” is a greedy lie propagated by the powerful against the weak. -WJ
Looks to me like they are still playing on the fear of people. Hmmm, isn’t that what terrorists do?
Leaves one to wonder who the terrorist truly is.
Comment Luke Turco — November 1, 2007 @ 4:24 am
Has Walter been kidnapped by aliens?
Comment Sue F — November 1, 2007 @ 6:17 am
Um, excuse me, I’m looking for Walter’s NoNAIS site. Anyone seen it?
Comment vmsumlot — November 1, 2007 @ 6:18 am
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore Toto!?
Comment Bob C — November 1, 2007 @ 6:18 am
What happened to www.NoNais.org???
Comment sarah foster — November 1, 2007 @ 6:19 am
If anyone wants a copy of the 6 page letter I received personally from Dr. Steve Van Wie, the simple retired vet (wink wink) who ran that FMD show, just email me. If it wasn’t a threat, well then I don’t know what it was.
Comment Henwhisperer — November 1, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
henwhisperer,maybe your senator and rep need to see it.maybe the local newspaper needs to see it. maybe your state vet board needs to see it. mail the cattle group most talked about on walters web site a copy .it might be of interest to them
Comment nick — November 1, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
Sharon, I think you should get picture of that actual letter up on the net. He may be retired but he was acting in an official capacity. I couldn’t take that letter any other way but a threat. I read it over a few times trying to turn it into poor grammar or anything else. It was a threat.
Kind of the same as some creepy individual calling and saying he knows where you live and is coming. Something out of a low budget horror flick…
Comment Sue F — November 2, 2007 @ 3:58 am
Henwhisperer - I would like a copy of letter sent to
tripleb@worldpath.net
Thanks.
Comment Bob Constantine — November 2, 2007 @ 5:47 am
Henwhisperer, I’ll take a copy at kamaeq AT yahoo.com if you please. Just put your screen name in the subject line.
Thanks.
Comment Kamatu — November 2, 2007 @ 7:11 am
Thank you for posting this. I hope more people become knowledgeable about what the BIG corporations are trying to do to small farms. These small farms are the only income that people make, live off of, support there families and start their futures. It sickens me on how far away we have slipped away from our traditional values.
If anyone is interested I found a website where people with the “good old fashion values” hang out and meet. Many topics like this one get discussed between each other. It’s called FarmersOnly.com. Maybe a place where some of you can gather more information from others who feel the same way as we do. Good luck! Thanks again for posting!
Comment Tom — November 2, 2007 @ 8:27 am
You guys have got to read this:
“Culling” is far too cosy a word to describe what goes on.
I think the site Warmwell is to FMD in the UK as NoNAIS is to NAIS in the US. If you haven’t been there before it is a font of information about FMD, the truth.
Comment Henwhisperer — November 2, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
An the food just keeps getting worse:
Million lbs of beef recalled
Cargill Recall
Comment Sue F — November 3, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
The disease is not Foot and Mouth Disease, its Hoof and Mouth Disease. Cows, goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas and pigs do not have feet, they have hooves.
[Okay, I’m going to nit-pick since you’re doing it…
1) The USDA says:
2) The British Defra says:
3) The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) says:
This is completely unrelated.
4) Pigs have feet with toes with nails just like you, not hooves despite what Defra and the USDA think. I know pigs.
The disease is officially known as Foot and Mouth Disease and often abreviated to just FMD. Sometimes people call it Hoof and Mouth Disease but that is a less common term (68K hits vs 1,630K hits for FMD). Call it what you want but if you use different terms you may be miss-understood.
What is more important than what you call it is the fact that the government doesn’t need to go killing all sick and healthy animals within a 10-km zone when there is an outbreak of FMD. Government over reaction does more damage than the disease ever could. The British have now admitted they made a grave mistake with their killing of over 6 million healthy livestock animals in 2001. Let the killing stop. -WJ]
Comment D B — November 5, 2007 @ 9:11 am
An adult woman I know in town - 11 miles from our farm - had ‘foot and mouth’ a couple of months ago. She got it from kissing a baby with it. I told her not to visit out our way! Should there have been a 10k ‘depopulation’ zone around that town?
Two Questions:
1. Does anyone know where we are with the Farm Bill? I’ve heard it will be debated today but can’t find any specifics about what is in it at this point.
2. Are you aware of HR 1955 which was passed in the House Oct. 23? Do you know that this Resolution has been passed onto the Senate as S.1959 Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
Under Definitions we have:
`(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
Gosh! that intimidate or coerce the US government & civilian population to further political or social objectives sounds a lot like lobbyists and executive directives, to me.
Under Findings we have:
`(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.
Comment donna — November 5, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
Donna thank you for bringing up “the new terrorism” issues.
We shouldn’t confuse this terrosism with the kind of “homegrown” we used to have back in the 70s either. This homegrown isn’t dope but it’s sponsored by the dopes that are supposed to represent us.
Folks under the newest proposal people like us, that fight for our freedom are potentially “terrorists”.
Next up - internet regulations? Don’t be surprised
when “they” try it.
Freedom of speech, as long as you say the right things eh?
USA = Animal Farm ?
You decide.
Go Ron Paul!
Comment Bob Constantine — November 5, 2007 @ 6:42 pm
I was in the UK during the 2001 foot and mouth event. It was your worst nightmare. Govenment blackboots, troops, men in moon suits moving in and blocking roads burning farms. Government gone mad. And now they tell us oops they made a little mistake. They the government released the disease upon us. On top of it they now say that their overreaction was not warranted that it was a mistake to. Well tell that to the millions of dead animals. Healthy animals that didnt have any disease. Tell that to the nearly hundred farmers who died killed by the government driven to suicide morning the loss of their farms. Tell that to the familys that lost their way of life.
And now in 2007 the British government is doing it all over again. Again they reeleased foot and mouth from their labs onto farms and again they are playing their killing zone games. Then again they tell us oops that pig farm wasn’t infected after all, sorry about having killed all your pigs.
Bugger.
Comment DK — November 5, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
The disease that people get is different from the one hoofed critters get. I always hear of one or two young kids a year coming down with it. Always very young ones and sometimes the adult caregiver.
The recall on the million lbs of beef is now including meat in NH. There’s an article in todays Union Leader.
The killing does need to stop. Cargill wouldn’t care if an animal is sick. The feedlots are so crowded would they even notice? I think much more highly of my critters and would rather allow them recovery time, medicines depending on the problem and a little TLC. Even my meat animals deserve that much. While I wouldn’t want my food animals pumped full of antibiotics I am not totally adverse to using them. One of those case by case decisions. One method doesn’t fit all from one creature to another on my little farm. One method isn’t going to work for all farms. A cargill sized feedlot’s method? It doesn’t fit anywhere. It’s causing the problem.
Comment Sue F — November 6, 2007 @ 5:24 am
Donna, I watched the Senate on CSPAN2 yesterday from 3 to 6 pm. A few Senators gave speeches about why they thought the Farm Bill is good for small farmers. It didn’t look to me that there were any other Senators in the room except for the ones who were speaking. At 6 pm there was a quorum call and then finding there was no quorum they called it a night. Our gubermint in action.
You might want to click your way to my blog
to read what I wrote about it and also, in another entry, what journalists are saying about the secrecy in the Farm Bill, that FOIA section.
Comment Henwhisperer — November 6, 2007 @ 5:36 am
You all might want to catch up with FMD in another EU country, Cyprus.
No one will enter my farm to kill my animals.
It is through their struggle that we will learn what will happen to us.
Comment Henwhisperer — November 9, 2007 @ 7:30 am
I just got an email from Senator Tom Harkin which asks me to support The Food and Energy Security Act. Naturally, it will fix everything, but it did not even have a link to the bill. So, I wonder. What are the details? Any ideas?
Comment Mark — November 16, 2007 @ 5:27 pm