Reasons to Stop the NAIS

(National Animal Identification System)

This costly and poorly conceived program is now mandatory in some states. It requires farmers to tag each animal, in most cases using electronic identification, and report off-farm movements to a database via computer. Here are ten good reasons to nip this program in the bud.

1. Not needed.  We have existing tracking systems that have met our needs for decades.
2. Expensive.  The government has spent over $100 million on just the first stage so far, with no cost-benefit analysis.  The costs of the whole program could easily be $37 or more per animal, creating a multi-billion dollar expense that will ultimately be paid through increased taxes and costs of food.
3. Technology-dependent.  NAIS requires computers and internet access.  Amish farmers don’t have electricity, and many other farmers don’t have or want internet access.  This program makes high-tech companies rich, at the expense of everyone else.
4. Corporate welfare.  The factory farms get to use “group identification”, while small farmers are stuck tagging each animal.
5. Won’t improve food safety.  The tags are removed at the slaughterhouse, so NAIS does not improve our ability to track animals into the food chain.  It’s won’t prevent sick animals from being used for human consumption and won’t prevent or improve recalls.
6. Will reduce food safety and choices!  Because of its high costs and government intrusion, NAIS will drive small farmers out of business, reducing people’s ability to buy local foods directly from farmers.  Eating local is your best way to “source verify” your food!
7. Animal welfare.  Studies indicate that microchips may cause cancer in animals.  And by continuing to push farmers to “get big or get out”, NAIS will increase the number of animals in inhumane factory farm system.
8. Exploding government bureaucracy.
9. Religious freedom.  Many Amish, Mennonites, and other Christian farmers consider the mandatory microchipping to be the fulfillment of Revelations, and they cannot comply.
10.  Privacy and property rights.  NAIS would create the first permanent federal registration system for land and personal property.  It would require reporting of normal, daily events in people’s lives – buying or selling an animal, taking horses to shows, or providing food for their own table.
11. Impossible to implement.   The USDA can’t monitor what is being done to cows in 100 slaughter plants. How can they keep track of 180 million animals (and billions of chickens) on more than a million farms?  The only country to implement electronic tagging of cattle, Australia, has a database that is in chaos.
12. Impossible to enforce.  The government says they don’t have the resources to enforce the current laws, including inspecting imported foods and slaughterhouses in this country!  NAIS will create a black market for animal ownership and make lawbreakers out of ordinary citizens.
13. Where does it end?  Some of the same high-tech companies want to microchip humans, and are already pushing to microchip children, the elderly and prisoners.

From The Weston A. Price Foundation^®

Action Alert: NAIS in Appropriations Bill

The 2009 omnibus Appropriations bill, HR 1105, passed the House last week. The bill includes $14.5 million of funding for NAIS, which is significantly less than the amount requested by the USDA for FY 2009.

Representative Obey (D-WI) included a statement in the record about the intended uses of the appropriations for the USDA, including timelines and performance goals for NAIS. This statement does not mandate NAIS because it is not part of the bill itself. But it implies approval of USDA’s Business Plan and pushes USDA to move forward with implementing it, including the use of existing disease control programs and other coercive tactics to implement NAIS. Call your Senators and ask that they support an amendment to strip the NAIS funding out of the bill! You can find your Senators’ contact information at www.congress.org or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

From The Weston A. Price Foundation^®

NAIS HEARING March 11 and COMMENTS BY March 16

USDA COMMENT PERIOD ENDS MARCH 16

In January, the USDA proposed a rule to require farms and other properties where animals are raised to be registered in the federal NAIS database for existing federal disease control programs. The rule also sets the stage for future mandatory animal identification. If you haven’t already submitted comments on this proposed rule, please be sure to do so before March 16! An easy way to comment online is through the Organic Consumers Association’s automated system, at http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26665

Please be sure to personalize the letter! It can be as easy as a couple of sentences at the beginning stating who you are (for example, a farmer, consumer, property rights proponent) and why you care about NAIS.

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON NAIS, MARCH 11

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry will hold a hearing on “animal identification programs” on Wednesday, March 11, 2009. This is the first time in several years that any Congressional Committee will hear testimony about NAIS! It is critical that the thousands of farmers and consumers who oppose NAIS make their voices heard in this process!

STEP 1: Before the Hearing:

At the end of the alert is a list of Subcommittee members. If one of the Subcommittee members is from your state, call that member. If your state does not have any representation on the Subcommittee, contact your own Representative and ask him or her to approach the Subcommittee to urge them to oppose NAIS. If you’re not sure who represents you, go to http://www.congress.org

When you call, ask to speak to the staffer who handles agricultural issues, and talk with them about your concerns about NAIS. Use a brief personal story to explain how NAIS would impact you. Emphasize that you want them to ask hard questions of both the industry and USDA representatives, and to make sure that people representing those who oppose NAIS are also heard at the hearing.

STEP 2: At the Hearing:

If you are in the DC area, please try to come to the hearing!

WHEN: Wednesday, March 11th – 10:00 a.m. WHERE: 1300 Longworth House Office Building (go to http://www.aoc.gov/cc/cobs/lhob.cfm for maps and parking information) WHAT: Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry — Public hearing to review animal identification systems.

The subcommittee will hear invited testimony only, so you won’t be able to speak at the hearing. But it is still good for the subcommittee to know that a lot of people care enough about this issue to show up in person!

Immediately after the hearing, we encourage you to visit the Subcommittee members’ offices. Be polite and concise during your visit. Let them know that you were at the hearing because you are against NAIS. Briefly bring up one or two points that you felt weren’t covered at the hearing that show the problems with NAIS. Keep your visit short and thank them for their time.

STEP 3: After the Hearing:

You can submit written testimony to the subcommittee before the hearing, at the hearing, or up to 10 days after the hearing. Send your testimony to the Hearing Clerk, Jamie Mitchell, at Jamie.Mitchell@mail.house.gov Be sure to put “March 11 Hearing – Animal Identification Programs” in the subject line. Keep your comments clear, polite, and concise.

We will send out some guidance after the hearing for key points to make in your testimony, based on what is said at the hearing. If you are submitting comments before the hearing, you can draw ideas from the “Reasons to Stop NAIS” posted on the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund’s site at http://www.ftcldf.org/nais.html (scroll down past the news items and lawsuit information) or from the comments submitted by FARFA on the USDA’s proposed rule for NAIS, posted at: http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/files/090202_FARFA_Comments_USDA_rule.pdf

SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Below are the Subcommittee members, their party and state, and phone numbers. You can also send an email by using this format: firstname.lastname@mail.house.gov We strongly recommend that you make at least your initial contact with the ag staffer with a telephone conversation.

Mike Rogers (R-AL), (p): 202-225-3261, (f): 202-226-8485
Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), (p): 202-225-6131, (f): 202-225-0819
Jim Costa (D-CA), (p): 202-225-3341, (f): 202-225-9308
Joe Baca (D-CA), (p): 202-225-6161, (f): 202-225-8671
Betsy Markey (D-CO), (p): 202-225-4676, (f): 202-225-5870
David Scott (Chair), (D-GA), (p): 202-225-2939, (f): 202-225-4628
Leonard Boswell (D-IA), (p): 202-225-3806, (f): 202-225-5608
Steve King (R-IA), (p): 202-225-4426, (f): 202-225-3193
Walt Minnick (D-ID), (p): 202-225-6611, (f): 202-225-3029
Frank Kratovil, Jr. (D-MD), (p): 202-225-5311, (f): 202-225-0254
Adrian Smith (R-NE), (p): 202-225-6435, (f): 202-225-0207
Tim Holden (D-PA), (p): 202-225-5546, (f): 202-226-0996
David P. Roe (R-TN), (p): 202-225-6356, (f): 202-225-5714
K. Michael Conaway (R-TX), (p): 202-225-3605 or 866-882-3811, (f): 202-225-1783
Randy Neugebauer, Ranking Minority Member (R-TX), (p): 202-225-4005 or 888-763-1611, (f): 202-225-9615
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), (p): 202-225-5431, (f): 202-225-9681
Steve Kagen (D-WI), (p): 202-225-5665, (f): 202-225-5729

For more information about NAIS, go to www.FarmAndRanchFreedom.org

Azure Food Co-Op and Milk Group Info

PLANS: We usually do the Summer CSA thing but found we would love to have more control over some of the picking of what we receive especially as summer draws to an end and for the extended growing season – way to squash heavy for us. So i hope to eventually offer an option to the Summer CSA – buying what we want, still supporting local as much as possible, but buying in bulk from local suppliers or farms. There are a couple of wholesale suppliers in town that i have spoke with that we can only place large orders with, but we would get a much better deal on things like Virgin Coconut Oil, various nuts/nut butters, dried fruit, and raw honey. Another for organic produce, much of it local or at least West Coast only. I would have to place orders by the cases or gallons, with a minimum of $100. It will take sometime to build up and organize. I am hoping that come summer i can order cases (say a 12 heads/bunches of lettuce, or 20 lbs of carrots) and we can split it all up, paying wholesale prices. Please reply and let me know if you are interested in this so i can keep track and let you know when we have enough people to do it.

RAW MILK and EGGS: We still have room for others to join our milk and egg group. Milk is $6. a gallon and $3.25 a dozen for eggs. You must supply your own half or full gallon sterilized jars and lids and would need 3 times the amount you want each week, in jars. Ex: you want 4 half gallons each week, you need to have 12 jars and lids available at all times. 1 set with current milk, 1 set to send home with the next transporter, 1 set to leave at the farm to get filled. Each person commits to driving 1 day a week and we rotate through the names so just 1 person is picking up everyone in the groups order each week.

AZURE STANDARD: Here is the Azure info, the name and drop number, etc. If you need more info from me for setting up your Azure account please email me or call! I have selected both routes, which means that if we have enough in orders the stuff will ship every 2 weeks instead of once a month. Azure will not ship the order until the combined total from all of us reaches $550.

bethelfoods@gmail.com email for my co-op.
Host Name :Julia Serra
461-0442

Local Foods Store Opening in Sutherlin

Localvore Fresh Oregon Foods, LLC has rented the space between Sutherlin Drugs and Paw Prints Grooming on Central Avenue in Sutherlin. Owner Larisa Sparrowhawk says store inventory will be primarily from farms in Douglas and Lane Counties. To round out the inventory, allowing grains and drinks that are not produced locally, additional items will be purchased from the west coast in general.

Ms. Sparrowhawk is a foodie, which Cambridge Dictionary defines as “a person who loves food and is very interested in different types of food.” Although she has experimented since her teen years with various styles of eating, including macrobiotics, raw food and vegetarianism, she has settled into “a happy acceptance of myself as an omnivore who prefers local fresh food.” Her interest in food and nutrition intensified after she contracted food poisoning and lost her third pregnancy in 1995. Since then she has been a food and farm rights activist, lobbying state and US congressmen for laws that protect the farmers right to produce and sell food and the consumers right to purchase it. She is President of Oregon Consumers and Farmers Association and a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.

“The fact is, when cattle, swine and poultry are grown in confinement instead of on pasture, the likelihood of disease is huge. When a meat packing plant takes in 4,000 cattle a shift from four different countries and mixes hamburger in one huge vat, the chance of cross contamination is huge. When manufacturers are allowed to sell genetically engineered products to consumers without labeling, the consumer is at a far greater risk of having allergic reactions. It is much safer to buy your food from a local small farmer.” She smiled. “Besides, local food is fresher and tastes soooooo much better. I would eat local food for the taste, alone.”

Ms. Sparrowhawk moved to Oregon from Virginia in May of 2007 and immediately noted the lack of good grocery stores. She has been driving to Eugene every month to shop at Market of Choice, Capella’s, Trader Joes or Sundance Natural Foods. “It occurred to me that even in this economy, I am not the only one who is tired of wilted produce and factory farm meat.”

Localvore is still in the start up phase, but is moving quickly. “I just signed the lease. I meet with the lawyer next week. I joined Think Local Umpqua. I’ve been driving around the countryside tacking up flyers on the gates of farms that have clean looking operations.”

Localvore is still seeking member farms. Ms. Sparrowhawk says membership is $50 a year and entitles the farmer to a discount at the store as well as very favorable consignment terms. She expects to open the store around May 15th.

Contact: Larisa Sparrowhawk 541-537-0575
petaltothemetal@aol.com