Linda B. Cole

Small farmers and backyard flock/herd keepers are facing a serious threat to their way of life. The government is proposing a Mandatory Property and Animal Surveillance Program that will require the registration of property and individual animals, even if you have only one chicken, pig, cow, etc. This must be stopped, or all small farmers will be driven out of business.

Sign the petition to stop NAIS. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/369063795?ltl=1135563679

The Tennessee House of Representatives Agriculture Committee will meet at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 in Room 29 of the Legislative Plaza (at the State Capitol) for hearings on Bill No. HB 3297. That bill would stop the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) in Tennessee and free Tennessee farmers from mandatory premise registration, but still answer any valid disease control concerns anyone might have.

This is our best chance to stop NAIS.

To read the bill please visit http://stopanimalid.org/forum/index.php/topic,596.0.html

Be aware that the USDA and state agencies have been faking signups for Premise ID and they may come around asking questions to try to get you to signup. Cathy Sorenson suggests you have government agents fill out this form before you agree to talk with them, take surveys, receive papers from them, etc. Note that they are still required to get a warrant or your permission before entering your property. This is a right that you could lose if NAIS is implemented.

A bit of good news from the great state of Tennessee:

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 44, Chapter 7, is amended by adding
the following as a new, appropriately designated part: Section 44-7-501. At no time shall department of agriculture funds or any other state funds be appropriated to effectuate the implementation of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
HOUSE BILL 3297
Introduced by Frank Niceley

I hope that legislators in other states will find their courage and fight against the USDA’s unconstitutional implementation of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). NAIS should be kept 100% voluntary and safeguards should be implemented to prevent it from trampling on our Constitutional rights.

This is matched by Tennessee Senate Bill 3258 sponsored by Senator Tim Burchett.

Senator Burchett and Representative Niceley should be applauded for standing up for reason and sanity against the heavy handed pressures of the USDA’s attempt to take away our traditional Constitutional rights to farm and live a rural life. We don’t need a nanny state government interference micro-managing our lives. May the legislators in my own state of Vermont, as well as other states, find their courage to prevent government interference in the lives of citizens.

Tennessee residents may wish to write their representatives who’s email and postal addresses can be found at the state web site.

One of the original reasons for the National Animal Identification System was to open up foreign export markets, like Japan, for the big beef producers in the US. Recently Japan reopened its market to US Beef after it had been closed for two years and then promptly shut the doors again.

“The Japanese government views the report, which admits flaws in the U.S. inspection system and outlines measures to prevent a recurrence, as “insufficient� and plans to make more inquiries with Washington, Nakagawa later told a press conference.� - Capital Press

Why? Because the beef they received had been improperly butchered such that there was banned backbone which could contain spinal cord material mixed in the meat. This raised the specter of Mad Cow Disease (BSE) and lead the Japanese to reject the meat. Now they say they do not intend to open the imports up any time soon.

Would NAIS have helped?
No. This was not a problem of farming or ranching. This was not even a slaughter house problem. This was an error at the meat packer plant which the USDA inspectors failed to catch. Ultimately the USDA is the one who canned American exports of beef to Japan through their own clumsy, failed inspection process.

Yet, rather than standing tall and taking the blame for their own mistakes, the USDA wants to blame the lack of exports and profits for the big producers on the rest of us. They created NAIS to “prevent these problems� that have nothing to do with farms, large or small. This blame shifting mentality is just the start of the USDA’s abuse of power that has grown into NAIS.

NAIS is completely unnecessary. If big producers wish to have a voluntary system of trace-back like NAIS, then fine, let them. But NAIS, Premise ID and Animal ID should not be forced on us all. It is completely and utterly unnecessary for small farmers and homesteaders. Even if NAIS were completely implemented with 100% compliance, something the USDA will never get, the big beef exporters would still be faced with screw-ups like the one that lost them Japan.

NoNAIS.org

Help alert the media to the dangers of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Leave feedback at http://www.pbs.org/now/feedback.html asking them to please report about the government’s excessive regulations of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) which will hurt small family farms, homesteaders and pet owners. For a quick overview they can read the handout http://NoNAIS.org/handout and visit NoNAIS.org to get up to speed on the topic. In addition to an executive summary of the harm of NAIS to small farmers and homesteaders the handout also contains links to the USDA documents.