Linda B. Cole

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.

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.

The National Animal ID program was originally designed to give the big beef producers help in getting export markets which required disease controls. The idea is that every single livestock animal in the United States will be identified and tagged. All livestock animal movements will be tracked, logged and reported to the government. The benefit is to the big factory farms who probably do need this type of regulation. They get to do single ID’s for large groups of animals. Small farmers, pet owners and homesteaders will have to tag and track every single animal. 

There are no exceptions – even small farms that sell direct to local consumers will be required to pay the fees and file all the paper work on all their animals. Even horse, llama and other pet owners will be required to participate in NAIS. Homesteaders who raise their own meat and grandma with her one egg hen will also have to register their homes as ‘farm premises’ and obtain a Premise ID, tag all their animals and submit all the paperwork and fees. Absurd? Yes – There are no exceptions under the current NAIS plan. The USDA has slipped this plan in the back door without any legislation. This is going to be very expensive and guess who is going to pay for it in higher food prices… You!

NoNAIS.org  

 

NoNAIS.org
Starting at 11 pm Pacific Time tonight Coast to Coast Radio host George Noory will be discussing the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) with Pat Showalter, Celeste Bishop and Katherine Albrecht. They will be talking about how NAIS would hurt small family farmers, homesteaders and pet owners. Ultimately consumers would pay the price as food choice becomes limited and prices go up when control of our national food supply is consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer large corporate factory farms.

Check out Coast to Coast’s “Where to Listen� web page.