NAIS - Must Read if you own livestock or pets!

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February 4, 2008 02:20 AM

speakengl

Member Since:
May 25, 2007

Received this e-mail tonight. If you own a pet, livestock (even one horse), or are growing or use organic foods, you'll want to read this and pass along to people you know. I'm also including the US Government Ag website that tells you about NAIS - their version.

http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml

Friends,

The following is shocking news. Please read all the way to the end and take action before it is too late!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has targeted ranchers, farmers, horse owners, homesteaders, organic gardeners, and chicken-owning grandmas for participation in a new National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Should you be unfamiliar with the NAIS, following are some main parts of the program.

PREMISE REGISTRATION: Every person who owns even one horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep, goat, deer, elk, bison, lamb, mule, donkey, llama, alpaca, emu, or ostrich, will be forced to register their home, including owners name, address, and telephone number, and keyed to Global Positioning System coordinates, in a government database under a 7-digit "premises ID number". Additionally, pet owners who own one parakeet, canary, cockatiel, etc. as owners of "exotic fowl" have been targeted for mandatory inclusion in this system. The pet parakeet in a cage on the 20th floor of a Miami Beach condo, must also be registered, along with the premises. If you move your bird or animal off your "premises" for any reason (such as a trip to the vet, fair, rodeo, 4-H event, FFA event,or auction), or you sell it, or you trade it for something else,or it dies, or produces more offspring, you must report such activity to the federal government within 24 hours. The premise ID number remains with the property for life and acts as an easement (much like an active building permit). This ID number (easement),which allows government agents to enter your property at any time without a warrant to inspect, vaccinate, or seize your livestock, will attach to the title of said property even after it is sold. If you think this is a joke-read on.

ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION: Every animal will have to be assigned a 15-digit ID number by the government such as a tag or chip containing a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID), designed to be read from a distance. The plan may also include collecting the DNA of every animal and/or a retinal scan of every animal.

ANIMAL TRACKING: The owner will be required to report: the birthdate of an animal, the application of every animal's ID tag, every time an animal loses a tag, every time a tag is replaced, the slaughter or death of an animal, or if an animal is missing. Every time an animal goes onto or off of another person's premises, a report would be required, showing that the tagged animal has been on each of the said premises.

THIRD PARTY SIGHTINGS: Third parties such as veterinarians, will be required to report "sightings" of animals who do not have ID numbers. IF a vet is called to ones premises to treat an animal, and the vet finds an animal without the mandatory 15-digit computer-readable ID, the vet may be required to report that non-compliance or lose his license and/or face fines.

NO EXCEPTIONS: Under the USDA plan, animal owners will be forced to register and report even if they raise animals only for their own food, or keep horses for work or for transportation.

ENFORCEMENT: The USDA will exercise enforcement against animal owners who don't comply with fines up to $1000.00 per day and/or criminal penalties. The animal identification program is mandatory in England and non-compliance there has resulted in confiscation and slaughter-without compensation.

ALLEGED RATIONALE: The first rationale for NAIS is to protect against animal disease by providing 48-hour traceback of all animal movements. The rationale is unfounded and counterproductive. Government already has established systems and processes(health certificates), including surveillance, tracking(brand inspection programs) and quarantines for controlling the spread of animal diseases which are under control in the U.S. For example, if we want to protect Americans from Mad Cow disease, the answer is simple: stop feeding animal parts to cattle and provide testing of animals that are slaughtered before they enter the food chain. USDA estimates that there are only four to seven (4-7) cows in the entire U.S. that have BSE(mad cow disease which is not contagious) and that it is not necessary to conduct testing to protect our food supply as they have refused to allow Creekstone Farms & Premium Beef, a U.S. company, to voluntarily test all of its cattle for BSE(mad cow disease) in order to satisfy customers wishes. This example blatantly exposes the false "disease control" premise the USDA uses to ambitiously implement NAIS. Salmonella, and e.coli(a bacterium that lives in the intestines of animals that can contaminate meat if the intestines are ruptured during processing) in our food supply can be addressed by prevention and proper inspection of slaughterhouses.

The second rationale for NAIS is: USDA has stated NAIS is necessary to protect the United States Export market. This rationale is false, as a voluntary program would suffice to address exports. If a farmer wishes to export animals or food to other countries, the farmer could choose to enroll in the program and exporters could refuse to buy from anyone who has not also enrolled in the tracking program.

THE REAL REASON: Follow the money! Large industrial agri-business food giants such as Cargill Pork and Tyson support the program. They stand to benefit from the perceived benefits of an enhanced export market as the NAIS follows misguided global protocols for international trade. Also, by creating such a burdensome program for the small farmer and others raising animals for themselves, they can eliminate the small, but rapidly growing local foods movement that threatens their monopoly of our food supply.

Various technology companies such as AgInfoLink, iSavent, Global Animal Management,Global Vet Link, Micro Beef Technologies, Allflex, and Digital Angel, who have been involved in developing the details of NAIS, stand to make windfall profits if government requires every animal, and every premise where animals reside, to bear special RFID tags and tag reading equipment. These companies make the microchips and radiotags, and charge for software and related equipment necessary to operate these systems. There are 29 nine species(more than two billion animals) that are slated to be fitted with ID tags, and with approximately 100 million head of cattle in the U.S. alone, the NAIS-compliant RFID tags for just this one target specie will cost approximately $300 million.

State departments of agriculture also see a massive new tax base and employment opportunity with expanding budgets to implement, monitor, and enforce the NAIS program.

THE REAL EFFECTS:

#1) Elimination of small farms. People with a small number of meat animals or small dairies are living on the financial edge and the NAIS plan will force them out of business. It will no longer be economically feasible for the small farmer to sell his fresh eggs and chickens at the local farmers market. As a farm bureau member, It was shocking to find out the American Farm Bureau was one of the major architects ot the NAIS plan, effectively "digging the graves" of its own membership, and "stabbing them in the back".

#2) Loss of security over organic and local foods. USDA and agribusiness tout NAIS as the answer to "secure" our food supply against diseases or terrorism, however, just the opposite is true. Real food security comes from raising food yourself or buying from a local farmer you know. Small producers of local and organic agriculture provide food sources increasingly in demand. The USDA NAIS plan, will only eliminate more local food sources (which is our best defense against a contamination of our food supply by terrorists), reduce competition, and ultimately put both supply and price in the hands of industry giants if it is not stopped.

#3) Destruction of Personal Property rights. Livestock animals are a form of personal property. Government's vision is clearly indicated in the NAIS plan as it refers to a "national herd": private ownership rights will be destroyed, and no one will be able to birth, hatch, own, or transfer any head of livestock without government permission. "Restricting the use of" falls under the takings definition, and there are no compensation provisions for this "taking" of property in the USDA plan, blatantly violating protected property rights as guranteed by the 5th Amendment(U.S. Constitution). If the children want to ride their horses to the neighbors, they will have to get government permission. When government takes away the use of private property, but leaves the title in the name of the property owner, it is known as fascism.

#4) Infringement of personal privacy. Although I oppose any form of gun control for law abiding citizens(other than a steady hand), a gun owner is able to transport their gun almost anywhere they want without permission, but if that same person owns a chicken and wants to take that chicken to a livestock show, they must get permission and subject themselves to intense government surveillance, blatantly violating privacy rights guaranteed by the 4th Amendment(U.S. Constitution). Under the NAIS plan, the owner of a chicken, would undergo far more surveillance than the owner of a gun.

#5) Violation of Religious freedom. Some religious groups are required to raise their own food animals and use animals in farming and transportation, and are restricted from government involvement because their beliefs require them to live this way such as the Amish. The owner of a car is able to drive just about anywhere they please at any time without government permission, but an Amish person would have to get government permission to drive his horse and carriage down the road. NAIS is a violation of their religious beliefs as protected and guaranteed by the 1st Amendment(U.S. Constitution)

WHEN AND HOW DID THIS HAPPEN: Until the release of the USDA NAIS plan, the program has been developed is relative secrecy among federal and state bureaucrats working with ag-industry giants who first proposed the program through the National Institute for Animal Agriculture. This consortium of industry leaders pushed for NAIS for more than a decade and finally won the USDA's approval shortly after George W. Bush took office in 2001. When the USDA NAIS plan was introduced on April 25, 2005, it called for voluntary premise registration initially to become mandatory by January 2008, and reporting of defined animal movements along with the whole program becoming mandatory by 2009. After public outrage, the USDA amended their original plan and announced NAIS would be "voluntary" at the federal level. They changed their wording, but never changed their goal as they are now pushing states to make NAIS mandatory for their local farmers with the enticement of federal funds(Our tax dollars). That's right-the federal government is using your tax dollars to bribe your state government to take away your property and privacy rights. Michigan and Wisconsin have accepted the federal bribes and now require mandatory NAIS registration, which has resulted in the demise of many farmers in those states.

NAIS is a prime example of what happens when un-checked corporate greed is enabled by crooked appointed and elected oath violating politicians who team up and begin both legislating and regulating our God given and Constitionally guaranteed rights away. In the name of international trade and "food safety", these officials are implementing a plan that undermines our nations existence as well as the freedom to live and feed ourselves without intense government surveillance. In reality, the idiocy of NAIS is not about food safety, its about control. Is the false premise of "food safety" and the export of beef or chicken to other countries worth throwing our Constitution, our way of life, and our childrens future into the trash can? NEVER!

U.S. meat is the safest and most desired in the world and creating a mega-database of property information on millions of farms, ranches, homesteads, and hundreds of millions of animals will not improve food safety one iota.

Instead of tracking Grandma's chickens, which are safe to eat and not part of the export market, it would make more sense to track illegal aliens and introduce them to the export market. Illegal aliens bring in drugs, disease, and crime;making up 30% of the federal prison population and costing the U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars a year in welfare and social services.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT NAIS: Tell your friends, neighbors, and everyone else who values individual freedom and local, clean, healthy food sources(true food safety) about this attack on their freedoms. Contact your elected representatives and ask them to stop NAIS. Forward this e-mail to them and all your friends so they are aware of the NAIS plan.

When our elected government representatives took office, they swore an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States". The NAIS plan is a blatant violation of our freedoms as protected by the U.S. Constitution. We must ask our representatives to honor their obligations by honoring the oath they swore, and stop this NAIS assault on our freedoms-the freedoms that were bought by the blood of our forefathers as they died to make us free.

The NAIS plan has not only proven to be the "nail in the coffin", but the coffin itself, of many small farmers, and it must be stopped before it shuts down yet another farm, ranch, or homestead operation that supplies a clean, healthy, local source of food.

We must never give up our fight to remain a free people, because if we do, then our forefathers who died to us the birthright of freedom, died in vain. Always remember:No one can take away your freedom, unless You choose to give it up!

Washington State

February 18, 2008 06:24 AM

Brisco

Member Since:
November 6, 2007

Wow, If they can keep track of animals surely they can keep track of illegal aliens.

February 18, 2008 07:44 AM

Member Since:
March 24, 2007

This is another attempt to implant ALL people with RFID's. They are coming in the back door. First all our animals will be the scapegoats and then it will be the US citizens. That is the initial goal. This action against animals is meant to show us it is safe and how they will be keep track of the animals and ultimately be able to determine whether someone is legal or not. It is another ploy to maintain their power over us. We are the animals.

This attempt to "keep track" of animals and eventually people is outrageous. The ultimate in surveillance, loss of every freedom we have when we can be monitored and perhaps even subjugated by force for our views or actions - an unequivocal power play under the guise of animal accountability.

If they intend to advance the cause of the RFID, I say let those in congress be the first to be implanted - not animals, not US citizens - and let us watch. And I also say, let us monitor them and make sure they don't procreate needlessly. Maybe a tazer implanted with their RFID might force them to do the job of governing the way it was meant to be.

God forbid all those parakeets multiply. What's next for the American people? Enforced sterilization?

The Land of the Free?

February 18, 2008 08:26 AM

700club

Member Since:
December 25, 2007

Comment updated February 18, 2008 08:27 AM

With everything else going on this election year, NAIS is yet more bullshit devised by government/corporate partnerships to scare the hell out of people and run the small agricultural operator out of business. I can't say that eveything in the article in this post above is true. I do know that the budget for NAIS is becoming exhausted so maybe the damn thing will go away. Excuse the "French"...I like so may many others are frustrated with the insanity that our government and their corporate goons are coming up with. And frustrated the outrageous special interest that is buying off our elected officials. There was a TV program many years ago called "Father Knows Best". Well, there is no way I believe "Government Knows Best". Eveything the damned government touches turns to shit!

An extremely good publication for the voice of agriculture can be found at AcresUSA magazine. Acres' web site is http://www.acresusa.com. The mag itself is well worth the price of around $29 for a monthly magazine. While the mag does naturally have advertisements in it , it is crammed full of articles from extremely experienced individuals that have devoted their entire lives to preserving agriculture and fighting the corporate goons. One such individual is Charles Walters.

As a side note , Monsanto SUCKS. Again, excuse the "French". Monsanto has such a grip on the agricultural world. Sadly, if you invest in the stock market perhaps through 401K in the form of mutual funds , check the makeup of the funds and see if goons like Monsanto are part of the makeup.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monli...

Monsanto SUCKS!!!

NAIS - Must Read if you own livestock or pets!

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