Farming Food FDA USDA NAIS

[samizdat]

NAIS, bogus Avian Flu epidemic, and biotech (Monsanto as one) plans for our animals

by Linn Cohen-Cole

www.opednews.com

A few articles on farming regs, originally posted in Biblical prophecy

NAIS appears to be a corporate plan to eliminate real farming and take over total control of our food supply through wiping out normal animals (as is being done with seeds) and replacing them with genetically engineered animals that are patented and wholly owned by multinationals. The economics of that are complete enslavement of a population dependent on a single corporately controlled food source and the politics are massively totalitarian.
On the health side, the biotech/agribusiness corporations will do to animals what they began doing with rBGH - having them pump out a perverted version of whatever is of value as well as using their bodies to generate genetically engineered drugs and more. The disease ramifications are endless. The financial bonanza to the pharmaceutical companies (of which Monsanto is a major one) of a population trapped in such a sickness generating system is infinite.
What follows repeats from another articlea communication between chapter leaders of the Weston A. Price Foundation in Wisconsin where Emmanuel Miller, an Amish farmer has been charged by the state for refusing to register with Premises ID under NAIS, an act which is against his deepest religious beliefs. Right now, the Amish and Mennonite's religious rights and the desperate efforts of our small farmers are all that stand between us and the questions raised in the following email because the public is not aware.
I repeat the questions here to try to ensure they are seen and the implications are considered by people who have until now fallen for the "NAIS is for food safety" argument of corporations which caused the diseases, block inspections, and obfuscate all labeling.


Though it is an informal message between various leaders, the questions asked raise more and more profound issues none of which have yet become known to the American public or entered the intense debate over NAIS to which our disappearing American farmers are desperately opposed. www.nonais.org These questions must be answered. And anything Monsanto is involved in, must be questioned - including, first and foremost, Obama's nomination of Tom Vilsack - a close Monsanto buddy and a strong supporter of NAIS, a Monsanto project - to run the USDA, the agency pushing NAIS.
Subject: NAIS Update, Madison WI
From: Mary Jo Fahey
Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 13:31:26 -0500
Yahoo! Message Number: 22226
Onibasu Link: http://onibasu.com/archives/cl/22226.html
Hi,
Many of you may know that Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection (DATCP) told dairy farmers who did not sign a Premises ID that they would not be allowed to sell milk after May 1st.
A hearing took place at DATCP's headquarters on 4/25 for two farmers who refused to sign.
After the meeting, DATCP sent a letter to dairy plants (the group who have been selected to enforce the new rule/law/policy/regulation all of these words are being used). The letter said that DATCP will NOT be revoking milk licenses on May 1st of those who have not yet registered. The letter told milk plants to pick up as usual. DATCP decided not to tie premises registration to a dairy license.
Unfortunately, over 95% of the dairy farmers in Wisconsin have signed the Premises ID form.
DATCP has an aggressive campaign to sign up ALL farms in the state, as well as non-producers such as Vets and other service providers.
I was present at the DATCP meeting and recorded it on an MP3 recorder. I moved the file to a CD-ROM. Martha Reilly and I are making copies for our Weston Price chapter and we're happy to provide a copy to anyone who would like one.
I did quite a bit of research before the meeting and in the short time allowed for public questions (after it was announced that the meeting was officially over), I asked several questions that the officials would not answer.
The most alarming thing I discovered BEFORE the meeting was background information about WLIC board member Mike Bishop (Note: SINCE the meeting, I have discovered MORE alarming information that is reflected in my list of questions to DATCP listed below).
Note: The Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium (WLIC) is a non-profit organization that is currently contracted to implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection (DATCP).



Promoted to Headline (H3) on 1/21/09:
Vilsack: Was he put at the USDA to aid a corporate takeover of the US Food Supply?

by Linn Cohen-Cole Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

Vilsack may have been put in place to aid the corporate take over of the US food supply
To put it simply, 2009 is the planned date for major corporate moves to begin the take over the US food supply. They are after control of all animals through the USDA's regulation called NAIS, click here, and over seeds through "seed contamination" regulations buried in the FDA, click here, and they have backed up both with Homeland Security regulations set for "surge capacity" warrantless attacks on farms for seizure and destruction of all animals, crops and equipment based on "bioterrorism" or disease outbreaks. Click here. Monsanto has influenced and likely helped write NAIS and the seed regulations.
Food safety is the excuse being put forward by agribusiness that is responsible for diseases like Mad Cow and bird flu, click here, is blocking inspections, is subverting Country of Origin labeling by mixing meats together, and feeds the animals pesticide-laced genetically engineered feed, raises them in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), fills them with steroids, hormones and antibiotics, all of which end up called "food."
The USDA is quoted by a farmer as saying "We don't need any farmers and ranchers in this country. We'll just import our food." That is, they are planning to outsource farming and ranching, the ultimate basis of food security for any nation. NAIS is about the take over of animals and the wiping out of all private animal stock. Please look at that. Realize the scope of it, consider the implications.


Agribusiness, in league with Monsanto and biotech, is preparing to do what is already happening in Asia - eliminate normal animals and replace them with genetically engineered - PRIVATIZED - ones. Click here.
The excuse will be dread diseases - diseases they created themselves and which they don't inspect for or fix any conditions to avoid. Instead, they continue to lower contamination standards. These are avoidable diseases and easily tested for. In Japan, every head of cattle is tested, in Europe, one of four. Here in the US, the USDA won't even allow farmers to test for Mad Cow. Farmers are screaming because the USDA is set to allow imported animals, including the chance of bringing in Mad Cow, hoof and mouth, and other diseases into the country - a disease we no longer have here.
But the diseases are valuable to industry. They are the means to declare emergencies and be "forced" to wipe out farmers' animals. NAIS is the means to locate every single one (with DNA samples being taken and given to ....?) belonging to farmers who can bear the unbearable bureaucracy, fees, massive invasion of privacy, limitations on movement (a child with bunny couldn't take it to school, a horseback rider couldn't go on a trail ride, without informing the government and paperwork having to filled out within 24 hours) or there are draconian penalties, even for infractions, like (no joke) the chicken crossing the road.
And all of that doesn't even touch what it means to be forced (and often it is happening without people agreeing to it at all) to sign onto Premises ID, a portion of NAIS that signs our farmland away to ... no telling. After the bailout, all idea of sanity and decency has lost hold and it is clear we are in the grip of international moves that no longer preference the US but now are colonizing us as well. Click here.
So, please, in approaching anything about the USDA, understand that Vilsack IS Monsanto at the USDA. And Monsanto wants NAIS (it is genetically engineering whole animals now and those patents are meaningless unless all normal animal biodiversity is eliminated as competition, just as is true of seeds where it is eliminating seed companies, seed cleaners, seed cleaning equipment and putting in place laws that criminalize seed collecting).
Farmers and ranchers are standing up for us and the literal protection of our food supply when they make the following demands. They need our help. They are asking for these rules to be rescinded immediately. But what is needed is much more.

1. Major organizations in the US - farming, health freedom, organic, food safety, animal rights, constitutional, environmental, economic justice, and so many more ... - need to join in a single lawsuit to stop these regulations entirely. They not only are set to destroy all normal animals and eliminate all means to produce, own and use normal seeds but include opening the door wide to genetic engineering - GE-drug crops, GE-industrial chemical crops - and more.

2. These organizations - R-CALF, OCA, PETA, HSUS, CFS, FWW, ACLU, AMNESTY, and truly endless more - need to demand that the new Justice Department immediately initiate a massive criminal investigation into corporate corruption at the USDA, FDA and Homeland Security.

And for individuals, you can help by signing a petition seeking help from the left and right.
R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America
“Fighting for the U.S. Cattle Producer”
For Immediate Release
Contact: Shae Dodson, Communications Coordinator
January 20, 2009
Phone: 406-672-8969; e-mail: sdodson (at) r-calfusa.com

Group Urges Vilsack to Immediately Redress Three Rulemaking Blunders by Bush USDA

Washington, D.C. – Today, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was confirmed to be this nation’s next Agriculture Secretary, and R-CALF USA wasted no time in sending Vilsack a formal letter not only to congratulate him on his confirmation, but also to seek his immediate assistance in redressing three fundamental rulemaking-related blunders made by the previous Administration and the previous U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

R-CALF USA members have literally expended millions of dollars over the past several years to fund our intense, heated fight against the previous Administration’s efforts to: 1) willfully expose U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd to an unnecessary and avoidable risk of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease); 2) prevent U.S. cattle producers from distinguishing beef produced exclusively from their cattle – born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; and, 3) dismantle historically successful disease prevention and control programs and to substitute them with an unproven, intrusive and ill-conceived National Animal Identification System (NAIS) scheme that constitutes a national premises registration for private property, both personal (i.e., livestock) and real (i.e., land).

Specifically, R-CALF USA urged Vilsack to take the following actions within the first few days of President Barack Obama’s Administration:

* Fully rescind the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS’) rulemaking in Docket No. APHIS-2006-0041, commonly known as the over-30-month rule (OTM Rule). The agency’s own risk modeling predicts that the OTM Rule will result in the introduction of between 19 and 105 BSE-infected Canadian cattle, resulting in two to 75 BSE infections of U.S. cattle over the next 20 years. R-CALF USA, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, five national consumer groups and several individual ranchers won a preliminary injunction in U.S. district court on July 3, 2008, that required the agency to reopen the rulemaking for this docket. The new rulemaking is Docket No. APHIS 2008-0093, and no final agency action is evident in the Federal Register.

* Modify the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS’) final rule for mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), in Docket No. AMS-LS-07-0081, which is scheduled to take effect March 16, 2009. The final rule defies Congress’ intent to distinguish meat produced from animals exclusively born, raised and slaughtered in the United States with a USA label. Instead, the final rule allows meatpackers to mislabel beef exclusively of U.S. origin with a mixed-origin label (e.g., “Product of the United States, Canada, and Mexico”) if the meatpacker responsible for making an origin declaration commingles any amount of meat derived from imported cattle during the meatpackers’ production day. In addition, the final rule improperly limits commodities subject to labeling requirements if the commodity undergoes minor processing.

* Rescind all actions by APHIS to register the premises of livestock owners under the agency’s proposed NAIS, including the agency’s Veterinary Services Memorandum No. 575.19 dated Dec. 22, 2008, and the agency’s Jan. 13, 2009, proposed rule in Docket No. APHIS 2007-0096. Together, these actions usurp Congress’ authority by effectively mandating NAIS participation, including premises registration, by producers that participate in any number of federal disease programs.

“APHIS is trampling over the rights of U.S. livestock owners and the states in its attempt to compile a national registry of individuals’ premises and their livestock,” wrote R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee. “R-CALF USA looks forward to working with you to improve APHIS’ ability to control disease outbreaks in a manner that is more cost-effective than NAIS and that does not intrude on the rights of independent cattle producers.

“Fundamental changes are needed in the agency you now lead, and R-CALF USA looks forward to working with you to accomplish the goal of re-establishing USDA as an agency that furthers U.S. agriculture by properly balancing the interests of agricultural producers, food consumers, and industry agribusinesses,” Thornsberry said.

“The U.S. cattle industry and U.S. consumers would benefit greatly by the three actions described above,” he added.

“It is our belief that USDA’s severely damaged credibility, which resulted from the agency’s irresponsible pursuits described in each of the forgoing requests, would be substantially restored if these matters were to be expeditiously addressed under your leadership,” Thornsberry concluded. “R-CALF USA has submitted comprehensive comments on each of these issues to the agency. We are available to meet with you and/or your staff at your convenience to further discuss the urgent need for these actions.”

Click here to view/download the letter to Vilsack.

[vector7]

Goodbye farmers markets, CSAs, and roadside stands

by Linn Cohen-Cole

The "food safety" bills in Congress were written by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc. All are associated with the opposite of food safety. What is this all about then?

In the simplest terms, organic food and a rebirth of farming were winning. Not in absolute numbers but in a deep and growing shift by the public toward understanding the connection between their food and their health, between good food and true social pleasures, between their own involvement in food and the improvement in their lives in general, between local food and a burgeoning local economy.

Slow Food was right - limit your food to what comes from your region and from real farmers, and slow down to cook it and linger over it with friends and family, and the world begins to change for the better.

And as we face an unprecedented economic crisis, and it is hard to be sure what has value, one thing that always does is food. Which is why the corporations are after absolute control over it. But what obstacles to a complete lock on food do they face? All the people in this country who are "banking" on organic farming and urban gardens and most of all, everyone's deepening pleasure in and increasing involvement with everything about food.

Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands.

Those are things we not only all want, but things we are actively getting involved in, and things we very much need. And where they are truly good, they are growing.

The international financial corporations which have wreaked havoc around the world with astounding nonsensical "solutions" that are destructive of everyone but them, are brothers to the international agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.) which are just as aggressively after their own form of "taking." Just seeds, animals, water, land.

And freedom.

Because human beings are by in large good and by in large incredibly resilient and clever, and left to their own devices - that is, free - they would handle this gargantuan financial stupidity the corporations brought us with NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT and all other globalized schemes (which they hope to eventually top off with CODEX). How? By being productive in real ways and locally. And farming is the solid ground under that. Farmers produce something of real value (something we used to take for granted), and from that base, businesses grow up. Local markets, local food processors, local seed companies, local tool and supply companies, local stores ... and an economy based on reality and something truly good for us, too, begins to grow.

So, look again at what has been exciting us - Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands. - and realize that they are not only wonderfully healthy but fun and naturally community building. And more, they are a real economy and deeply democratic - and just at a time we need something that works economically, that supports our democratic rebirth, and that protects food itself and our easy access to it.

And it is all those things that threaten the corporations ... which is why we now have these massive "fake food safety" bills in Congress. Everything is going under thanks to these fools, and they wish to be there like vultures to make sure that every drop of blood that can be sucked out of our resources and us, is theirs. To wit, they must get rid of such good and innocent things and yet truly powerful things as:

Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands.

And how will those who contaminate our country's food with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and more, do that? Why, by setting standards for "food safety" that are so grotesquely and inappropriately and even cruelly applied to a local, independent farmers and ranchers that there is no way they can manage. Imagine your being faced with a 100 page IRS form and facing a million dollar a day penalty for screwing up. That would be in the ball park of the impossible complexity mixed with threat facing our farmers. Imagine having the government and corporations deciding every single thing you can do and must do in your kitchen and backing that up with the threat of 10 years in prison for screwing up - though you have never made anyone sick, and those corporations have. Imagine being surveilled 24 hours a day by GPS tracking devices that feed into ... a corporate data bank, one they have now moved out of the country so no one here can have legal access to see what is in it.

Imagine the devil himself - or a whole boardrooms of them, dressed in suits - defining the only safe and healthy food in this country as dangerous and burdening hard working farmers with more work then anyone could bear, while his own, their own, food is so dangerous at this point that in the last 10 years alone, diabetes has gone up 90%.

And how did they get this far with such a scheme to apply insane industrial standards to every farm in the country? Through fear of diseases and of outbreaks of food borne illnesses, both of which they cause themselves.

How it works: Tyson helps Bill Clinton get into office. Bill Clinton immediately and significantly lowers contamination standards for poultry as a thank you. And it is such contaminated waste from transnational poultry factories which is now implicated as the source of bird flu. Then fortunes on made on that fear. And then poultry industry uses the crisis they created to push out small farmers and take greater control than ever. Their mantra? Biodiversity not only be damned but be eliminated. And get rid of those damn farmers who protect it while we're at it.

The bills would require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market - no one could manage it. And THAT is the point. The whole dirty tricks point. The whole "be in tight control of everything needed for survival because it'll be worth a fortune" point.

So, if you like farmers markets, local farmers, fresh milk, fresh eggs, vegetables stands, and freedom, let your friends know that it's all on the line right now with those "fake food safety" bills brought to us with well-planned evil and more of it to come, by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.

Slow Food reminds us of just where we need to be (and notice how much would help any local economy):

Forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems;

Developing an "Ark of Taste" for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated;

Preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation;

Organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products);

Organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada);

Promoting "taste education;"

Educating consumers about the risks of fast food;

Educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms;

Educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties;

Developing various political programs to preserve family farms;

Lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy;

Lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering;

Lobbying against the use of pesticides;

Teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners; and

Encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces.

But we need to stop these bills first or we are left with no money from the financial bailout and no food from the food stealout.

Send a message to Congress.

We need millions to be fighting this. Contact Eli Pariser at MoveOn moveon-help@list.moveon.org to tell him MoveOn is badly needed.

And below, where Oped News offers a means of writing your local newspaper, take advantage of a chance to vent.

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Stop HR 875, HR 814, SR 425, and soon, HR 759

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

[vector7]

HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment

Posted by LydiaScott on 03/06/09 03:36 AM

HR 875 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c1112RD9bb:e11439:
This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor. One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it. As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying.

Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation. Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.
I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers.

This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property siezed. It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it. It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods.

If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a vareity of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed. That's right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course.

DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF. The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share. Post your observations and insights below. Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to

• Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it's entirety.
• section 103, 206 and 207- read in it's entirety.

Red flags I found and I am sure there are more...........

• Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
• Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.

• Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
• Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
• Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
• Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
• Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
• Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
• There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone's attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Didn't Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply? Didn't Stalin use the food to control the people?

Last word...... Legislate religion and enforce gag orders on ministers on what can and can't be said in the pulpit, instituting regulations forcing people to rely soley on the government, control the money and the food. What is that called? It is on the tip of my tongue..........

I haven't read any of the Senate's version of the bill as I have been poring thru the House's version. Here is the link and I hope some of you can take a look and post your observations and insights below.

One thing I am pretty sure of is that very few if any Senator's have actually read the legislation and when it comes up for a vote they will more than likely take someone else's word on how they should vote. The other thing I am pretty sure about is that the legislation was probably written by lobbyists and industry experts.

S 425 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425:

[American Patriot]

Hey, is this the thread that I post all about all the seeds we buy being genetically incapable of producing more seeds and stuff like that?

[vector7]

Hey, is this the thread that I post all about all the seeds we buy being genetically incapable of producing more seeds and stuff like that?

sure...the end result comes down to the shortage of food being used for behavior modification.

CONTROL THE FOOD - CONTROL THE POPULATION

By Doreen Hannes
January 20, 2008
NewsWithViews.com

I want to tell you how I found out about NAIS (National Animal Identification System) in the hope that you will see how disturbing this is and why we have to fight it with everything we have. In July of 2005, I went to a meeting at the Ava Missouri Sale Barn regarding a new electronic cattle identification program that was to be mandatory in January of 2006 in order to sell cattle in the State of Missouri. Yes, January of 2006. Dr Taylor Woods, a member of the NAIS Subcommittee, was the one speaking. He never said what the name of the program was, nor offered any website where one could go for information. I asked a couple of questions and then made a statement. That statement was, "It sounds like you just want to have complete control of the food supply." Dr Woods replied, "We already do." It is a frightening prospect to consider any group of men in complete control of the food supply, much less a bunch of people who fear microbes.

Needless to say, much of what Dr Woods stated was not entirely true. We would not be required to electronically identify our cattle to be able to sell them in January of 2006, and it wasn't really a done deal except in the minds of bureaucrats who hate the fact that we still have this irritating thing called the United States Constitution that needs to at least be given lip service from time to time or chance a full scale revolt.

Then, in late November of 2005 I went into a local feed store, MFA, and was greeted by a flame orange sign on the counter saying "Due to the Bioterrorism Act We must have your name, address and phone number to sell you feed." As creepy as that is, I now had a starting place. In a short amount of time I found myself with the name of the program Dr Woods was talking about, which was indeed the National Animal Identification System, and a whole lot of information on the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, which is basically NAIS for food and feed up to the final consumer. Incidentally, the Bioterrorism Act passed as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, which included the Animal Health Protection Act (the USDA claims AHPA as their authorizing legislation for NAIS) introduced by none other than current Ag Chair Senator Harkin of Iowa. This same man has now introduced the first probable statutory reference to NAIS in the 2007 Farm Bill. Is this a coincidence? Not likely.

The USDA recently released new documents that will make NAIS next to impossible to fight without going on the offensive and filing suit against the Federal government. The USDA states in their Business Plan that in a scant few weeks (February 2008) they will issue a proposed rule to roll all breed registry identification into NAIS. They will also issue rules to roll all disease control programs into NAIS compliant identification standards. Brucellosis, Tuberculosis, Coggin's and Pseudorabies will magically roll right in through the rulemaking process. NPIP for poultry will just roll on in. Scrapies for sheep and goats will simply be turned in to NAIS premise ID without the knowledge or even consent of participants in this program. Certificates of health to move animals across state lines, or even within the state will be rolled in as well. If you get the idea that NAIS is like a bulldozer on steroids, you'd be about right. Remember that NAIS is a three part program with it's foundation being premise identification. You must have a premise id to get an animal id, and you must have premise id and animal id to have animal tracking.

The USDA is busily making Cooperative Agreements with all states and tribes and any non profit organization that will stick it's hand out for the taxpayer money to encourage and probably require their members to enroll in premise id and animal id in order to reap the benefits of membership in those organizations. The states are to help make NAIS compulsory in order to engage in commerce under these contracts. There is an exception allowed for individual animal identification… If you never move an animal off your property other than directly to slaughter it will not require an NAIS animal id, but there is no exception mentioned or alluded to for premise id under USDA's plan.

Meanwhile, our federal level legislators blithely reiterate to us "NAIS is voluntary at the Federal level" and say that they are doing so well because they cut the budget for NAIS. Well, the infrastructure has already been laid, folks. Unless you specifically stop NAIS via statute or a moratorium, it's going to roll over all of our rights through all disease control programs! Why do you refuse to uphold your oath of office? You didn't take an oath to pervert "general welfare" for the benefit of corporations and bureaucrats, did you? Did our forefathers bleed and die so that an agency could require birth certificates on chickens?

Many people seem to have a very difficult time understanding that NAIS is and always has been 48-hour traceback on all livestock. If you want 48-hour traceback, you must have 24 hour reporting of movements. NAIS is not a marketing program; it is being brought to bear at the point of market. NAIS cannot, by very definition, be a voluntary program. The USDA is holding states hostage at the point of interstate commerce by attaching NAIS premise id, and animal id to health certificates and disease control programs. To up the ante even further, they are buying the participation of feedlots, breed organizations, farm groups, youth groups and processors. To move across state lines, or in many cases, even within that state, you will need to be in NAIS. How can that be voluntary?

NAIS opposition has been fairly effective fighting this on a state by state level in a disorganized and haphazard fashion. The original plans called for mandatory in January of 2008 and mandatory with enforcement of all aspects in January of 2009. We've pushed the USDA back, and sideways, but we have not stopped them because the people in positions of power have not had the will to take on the fight.

The anti-NAIS movement has had a grand total of one case filed; and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture backed off just because of the filing. Why are all the attorneys who have stepped into this battle against NAIS not going after the federal government for an injunction or more? The entire program is patently and assuredly un-Constitutional. The USDA is trying to shift all lawsuits to the states by saying "NAIS is voluntary at the federal level" while they push the states into full implementation through perverting the Interstate Commerce Clause.

Certainly, if we still have a Constitution, we can win on simply the religious objection alone. But our arguments go further than even the First amendment. We also have the 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th, 13th and 14th amendments that are being violated with NAIS. There are issues of unfair competition that will need to be addressed, as well as real estate effects of this program. Why can't we get on the offensive and file suit? We have harm in many of those who were rolled in, or coerced into the program, and they are not all Amish who won't file suits.

We have the Alliance Defense Fund who won the case without even going to court in PA, and the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, who have taken on Greg Niewendorp's case in Michigan, the Center for Law and Religious Freedom involved in Wisconsin where the Amish have been assigned PIN's without their consent; they have all broken their teeth on NAIS. We have several individual attorneys who are well researched on the subject, and still, no filing on the federal level to stop the USDA from shoving this down our throats. The states of Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin already have mandatory NAIS to a large degree. With the myriad of roll ins (Massachusetts, Idaho, Colorado Fairs, Illinois fairs, North Carolina Fairs and hay, Tennesse hay share, NY calfhood vaccination, Pennsylvania any farm programs, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, etc.) without proper authorization, there is no doubt where this is going. And it doesn't take a degree to see it.

[American Patriot]

I went out and bought seeds a few years back, based on the assumption that they were genetically NOT going to produce offspring plants (that is seed plants).

Not only was it a load of bullshit, I was able to pick and save seeds from corn, beans, cucumbers and about a half dozen other seeding plants that were mentioned specifically as being "genetically modified and unable to reproduce" on some of the "Survival Lists".

Again... it was bullshit then, and I'm betting it's bullshit now.

Instead of listening to this crap and taking it hook, line and sinker we need to be TESTING these theories out.

[American Patriot]

Sorry, but any group that is wholly religious or wholly anti-religious is suspect in my book.

NewsWithViews.com

These guys are suspect to me.

[vector7]

I went out and bought seeds a few years back, based on the assumption that they were genetically NOT going to produce offspring plants (that is seed plants).

Not only was it a load of bullshit, I was able to pick and save seeds from corn, beans, cucumbers and about a half dozen other seeding plants that were mentioned specifically as being "genetically modified and unable to reproduce" on some of the "Survival Lists".

Again... it was bullshit then, and I'm betting it's bullshit now.

Instead of listening to this crap and taking it hook, line and sinker we need to be TESTING these theories out.

It's not the myth that GM seeds won't reproduce; if that were the case no one would have been getting sued over the past decade. And even if they found a way to keep them from reproducing, after enough cross pollination attempts the heirloom gene could get turned back on.

It's folks like Monsanto wanting to control the worlds seed market through GM copyrighted patents. You could make a case that this forces larger farms to move toward GM operations and pushes out the smaller organic farmers.

After the Ethanol Debacle, Salmonella-Tomato and Peanut Butter Outbreaks taking down segments of our American farms and processing capabilites with increasing regulatory measures, now it looks like they are trying shut down local organic farms, why?

Food prices may be rising again soon, coupled with forcing everyone to chip their livestock or they can't be processed makes a tangible effort in ranching and dairy operations to control, track and capture carbon taxes. Together all of this could make food a serious commodity in the future.

Shhh...don't tell anyone if you saved GM patented seeds, they've been actively looking for folks who kept them without paying their annual patent seed rights.

Genetically Modfied Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach

A Farmer Rounds Up Monsanto

Farmers warn of GM dangers

Public fooled by GE companies, supporters

Hillary Clinton and the Monsanto-driven "food safety" bills: Rural Cleansing at its worst

[American Patriot]

It's folks like Monsanto wanting to control the worlds seed market through GM copyrighted patents. You could make a case that this forces larger farms to move toward GM operations and pushes out the smaller organic farmers.

Perhaps.... perhaps not.

[samizdat]

More info- I need to investigate more before I formulate a real opinion. A lot of
hogwash or bs is being thrown by both sides. Some flimsily backed accusations by the xtians on the news w views, and the stretchin it - to next step- microchips for the mark of the beast don't help.

On the other hand- it does look like a move toward national kolhoz- mandatory chips in beasts and seed control? Small farmers have been raked over for decades.

http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash....-out-of-reach/

Multiple Ways Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of ReachPosted by Barbara Peterson under GMO, food contamination | Tags: contamination, cross-pollination, engineering, genetic modification, GMO, Monsanto, organic food, poison |

By Linn Cohen-Cole

People say if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, just don’t buy their GMO seeds.
Not so simple. Where are farmers supposed to get normal seed these days? How are they supposed to avoid contamination of their fields from GM-crops? How are they supposed to stop Monsanto detectives from trespassing or Monsanto from using helicopters to fly over spying on them?
Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples and if they find any GMO plants growing there (or say they have), they then sue, saying they own the crop. It’s a way to make money since farmers can’t fight back and court and they settle because they have no choice.
And they have done and are doing a bucket load of things to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of NORMAL seeds.
1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.
2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork and testing and tracking every variety and being subject to fines, that having normal seed becomes almost impossible (an NAIS approach to wiping out normal seeds). Does your state have such a seed law? Before they existed, farmers just collected the seeds and put them in sacks in the shed and used them the next year, sharing whatever they wished with friends and neighbors, selling some if they wanted. That’s been killed.
In Illinois, which has such a seed law, Madigan, the Speaker of the House, his staff is Monsanto lobbyists.
3. Monsanto is pushing anti-democracy laws (Vilsack’s brainchild, actually) that remove community’ control over their own counties so farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops. So if you don’t want a GM-crop that grows industrial chemicals or drugs or a rice growing with human DNA in it, in your area and mixing with your crops, tough luck.
Check the map of just where the Monsanto/Vilsack laws are and see if your state is still a democracy or is Monsanto’s. A farmer in Illinois told me he heard that Bush had pushed through some regulation that made this true in every state. People need to check on that.
4. For sure there are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA right now that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal (another way to leave nothing but GM-seeds) because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.” Farmer can still seed clean but the equipment now has to be certified and a farmer said it would require a million to a million and half dollar building and equipment … for EACH line of seed. Seed storage facilities are also listed (another million?) and harvesting and transport equipment. And manure. Something that can contaminate seed. Notice that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not mentioned.
You could eat manure and be okay (a little grossed out but okay). Try that with pesticides and fertilizers. Indian farmers have. Their top choice for how to commit suicide to escape the debt they have been left in is to drink Monsanto pesticides.
5. Monsanto is picking off seed cleaners across the Midwest. In Pilot Grove, Missouri, in Indiana (Maurice Parr), and now in southern Illinois (Steve Hixon). And they are using US marshals and state troopers and county police to show up in three cars to serve the poor farmers who had used Hixon as their seed cleaner, telling them that he or their neighbors turned them in, so across that 6 county areas, no one talking to neighbors and people are living in fear and those farming communities are falling apart from the suspicion Monsanto sowed. Hixon’s office got broken into and he thinks someone put a GPS tracking device on his equipment and that’s how Monsanto found between 200-400 customers in very scattered and remote areas, and threatened them all and destroyed his business within 2 days.
So, after demanding that seed cleaners somehow be able to tell one seed from another (or be sued to kingdom come) or corrupting legislatures to put in laws about labeling of seeds that are so onerous no one can cope with them, what is Monsanto’s attitude about labeling their own stuff? You guessed it - they’re out there pushing laws against ANY labeling of their own GM-food and animals and of any exports to other countries. Why?
We know and they know why.
As Norman Braksick, the president of Asgrow Seed Co. (now owned by Monsanto) predicted in the Kansas City Star (3/7/94) seven years ago, “If you put a label on a genetically engineered food, you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.”
And they’ve sued dairy farmers for telling the truth about their milk being rBGH-free, though rBGH is associated with an increased risk of breast, colon and prostate cancers.
I just heard that some seed dealers urge farmers to buy the seed under the seed dealer’s name, telling the farmers it helps the dealer get a discount on seed to buy a lot under their own name. Then Monsanto sues the poor farmer for buying their seed without a contract and extorts huge sums from them.
Here’s a youtube video that is worth your time. Vandana Shiva is one of the leading anti-Monsanto people in the world. In this video, she says (and this video is old), Monsanto had sued 1500 farmers whose fields had simply been contaminated by GM-crops. Listen to all the ways Monsanto goes after farmers.
Do you know the story of Gandhi in India and how the British had salt laws that taxed salt? The British claimed it as theirs. Gandhi had what was called a Salt Satyagraha, in which people were asked to break the laws and march to the sea and collect the salt without paying the British. A kind of Boston tea party, I guess.
Thousands of people marched 240 miles to the ocean where the British were waiting. As people moved forward to collect the salt, the British soldiers clubbed them but the people kept coming. The non-violent protest exposed the British behavior, which was so revolting to the world that it helped end British control in India.
Vandana Shiva has started a Seed Satyagraha - nonviolent non-cooperation around seed laws - has gotten millions of farmers to sign a pledge to break those laws.
American farmers and cattlemen might appreciate what Gandhi fought for and what Shiva is bringing back and how much it is about what we are all so angry about - loss of basic freedoms. [The highlighting is mine.]

The Seed Satyagraha is the name for the nonviolent, noncooperative movement that Dr. Shiva has organized to stand against seed monopolies. According to Dr. Shiva, the name was inspired by Gandhi’s famous walk to the Dandi Beach, where he picked up salt and said, “You can’t monopolize this which we need for life.” But it’s not just the noncooperation aspect of the movement that is influenced by Gandhi. The creative side saving seeds, trading seeds, farming without corporate dependence–without their chemicals, without their seed.
” All this is talked about in the language that Gandhi left us as a legacy. We work with three key concepts.”
” (One) Swadeshi…which means the capacity to do your own thing–produce your own food, produce your own goods….”
“(Two) Swaraj–to govern yourself. And we fight on three fronts–water, food, and seed. JalSwaraj is water independence–water freedom and water sovereignty. Anna Swaraj is food freedom, food sovereignty. And Bija Swaraj is seed freedom and seed sovereignty. Swa means self–that which rises from the self and is very, very much a deep notion of freedom.
“I believe that these concepts, which are deep, deep, deep in Indian civilization, Gandhi resurrected them to fight for freedom. They are very important for today’s world because so far what we’ve had is centralized state rule, giving way now to centralized corporate control, and we need a third alternate. That third alternate is, in part, citizens being able to tell their state, ‘This is what your function is. This is what your obligations are,’ and being able to have their states act on corporations to say, ‘This is something you cannot do.’”
” (Three) Satyagraha, non-cooperation, basically saying, ‘We will do our thing and any law that tries to say that (our freedom) is illegal… we will have to not cooperate with it. We will defend our freedoms to have access to water, access to seed, access to food, access to medicine.’”

[samizdat]

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/First-...e_house_garden


Mrs. Obama, who has spoken about healthy eating, said the garden's purpose is to make sure her family, White House staff and guests can eat fresh fruits and vegetables. She said she has found that her 10- and 7-year-old daughters like vegetables more if they taste good.
"Especially if they were involved in planting it and picking it, they were much more curious about giving it a try," she said.
Such a White House garden has been a dream of noted California chef Alice Waters, considered a leader in the movement to encourage consumption of locally grown and organic food. She has lobbied the White House to plant such a garden for more than a decade.
"Fresh, wholesome food is the right of every American," Waters said. "This garden symbolizes the Obamas' commitment to that belief."

[Ryan Ruck]

I wonder what fashion designer made that "gardening outfit". Hell, her kids with their (likely designer) jeans are better dressed for gardening.

[vector7]

FDA Invades Non-Commercial Amish Farm in PA



Kinzers, PA – At 9:40 a.m. Thursday, February 4, only a few miles from the scene of the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, another drama against the Amish began as agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came onto the property of Amish farmer Dan Allgyer, without permission, claiming to be conducting an investigation.

Agents Joshua Schafer and Deborah Haney, from the Delaware FDA office, drove past Allgyer’s “No Trespassing” signs and up his driveway almost to his barn, where Allgyer happened to be outside. Allgyer approached the car, the agents got out and Allgyer asked them why they were there. They produced a piece of paper, asked Allgyer if he was Dan Allgyer, which Allgyer confirmed, asked him his middle initial and phone number, entered the information on the paper, told Allgyer they were there to do an inspection and started reading the paper to him, saying it gave them jurisdiction to be there.

The agents – Schafer did most of the talking – said they had a right to be there because “you produce food for human consumption.” Dan asked why they believed that and they said, “Well, you have cows. You cannot be consuming all the milk you produce.” They further stated, “If you get a milk truck in to move all this milk you sell milk to the public, therefore we have jurisdiction.”

Dan said, “This is a private farm, I do not sell anything to the public.”
As they continued to harass him about doing an inspection, Allgyer said, “You can sit in your car. I will call my lawyer.”

The agents remained standing.

Allgyer called his attorney who advised him to have the agents call him. When Allgyer told them to call his attorney Schafer replied, “You are the owner and you have to speak for yourself.”

They pressed him to talk and Schafer asked, “Are you refusing us an investigation? Allgyer replied, “That’s not what I’m saying.”
They kept repeating, “Are you refusing an investigation?”

Allgyer kept saying, “Call this guy” – meaning his attorney.
Allgyer said they must have asked him six times.

One of them said, “Even if you do not say so, you are still refusing an investigation.”

Eventually Schafer said, “If you refuse an investigation will you answer some questions?”

Allgyer said, “I’d rather not.”

When the agents continued to push him Dan said, “Is that a question?
Sheepishly, they said. ‘Yes.”

Allgyer said, “What did I say about questions?’

They replied, “Well we’re going to write this up as a refusal to have an investigation and give it to our higher officials.”

Dan felt they were threatening him at this point.

After that, they got in their car, drove out the driveway and parked on the neighbor’s property watching Allgyer.

A visitor, Ivan, who had been on the farm, though not part of the conversation, left in his truck soon after, and the FDA agents proceeded to follow him in their car, even when he stopped at a convenience store to use the facilities. After forty or fifty miles, Ivan called 911 and told the police he was being followed.

The state police – in two cruisers – pulled the agents over. Ivan pulled over as well.

Ivan said the police told him that the agents explained they were FDA agents and they had the right to follow him because they were conducting an investigation on the farm he left. They thought he had product and they wanted samples of the product.

Ivan responded by opening the back of the truck and revealing it was empty. The agents photographed the inside of the empty truck and gave Ivan a paper, claiming they had a right to inspect his truck. He told them they were harassing him. The state trooper said they had a right to follow and pull him over but they were in an unmarked car so Ivan would not have had to pull over.

As with Allgyer, the agents asked Ivan some information which they wrote on the paper they produced, then handed it to him.

Ivan asked them, “Why are you writing up a paper on me when you have no cause?”

They said, “We have a cause, because you left the farm.”

They claimed he had a load off the farm and they wanted samples.

Ivan said, “I didn’t know who you were.”

An agent replied, “You saw us at the farm.”

Ivan said. “That doesn’t make any difference, I didn’t know who you were.”

Ivan pointed out that he was at the farm but did not hear what they said. He was twenty feet or more away from them and was not involved in their conversation.

Ivan said the police told him they would record that the agents had been following him.

A spokeswoman for the FDA (reached at the phone number on the paper the FDA agents gave to Allgyer) said the FDA has no comment at this time because it is an ongoing investigation.

Dan Allgyer will meet with his county sheriff in the near future to apprise him of this incident.

We will update this story as needed.