USDA,NAIS,Crohnes,Johnes and abolish NAIS

Media Alert! Jim Babka will appear on the Liberty Roundtable tomorrow morning. See the Postscript for details.

Quote of the Day: "The USDA claims it needs to be able to move fast in case of an outbreak of disease. At first blush it sure sounds fine and good, until you consider that people are in the middle of a major epidemic on US dairy farms, and the USDA hasn't moved at all to stop it." - The National Association of Farm Animal Welfare

Subject: From "Voluntary" to Mandatory

Johne's disease is a contagious infection of the small intestine of hoofed animals.

• There's a strong possibility that Johne's disease in cattle causes Crohn's disease in humans.
• According to a 2007 government study, 68% of America's cattle herds may be infected.
• Yet the USDA's page on Johne's disease still cites a 22% figure from 1996

Moreover, the USDA's 2009 budget . . .

• Slashes the already miniscule funding for Johne's disease eradication
• While increasing funding for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)

The rationale for NAIS is that it will better protect America's food supply. But at what cost?

• More government surveillance powers
• More expense for ranchers, farmers, and exotic pet owners
• Less freedom and privacy: If one calf briefly strays, a report must be filed. If a horse-owner goes for a trail ride, a report must be filed.
• NAIS is supposed to control disease outbreaks, but it does so at the expense of disease eradication programs.

No wonder the people aren't buying it. NAIS was introduced four years ago as a "voluntary" program, but the lack of "volunteers" has the USDA playing hardball. It's proposing rule APHIS-2007-0096 that would . . .

• Require participants in other USDA disease control programs to adopt a NAIS Premise ID number
• Phase in a requirement that newborn livestock be issued eartags under a uniform NAIS numbering system

Our assumption that this "voluntary" program would be made mandatory was a big reason DownsizeDC.org launched its anti-NAIS campaign three years ago.

Please join us in fighting this bureaucratic over-reach.

• Tell Congress to abolish NAIS
• Remind them that Congress never approved NAIS in the first place, but Congress does have the power to de-fund the program
• You can also note that NAIS funding is being increased while Johne's Disease eradication programs are being cut. This undermines the rationale for NAIS
• Make your representatives aware that NAIS is one step closer to being mandatory.

You can send your message using our Educate the Powerful System.

Please also take an extra step. Strike at the root of the mischief-making powers of unelected bureaucrats. Tell Congress to pass DownsizeDC.org's Write the Laws Act.

Thank-you for helping us Downsize DC!

James Wilson
Assistant to the President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

P.S. DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka will be on Liberty Roundtable, with Sam Bushman & Friends, just after 9 AM Eastern (8 AM Central, 7 AM Mountain, 6 AM Pacific) on Wednesday morning (Jan. 28). The show is heard on several stations, but the best way to listen is online at http://www.accentradionetwork.com/chooseplayer.htm

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NAIS - the tagging of domesticated animals...

This isn't about outbreaks of disease. This is about privacy, tracking, food supply and small farmers, which the government really wants to put out of business.

Read this and think about how it's going to affect you and your ability to purchase food for your family.

Don't blame corn for high food prices.
Expect higher food prices as the EPA enforces the Clean Air Act on
every farm and Mr. Chertof enforces the Homeland Security Act to
increase hazardous traffic on the interstate highways.

Proposed EPA GHG fees will annually charge $175 for each fresh or dry
milk cow and bull; $87.50 for each beef head or steer; $20 for each
pigglet, sow, bare, and boar. EPA calculates that 100 tons of green
house gas equivalents are emitted by 25 dairy cows, 50 beef steers,
200 pigs or equal combinations. CAA Enforcement represents an
additional cost of $1 per pound for beef considering four years fee
is charged for both the cow and calf growing two years.

For tracking purposes, each farm must also pay for an imbedded ID for
each critter and purchase and maintain a GHG permit for the farm
operation. Revenues obtained from farms growing food, animal fees and
farm penalties are being used to bail out Wall Street, GM, Ford,
Banks, CitiCorp, Insurance, Credit Cards, PAC, golden CEO parachutes,
$ Trillion political campaigns, ACORN, medical and social security
for foreign aliens and a few federally qualified domestics. Thanks to
the Clean Air Act.

Food prices will also increase to pay to transport fertilizer on the
hazardous interstate highways alongside the family auto rather than
to transport hazardous explosive nitrous fertilizer in the safety of
railcars on the remote railways. Thanks to the Homeland Security Act.

Steep fees associated EPA action will force family farms out of
business and force higher grocery and restaurant prices for food,
cereal, grain, mutton, milk, beef and pork.

More than 90 percent of U.S. dairy, beef and pork production would be
affected. The EPA rate for GHG equivalents of $43.75 per ton of
emitted greenhouse gases is expected to increase each year further
increasing consumer cost for electricity, transportation, food, fiber.

The EPA rules would not decrease global greenhouse gases except as
the additional cost of food reduces the consumption of food. There is
no net reduction when a ton of GHG in the US is replaced by adding a
ton of GHG in China or India.

Unilateral Farm tax and farm regulation of greenhouse gases and farm
animals under the Clean Air Act will impose additional restrictions
on the U.S. economy and the global food supplies but result in no
reduction on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The above comes from a list I'm on which includes small farmers.

Here's another comment. Bear in mind, I am not a farmer. But I am a consumer, and I think government should stay out of the barnyards and pastures of America's small farm families.
It's a way of life that will soon be extinct.

The people who started this are not out of office as they were never in
office. BTW: at present Obama supports the NAIS. Do the names Cargill or
Monsanto mean anything to you? Take a good look because the program is well
and pushing forward faster than ever. USDA gets a lot of money from these
guys and the 2 companies that make the id tags. As long as USDA is allowed
to take money from private industry they won't be thinking about what's best
for the American farmers, only what is best for big business. The fight is
not over it is just begun and we need to be filling the website Obama put up
with reasons we don't need the NAIS to become mandatory. That is their goal
and they are gaining ground, not losing it. The last couple of year's
congress voted no money to go to NAIS so the USDA rearranged some programs
and got more money from the agri-businesses and continued to push the
program.

Yes, if they get their way they will be demanding tags at birth and it will
be like putting a repressive tax on people that own a couple of animals and
the small farmers. If I have 10 chickens I pay for 10 tags presently
costing $20 a piece (last I looked). Tyson gets to buy 10 tags for 10
chicken houses containing 10,000 chickens each. Just who is getting a
better deal? The point is not to fine and imprison people for forgetting to
tag livestock. The point is to make it too expensive for individuals (and
small farmers) to raise their own food thereby forcing us to eat whatever
the big companies decide to grow including GM plants and animals. In fact
they are making great strides getting cloned and GM animals into the market
place with neither restrictions nor notice on the labels that you are buying
a food that is not "natural". I'm sorry that isn't a great word to use but
I'm not sure what you call a cow that has antibiotics as part of its genetic
code.