Update and Alert on the Farm Bill

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved a version of the Farm Bill with NAIS - Section 10305 - in it. The full Senate is expected to vote on the Farm Bill next week, and then it will go to a conference committee with both Senators and Representatives. Also, although we do not know when, at some point the Senate will vote on the Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which provides funding for USDA. So we need people to put pressure on both the Senate and the House in the coming weeks to stop NAIS and stop funding for NAIS.

TAKE ACTION:

1. RIGHT NOW: Call or fax your Senators. You can find contact information for your Senators here. Talk to them about NAIS in general, and tell them you want Section 10305 taken out and funding stopped.

MESSAGE 1: Take Section 10305 out of the Farm Bill because it gives tacit support for a badly conceived and badly implemented program. Section 10305 also provides false reassurance that the information in the databases will be confidential, when experience has shown that government databases are vulnerable.

REASONS: NAIS needs to be stopped, not encouraged:

• It will destroy independent agriculture, the backbone of this country and its food supply
• It will not increase food safety, because food contamination happens at the slaughterhouses and processing plants
• It will cost millions we can't afford
• USDA's claims of success to date are based on fraudulent claims of "voluntary" premises registrations - people have been coerced, bribed, and registered without their consent.
• Regardless of the protections in the bill, having the government or private entities compile information on what animals citizens own, leaves those citizens open to harassment or worse by people who hack into that database or use the information for purposes other than what is intended.

You can find more talking points and arguments on our website, www.libertyark.net.

MESSAGE 2: Stop funding for NAIS because the federal funding is driving mandatory and coercive programs in the states.

2. Send your Senators a copy of the Liberty Ark letter outlining some of the frauds USDA has perpetrated to promote registration under a so-called "voluntary" NAIS. The letter is posted here .
3. Call or fax your Representative. You can find contact information for your Representative here. Both the Farm Bill and the Appropriations Bill will ultimately go to conference committee, so we need Representatives educated as well. Use the same message as for your Senators.

A sample letter is below.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS:

We need to ensure that all legislators are educated about NAIS. So whether your immediate reason for calling is the Farm Bill or the Appropriations Bill, be sure to mention both. The bottom-line message is: No NAIS, in any form! It's best to ask to speak to their staffer who handles agriculture issues. Take a few minutes to let that staffer know you're against NAIS, and that you vote. You may get the opportunity to educate the staffer. Grab it and let them know the real facts about NAIS!

SAMPLE LETTER:

It is best to FAX the letter to your Senator or Representative. Because of security measures, letters mailed to DC take weeks or months to get there. If you can't fax, then either mail a letter to the local district office or use email. We recommend that you follow up with a call, to make sure the email does not simply get overlooked.

Dear _________:

I oppose Section 10305 of the Farm Bill because it implies approval of the USDA's National Animal Identification System (NAIS). NAIS has never been approved or even debated by either branch of Congress. Indeed, few members of the Senate or House know the details of NAIS, understand its implications for destroying America's remaining independent farms, or recognize the misleading and coercive tactics USDA uses to ram this program past our elected officials.

I urge you to remove section 10305 from the Farm Bill and to stop funding for NAIS.

Sincerely,
Name
Address
City, State, Zip

BACKGROUND AND MORE INFORMATION:

FARM BILL, Section 10305. Section 10305 of the Farm Bill, as approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, amends the Animal Health Protection Act to (1) insert a definition of NAIS; and (2) provide various exceptions from public disclosure for information collected under NAIS. The inclusion of Section 10305 represents a tacit approval of NAIS, which is a very serious problem for the grassroots opposition to NAIS. But it is not a complete adoption of NAIS, nor does it mandate NAIS directly. So Section 10305 represents a battle in this war against NAIS, but it is not a decisive battle for either side.

The vast majority of Senators and Representatives still know little about NAIS, and what they've been told comes primarily from mainstream corporate agriculture representatives, and people who claim it's a food safety program. We must continue to educate our legislators. This means sticking with the basics of NAIS and why it is the wrong thing for America.

FUNDING ISSUES:

Coalition Letter on the Fraud of "Voluntary" Premises Registrations. To protest continued funding of NAIS based on fraudulent claims by USDA of "voluntary" premises registrations, we've sent a letter to the Chair and Ranking Minority Members of the Agriculture Appropriations Committees of both the Senate and House, and sent copies to all of the Committee members. The letter outlines the various ways USDA has manipulated information to claim a greater percentage of premises are registered than is true, and the coercion, bribing, and data dumping that's been used to produce these supposedly "voluntary" registrations. Citizens are having their real estate registered against their will, and our legislators aren't aware. We urge you to send a copy of this letter to your Senators. You can find the letter here.

TOLL-FREE NUMBERS

Here are some toll-free numbers for the Capitol Switchboard:

1-866-220-0044
1-866-340-9281
1-877-851-6437
1-888-355-3588
1-800-833-6354
1-800-450-8293
1-877-762-8722
1-877-762-8762