Articles of Interest
Is the meat you buy safe enough?
By Henry Lamb - November 17, 2007- The food supply in the United States is, without a doubt, the safest in the world. But when 21 million pounds of ground beef - inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture - is recalled because it contains E. coli 0157:H7, the question must be asked: Is the meat you buy safe enough?
When "voluntary" means "mandatory"
By Henry Lamb - November 10, 2007- When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its new National Animal Identification System in 2005, it was scheduled to become mandatory in three phases: property registration by 2007; animal identification and registration by 2008; and reporting - within 24 hours - of animal movement off the registered property by 2009.
A PIG IS A PIG IS A PIG,
NO MATTER WHAT USDA CALLS IT
By Randy Givens - August 17, 2007- For several years, the USDA and its corporate allies have been waging a propaganda war against American farmers, ranchers, and pet owners. Their goal is to subject us all to one of the most all-encompassing attacks on our right to farm and keep pets as has ever been fomented.
Forget the illegals, track the cows!
By Henry Lamb - June 16, 2007- Despite this spectacular failure - the inability to find 20 million illegal aliens - this same government is preparing to locate, monitor and control the movement of hundreds of millions of livestock animals.
Linking COOL With NAIS Means Trouble
For Consumers and Small Farmers & Ranchers
By Randy Givens - April 9, 2007- For years, consumers, farmers and ranchers have pushed for the adoption and implementation of Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for agricultural products. COOL will simply require that all agricultural products sold in the U.S. be labeled as to what country they originated from.
NAIS and Horses
A Timeline of the Inclusion of Horses in NAIS
2002 through 2006
By Karen Nowak - March 2007- The issue of national equine ID has been discussed between animal health officials since at least 1987 but did NOT involve any organization representing the actual horse owning public until 2002. The purpose of this lengthy article is to provide a reference document for the evolution of the plan to include equines in the National Animal Identification System.
Sold Out by Farm Bureau
By Karin Bergener - February 2007- Farm Bureau members who have asked what their Farm Bureau is doing to stop the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) are surprised to learn that Farm Bureau - at least the American Farm Bureau Foundation - supports the NAIS...
USDA announces an "opt out" procedure for NAIS
By Henry Lamb - January 29, 2007- In a remarkable turnaround, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to provide an "opt out" procedure for people whose premises have been registered in the National Animal Identification System...
National Animal ID:
What the Feds Can't Do, the States Well Might
By Judith McGeary - January 2007- The National Animal Identification System: a plan to force everyone who owns even one animal to register with the government, tag each animal, and report their movements. Agri-business and technology companies developed this plan in the late 1980s and 1990s in relative secrecy...
Our Tax Dollars at Work:
Chasing a cow over 5 states
By Darol Dickinson - January 2007- The government keeps repeating that the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is necessary to provide 48-hour tracking to improve animal health. To some people, this sounds plausible. But even a little scratching under the surface reveals that these claims have holes a mile wide...
Beware the agriculture bureaucrats
By Henry Lamb - January 24, 2007- Calvin and Carol Whittaker live in one of the most beautiful parts of Idaho, a little northwest of Idaho Falls, in the community of Leadore (pronounced "lead ore" because it was a mining town when it was named). They have lived in the area all their lives...
USDA's snooping machine
By Henry Lamb - January 12, 2007- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking more and more like the Big Brother government that has infected Washington in recent years. The "2006 Agricultural Identification Survey," recently mailed to thousands of private landowners, is a good example.
The USDA Shell Game on "Voluntary" versus "Mandatory" Participation in NAIS
By Randy Givens - November 16, 2006- Recently, the USDA changed the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) web page to infer that it is now USDA policy and position that NAIS will be a voluntary system instead of the mandatory system that they have been pushing for several years. However, what is written and what they intend for you to believe are two entirely different things.
How will the National Animal Identification System Affect Horse Owners?
Report on the American Horse Council's Issues Forum
By Judith McGeary - October, 2006- The American Horse Council (AHC) has played a key role in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). In 2002, the AHC appointed members to a "task force," which later became the official Equine Species Working Group. Last month, the AHC held an Issues Forum in Austin, which included a high-profile panel discussion on the NAIS. Unfortunately, the event was not aimed at informing the general horse-owning public; the $100 entry fee discouraged most individuals, and only about 35 people attended the panel discussion.
Your Life Under the National Animal Identification System
By Judith McGeary - October, 2006- As people learn more about the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS, some have asked, "What's so bad about it?" The arguments against NAIS range from philosophical objections about property and privacy rights, to pragmatic concerns about cost and technological problems. Rather than talk about these concerns in the abstract, let's look at what would happen if NAIS is implemented, some of the day to day realities.
Grandma is an outlaw
By Henry Lamb - July 22, 2006- Way back in 2003, the Wisconsin Legislature enacted the Wisconsin Premises Registration Act, which became effective in November 2005. Sally, and everyone else in Wisconsin who owned even one chicken, horse, cow or any other livestock animal, was required to register her premises with the state by Jan. 1, 2006.
National Animal ID
By Leo Schwartz - July 9, 2006-
The thoughts and actions of unhealthy people - government and corporate "leaders" bent on hanging a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) yoke on America's neck - are dominated by id. With each passing day, their intent to exploit agriculture becomes more apparent.
NAIS Are You Ready?
By Karin Bergener - June 2006- This article, with accompanying illustrations, appears by permission of Karin Bergener and The Gaited Horse magazine.
Feds flip-flop on animal ID?
By Henry Lamb - June 10, 2006- For nearly four years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been developing a National Animal Identification System that conforms with international guidelines. The Draft Strategic Plan was issued April 25, 2005. The plan called for voluntary registration initially, to become mandatory on this timeline...
NAIS to deal with BSE not A-OK
By Henry Lamb - May 6, 2006- Shortly after another "mad cow" was discovered in Alabama, there was a rash of articles in the press citing the event as convincing evidence that the USDA's National Animal Identification System should move forward as quickly as possible. Nowhere did any of the articles mention that the NAIS will do nothing to prevent, control or even slow the disease.
Fighting the NAIS in Texas
By Judith McGeary - April 10, 2006- Texas is the first battleground over NAIS to be joined by both sides. While the state authorities in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Indiana slipped mandatory premises registration through without much fanfare, the citizens of Texas took action when the Texas Animal Health Commission attempted to do the same. Texas is home to some very large industrial agricultural operations, but it is also home to many small- and medium-size farmers and ranchers, concerned consumers and landowners, and a spirit of independence...
NAIS Spawned by International Entanglements
By Doreen Hannes - April 1, 2006- If you've been wondering where the insanity masquerading as our federal government "food safety" and animal health protection regulations and laws are coming from, you can now say, with certainty, that they descend from the organizations within, and tied to the United Nations...
Backlash building against animal ID system
By Henry Lamb - March 18, 2006- Reaction to the National Animal Identification System is shining a light on a growing problem that independent producers believe is threatening the entire livestock industry. Vertical marketing practices in the meat processing industry, combined with the industry's access to, and influence on, the Department of Agriculture and Congress, has the small producer against the ropes. The NAIS may be the final blow that puts independent ranchers and small farmers down for the count...
The National Animal Identification System:
A New Threat to Rural Freedom
By Mary Zanoni - March 2006- Small farmers and homesteaders have chosen their way of life because they love their freedom - the freedom from urban noise and congestion, the independence from government and corporate interference, the self-reliance of providing one's own shelter, water, food. Now the USDA's NAIS - National Animal Identification System - threatens the traditional freedoms of the rural way of life...
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