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. The ministers of the Third Reich and Stalin's propaganda machine would be proud that techniques that they developed are being so masterfully used today, by our government, against our people.
The international corporations want to sell more meat on the world market. To do this, they must comply with tracking standards developed in other countries, and implement those standards in our country - even though those international standards are counter to many of the principles upon which this nation was founded.
The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) was developed by corporate agriculture to impose those foreign trade standards on Americans, for the benefit of those companies that sell meat on the international market, not the farmers and ranchers who raised that meat. Never mind that America imports many times the amount of meat that it exports, these companies think that we should pay any price, and bear any burden, so they can make more money.
To achieve their goals, the pro-NAIS forces are consistently using Language Deception to hide the true extent and impact of NAIS on Americans. They twist the language to mislead citizens and politicians into believing that NAIS is an innocuous and necessary program. However, the truth is there if people will take the time to learn about the issues and cut through the shrouds USDA has woven with deceptive language.
A PIG IS A PIG IS A PIG, NO MATTER WHAT USDA CALLS IT
To understand how to fight their deceitful use of words, we need to review some basic truths.
If the government calls a pig a "Corvette," that does not change the animal into an automobile that must be registered and inspected by the state, and have license tags.
Calling a pig a "Corvette" does not mean that the Pig Pen is a "Garage" nor does it mean that doctoring your pig makes you a "Automotive Mechanic."
A PET OWNER IS NOT A PRODUCER
If the government calls a pig owner a "producer," NAIS would require that the pet owner has to obtain a Premises Registration Number for his Property (Real Estate) and an Animal Identification Number (AIN) for his pig, even if he keeps the animal at his home, as a pet for his kids. That twist of language just keeps the pig owner and his elected representatives from realizing that the USDA is really targeting millions of pet owners for registration, record keeping, tracking, and reporting the movements of their animals.
The truth remains; calling a Pet Owner a "Producer" does not change the fact that he is nothing more than a pet owner. It's just that the government is setting him up to be burdened with outrageous regulation and reporting requirements.
"PREMISES" VERSUS PROPERTY
Likewise, if the government calls your real estate property a "Premises," that does not change the fact that you have Property Rights to that "Premises." Those Property Rights, just like the rest of your civil liberties are "Natural Rights." We are born with those rights, they are not granted to us by the government. Just as they are not granted by the government, the government has no authority to take them away from us without just compensation.
Simply calling something by a different name does not change the nature of that thing, nor does it give the government any greater power over that thing.
Calling your home a "Premises" does not make it a commercial enterprise, nor does it deprive you of your rights under the Constitution of the United States.
Calling your pet Vietnamese Pot Bellied pig a "Swine" does not make it a source of commercial meat in need of regulation and registration. And, no matter what you call it, pig manure still stinks! It is what it is, no matter what you call it.
STUDENTS ARE STUDENTS, NOT GOVERNMENT AGENTS
One of the classic tactics of totalitarian governments is to use children against their parents. In Colorado, officials in 4H and FFA programs are requiring children to register the property (premises) where they keep their animals. Calling a student involved in 4H or FFA a "producer" does not give the Government the right to require the student to become a snitch and register his parent's property as a "Premises" - even if the government provides funding for the 4H and FFA.
DEPOPULATION
One of the main reasons government officials give for implementing NAIS is that they want to implement government policies to control disease outbreaks in the animals targeted by NAIS. One of those policies is to kill all susceptible animals within a 6 kilometer radius of such an outbreak. Instead of calling it "slaughter," they call that "depopulation." Calling the massive slaughter, of uninfected animals, "depopulation" does not alter the tremendous, unnecessary harm done to the owners of those animals, their families, and the economic well being of the community.
THE NATIONAL HERD
USDA officials are now declaring that all of our livestock type animals are part of the "National Herd." However, saying that all our animals are part of the "national herd" does not mean that they are no longer our property, nor does that give the government the authority to seize any of our property rights concerning those animals. We still have traditional property rights over them ... until some law is passed or some activist judge decides that we don't. Claiming that all our animals are part of some "national herd" does reveal the attitude of unelected bureaucrats towards OUR PROPERTY.
VOLUNTARY IS VOLUNTARY, MANDATORY IS NOT
With all this abuse of the English language, we can look at what USDA says, and fear for what it might do. For years, USDA plotted to impose a mandatory NAIS system on everyone who owned just one chicken, pig, goat, sheep, cow, or horse - even if that horse is a Shetland pony kept for the grandkids. At first, USDA held some meetings for appearances sake, attended mostly by representatives of those corporate interests promoting NAIS. Those industry shills promoted NAIS as a mandatory program and USDA used that as their excuse for wanting to impose it on everybody, no matter that their "one size fits all" program flew against all that we knew about animal disease control. When pet owners and independent farmers and ranchers found out about the NAIS plot, they raised a mighty ruckus, even outlawing it in one state. Faced with a rebellion, USDA has backed off and now claims that, at the federal level, NAIS is a voluntary program. Meanwhile, USDA continues to pour money into states that have made NAIS a mandatory program. Simple logic seems to fail those self-important bureaucrats. If you have a "voluntary" program, it can not fund a "mandatory" program. Faced with such duplicitous behavior, we can easily see how today's "voluntary" will become tomorrow's "mandatory." All they will need is a government-declared "crisis," and the axe will surely fall on the rest of us.
The only protection we have against that axe is our joint efforts to make our elected officials understand that, to protect our freedoms, NAIS must die.
For more information on NAIS, I suggest that you visit the following web sites:
Liberty Ark Coalition libertyark.net
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance