Important: USDA census?????UPDATE!

[Wildsky]

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Exactly!

 

[Arklady]

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So much for the land of the free . . . .

Who said we were free...

Arklady

(my prison looks like a free country)

 

[seminolewind]

I went to the website and checked no, no, no, and no and no. It's amazing how many different ways they ask about if you have a "farm". I won't do it again, they have their answers now.

 

[justusnak]

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Or, give every illegal immigrant a cow!

 

[Buster]

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Or, give every illegal immigrant a cow!

We'd run out of cows before we were done!

 

[speckledhen]

Frankly, its none of their business how many animals of what type I own. I do not have a business; I feed my family with eggs, get organic fertilizer and bug control and that's it. I haven't made one dime of profit off my chickens so its no one's business that I have them, certainly not the gov't spies. I still have rights as long as the Constitution is alive.. note, I didnt say alive and well because it seems to be ailing at the moment with Homeland Security, etc., removing our rights under the guise of protecting us. So, I will not be filling out the Ag survey since I have nothing to do with Ag.
Karen, it came to your mother's address? Does she own livestock? Did you while you lived there? If not, that's fishy. If they just need facts for statistics, then they certainly do not need anyone's name, do they?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

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This survey is not so the goverment can tell you what &/or how many animals you can have. They need the info so they know what is out there in order to do the goverment programs. And before you say that there is to much money going into agricultural programs, very little of it actually goes to the farmer. Most of the money in the agriculture budget goes to the guy down the street. All of the food programs (school lunch, school snacks/milk, senior meals, food stamps, etc.) are funded by the ag. department.

It is your right not to fill it out and return it. It is also their right to come knocking on the door for the info. Just for the record-I hate the darn things too!

 

[speckledhen]

I guess my comment is more along the lines of NAIS than the Ag survey, but no matter what they tell us, I cannot help but think they will somehow be linked. And if they come through my gate and knock on my door, they still will not get the information because I'm not Ag.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

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Speckledhen-Oh, are you getting rid of all the chickens? Just by having them you are part of the Ag. You may not be selling commercially but, you do sell eggs and chickens. Then there is the feed you buy. That is counted as contributing to the Ag economy. I hate the darn survey but, I also feel that if I refuse to fill it out I don't have any right to complain about anything the Ag Department does. It is sortof like voting. If you don't vote then you don't have the right to critize whoever does get elected because you did not participate.

 

[speckledhen]

I dont think any complaints about the Ag Dept will get us anywhere as backyard flock owners anyway. Big business is running this show as it always has. I could never make a profit off my birds no matter how many eggs I sell, not with less than 30 chickens-feed prices preclude that. No profits, no ag, IMO.