It is so great to read all these posts and know that the numbers of folks who think about where their food is coming from is growing. I hope all of you are keeping up on NAIS news. It will potentially affect all of us. I really believe that small farms/family farms and homesteaders are the answer but we all don't have the political voice of agribusiness. My husband and I "cull ruthlessly" to prevent sickness/disease. Not to say we aren't at risk. We all are, but I firmly believe we have the motivation (no one is going to buy chickens from us if we don't maintain good practices) and the opportunity to prevent or stop sickness or disease in its tracks because of the size of our operation. We are a family farm. We have more than dollars invested in our place. It is our life, our future, our home. Tyson can't say that, and in the end, a large number of their employees (even owners) can shrug their shoulders at any issues they have/cause in the food supply, chalk it up to a bad day at "work" and go home. Why I brought up NAIS is it's foolish that the government thinks they can mandate more responsible tracking of the health of animals nation wide than what family farms already do. Once upon a time in America we had community. People understood that what they do affects others. If your kid was naughty, even a neighbor or family member would probably scold if a parent wasn't handy. Now people would be afraid to get involved. It's that "the system will take care of it" attitude that's gotten into our food supply. The system does NOT take care of us. We take care of us.
