**Rant** TSC and the NAIS!!!!!!!!

[GrayDragon]

Boyd,

I skimmed through several dozen websites on the issue.

The website claims there will be outrageous fees. That's false, it's free to register. I confirmed that it was free to register in about thirty seconds.

So right off the bat we have one easily revealed to be untrue statement made about this program, one that kind of blatantly insults my intelligence. I mean, if you are going to lie, at least put a little effort into it so I can actually get a feeling of satisfaction when I disprove your statement. Five seconds with google leaves me feeling a little let down.

Then they go on to a bunch of outrageous claims about the government coming and confiscating/killing all your livestock if you don't pay these imaginary fees. Come on, really? The government has that amount of manpower and time to waste? Is there actually a single verifiable instance of this actually happening? Surely something like this would make the news? I mean, it's so outrageous, it should be greenlit on fark.com in about ten seconds flat. Five, if you can work 'your dog wants steak' into the headline submission.

Then there is the abuse they heap in the comments on anyone who tries to question their claims or ask for actual verification other than the word of the site creator. Massive red flag.


Funny, with all the regulations on alcohol sale and consumption, I can make 200 gallons a year of beer and wine in my basement and invite the local sheriff over for a taste testing without any fear of getting arrested. But I'm supposed to believe that same sheriff is going to throw me in jail for giving some eggs to my neighbor?

I know the government can be stupid. I've personally experienced the government being incredibly stupid in ways that resulted in me sitting in a jail cell overnight. But this? A little fair fetched of a conspiracy theory.

 

[Boyd]

That's ok Gray, I'll still sit in my old bomb shelter with my tinfoil hat on... just in case....

 

[fasbendera]

NAIS - thanks for the info. It is things like this that scare the cr_p out of me about our government. I hadn't even heard of it before the rant post so thank you to the ranter in this case. My concern would be the privacy. If they do intend on having a log of who owns what as far as livestock. We as informed citizens far left to far right need to be aware it all starts some where. So I would rather be aware of the potential abuse that NAIS could have than to just ignore it until it effects me. That is just me.

 

[GrayDragon]

Quote:
LOL

My mother and mother in law keep sending me 'gov'mint gonna get you' warnings.

I'm still waiting, but the last time the 'government man' stopped by he just helped me get the neighbor's goats back in their pasture, had a glass of iced tea, wished me a nice day and went on about his nefarious business.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
LOL

My mother and mother in law keep sending me 'gov'mint gonna get you' warnings.

I'm still waiting, but the last time the 'government man' stopped by he just helped me get the neighbor's goats back in their pasture, had a glass of iced tea, wished me a nice day and went on about his nefarious business.

They are evil like that. Like when I was building my hoop house coop and suddenly had 3 suits walking through my backyard when I went inside to cool off. Fortunately I didn't shoot them on sight. The look I got when I jacked the slide on my .45 was priceless though. ATF goons of all things.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Quote:
Hmm... I guess I never thought of it as a big deal. TSC told my family that they take down your information and phone number so they can contact you if they find out the chicks had a disease, or were unhealthy or something.....

 

[speckledhen]

That is a pretty lame excuse they gave, really, and I won't go into why it's hogwash. They told me that, too, but then they said the state required it. Nope, they lied. I am a bit stingy with my personal information and I resent being "kept track of".

I do not buy hatchery chicks anymore and will never buy them from TSC, where a bunch of folks handle those chicks in a tub--just think if someone who owned sick birds handled those chicks and then YOU bought them and took them home. Could destroy your whole flock! The feedstore where I got my original girls years ago does not allow the public to handle the chicks at all.

 

[Wifezilla]

""Linda and Larry Faillace wanted to start a farm. They dreamed of raising sheep and making cheese in rural Vermont. They did the research, followed the rules, and worked hard for years. Finally their family business began to succeed; healthy new lambs were born on their small hillside farm while the Faillaces and their three children learned herding, milking, and cheesemaking together. Then, without warning, all their dreams turned into a nightmare. The U.S. Department of Agriculture told them that the sheep they imported from Europe and New Zealand (with the USDA's seal of approval) carried BSE, the dreaded "mad cow disease". After months of harassment and surveillance including USDA agents spying from nearby mountaintops armed federal agents seized the Faillace's flock. Despite documented proof that the government agency's claims were not only false but also impossible, the animals were slaughtered. A family farm was destroyed so that the USDA could claim it was protecting the public from mad cow disease and protecting the beef industry from an outbreak of BSE, which had sent Britain's beef business into a tail spin. Mad Sheep is the unforgettable story of one family's struggle against a bullying and corrupt government agency that long ago abandoned the family farmer to serve the needs of corporate agriculture and the industrialization of our food supply."

In September of 2006, armed government agents stormed the hog and sheep farm of Cindi and Danny Henshaw in Virginia and violently slaughtered by shotgun the Henshaw's livelihood, while armed guards controlled the Henshaws movements on their own property for eleven days. At the same time, another depopulation took place on the hog farm of Eugene Davis in Virginia. The pretense of this "depopulation" was suspicion of the animals carrying pseudorabies, a disease not contagious to humans, but reportable in the "pseudorabies-free" state of Virginia. Pseudorabies is a viral disease most prevalent in swine, often causing newborn piglets to die. Older pigs can survive infection, becoming carriers of the pseudorabies virus. Other species of animals can become infected from swine, which is also known as Aujeszky's disease and "mad itch." It is non-fatal in ruminants and infected cattle and sheep may first show signs of pseudorabies by scratching and biting themselves. In dogs and cats, pseudorabies can cause sudden death. Exposure is through consumption of raw infected pork products. This disease is preventable with vaccine. Agents charged with depopulation violated Virginia regulations that allow the sale of hogs that test positive for slaughter for human consumption. The live animals were neither tested or were their owners allowed to recoup their losses by sale of any infected animals. Instead their Constitutional rights to privacy and property were violated and the state presented the owners with a bill for their "depopulation services." The bleeding carcasses were improperly removed by the agents from the premises, creating the possibility of spread of disease to wildlife and local pets."
http://www.ctlr.org/Resources/CTLR-NAIS Position.html


"It’s alleged that on the morning of Dec. 1, ODA and Lorain County Health Department agents raided the Stowers’ home and in-house organic food cooperative, Manna Storehouse, and unlawfully seized their personal food supply, cell phones and computers.

The county says the Stowers need proper licenses to operate their retail store in accordance with state food safety rules.

“They brag on the Internet they don’t have anything to do with the government, but they’re selling perishable products to people, and that means they need a license,” said Scott Serazin, an assistant county prosecutor.

The Buckeye Institute argues the right to buy food directly from local farmers, distribute locally grown food to neighbors, and pool resources to purchase food in bulk are rights that do not require a license."
http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/or...case-against-health-department-oda/10752.html


"the next court hearing is scheduled for Mark Nolt, a Pennsylvania farmer who turned in his state permit to sell raw milk because it didn't allow for the sale of the other products he offered.

"They swooped in ... like a bunch of Vikings, handcuffed me and stole $30,000 worth of my milk, cheese and butter," he told the New York Daily News.

His case is just an example of what the government is trying to do to those who believe – based on medical results – that raw milk is better for them than the processed milk available in most grocery stores, according to Nolt's supporters."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=63225


" on Mar. 6 of this year, everything changed. At about 1:15 in the afternoon, Gary Oaks arrived at a Cincinnati parking lot for what he thought would be a routine delivery, distributing milk to his shareholders. He got out of his truck, opened the trailer, and began handing out bottles of milk to a few of the dozen or so shareholders present.

Gelhaus wasn't there, but another shareholder who was, Joanne Miller, of Morrow, Ohio, remembers vividly what happened next. "I was placing empty bottles in carriers when I noticed a Cincinnati police cruiser moving through the parking lot slowly toward the trailer. Another cruiser followed. Officers moved toward the cow-share owners and told them not to pick up the milk that had already been set out, and actually moved in to prevent members from picking up the milk."

Out of several unmarked cars emerged men in plain clothes who "gathered near the tailgate of the trailer," Miller says. Only one would identify himself, an agent of the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture (ODA), she says. Other agents were there from the Kentucky Public Health Dept. and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Joanne Miller thinks there were about eight agents there, plus the four Cincinnati police. As the agents began confiscating the milk both from the truck and from a few shareholders, and loading it into an ODA van, she says, they told objecting shareholders, "What's happening here is not your concern."
"All Kinds of Laws"

This upset the shareholders, who began shouting that the milk belonged to them, that the agents had no right to it. One of the shareholders stood on the trailer's tailgate and waved her shareholder documents at the agents, who ignored her.

Sensing the situation might be getting out of hand, the Cincinnati cops called for reinforcements, and two additional cruisers arrived. In the meantime, several plainclothes agents moved to separate Gary Oaks from his shareholders. For the soft-spoken 43-year-old, who grew up on a Mississippi farm and had only once in his life even been stopped for speeding, it was all becoming a terrifying blur. They moved him toward one of the unmarked cars and ordered him in. "They asked me what I was doing. One said, 'You're in a lot of trouble. You've broken all kinds of laws.'"

Oaks didn't know what to say. "I was ignorant. I didn't know it was illegal to drink milk. I hate to sound ignorant."

Then they moved him from that car into a second car, and the routine started over again, except more intensively. One agent was shouting from the back, and another in the front was demanding that he write something that sounded to him like a confession that he was selling unpasteurized milk. He began feeling ill. "They were telling me what to write, that I wouldn't sell milk." He believes he started to write something, but can't remember what. "
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/nov2006/sb20061121_167591_page_2.htm


"the proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS). For example, if any of my free-running hens were to hatch out a brood of chicks, I would have to implant microchips, record the birth and chip numbers all within 48 hours or be subjected to penalties starting at $5,000. The big corporate outfits, however, would only need one number for an entire lot of animals."
http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-farmer-and-NAIS-by-Paul-Martin-Griepe-090128-243.html


"The owners of the Double H Farm in Nelson County, Richard Bean, 62, and Jean Rinaldi, 60, were arrested last Friday, September 21 for violating FDA regulations regarding the processing and labeling of their pork products. In addition, Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services agents seized Double H pork products from area restaurants last week, including an entire roasting pig from the South African restaurant Shebeen, which was “denatured” (made inedible) on the spot using a bleach solution, according to Rinaldi. Bean and Rinaldi are scheduled to appear in Charlottesville District Court tomorrow at 9am to learn when their case will be heard.

The news came as a shock to many local restaurant owners, City Market goers, and supporters of the local food movement– often called the “slow food” movement– who have eaten or used Double H products and believe that communities are better served by local farmers like Bean and Rinaldi, who have been selling their products locally since 2001.

“These charges, to my knowledge, do not arise from any complaints on the part of people who have purchased and eaten Double H products,” writes Erika Howsare, a special section editor for C-Ville Weekly, in an email to fellow members of the EAT LOCAL forum. “They represent a decision on the part of the state of Virginia to target two people who happen to be outspoken advocates of small farmers’ rights.”

However, no one appears more shocked than Bean and Rinaldi.

“I never would have dreamed that the government was so controlling,” says Rinaldi, who describes 10 VDACS agents, one state trooper, and a Nelson County sheriff showing up at her farm, arresting her and Bean, seizing their computers, and placing them in separate cars. “It was terrifying,” she says.

Indeed, according to Rinaldi, VDACS agents have been “harassing” them for year and she describes the arrests as “overkill.”

The charge? “Using the wrong labels as price tags,” says Rinaldi, admitting the labels say “certified organic” even though the pork isn’t “officially” certified. “We just hadn’t got the new ones in yet. They just don’t like that we were processing the pigs ourselves,” she says."
http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2007/09/27/pork-bust-local-farmers-arrested/

Pass the tinfoil.

 

[GrayDragon]

And what does all that have to do with NAIS?

We have operating a retail store that sells food without a license. As soon as you start selling food products to other people, there are regulations that must be followed. They are actually fairly easy to follow. Blithely bragging that you don't have to follow them generally isn't a good idea.


Then there are more blatant falsehoods, like having to 'microchip' your chickens. That hasn't a single grain of truth to it. The NAIS program is both free and OPTIONAL.

Then there is the simple case of false advertising. If it isn't certified organic, it is illegal to slap a sticker on it calling it certified organic.


As for the 'true' story of the farmers being harassed and spied on for months before their entire flock was slaughtered for 'no reason', pull the other one.




There are valid concerns about NAIS. Inflating these concerns to ridiculous and blatantly false levels really doesn't help make the case about NAIS, just makes the valid concerns get lost among the WHAAARGARBL.

 

[Wifezilla]

what does all that have to do with NAIS?

The first two places were pretty clear examples of what the government can do in the name of "protecting people" from disease.

We have operating a retail store that sells food without a license.

No..it is a CO-OP

The NAIS program is both free and OPTIONAL

in its current form. There have been proposals to make it mandatory and the chipping is part of that.

Then there is the simple case of false advertising. If it isn't certified organic, it is illegal to slap a sticker on it calling it certified organic.

The governments "solution" to the infraction is way out of proportion.​