The NAIS - Why are they being so pushy???

[tat2edlady]

I will second your statement RostersCrow

Mindy

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

next thing you know it federal agents will sneak nto your coop at night and butchering your girls and boys "for the sake of the Country."

 

[d.k]

* I doubt any of us here have the slightly problem with livestock keeping EDUCATION, MayberrySaint. That's one reason we hang out on BYC. BUT-- this program has NO SUCH THING AS AN EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT TO IT!!! IT IS ENTIRELY GOVERNMENTAL INTRUSION AND UNCONSTUTIONALLY DONE AT THAT!!! (Ed:Wrong Addressee) Should we SIMPLY bow to TOTAL TYRANNICAL INTRUSION and COMPLETE CONTROL of ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING WITHOUT A THOUGHT OR A QUALM??????? IF YOU "DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SACRIFICING YOUR SMALL FLOCK" even if they are healthy and there is NO TRUSTWORTHY PROOF of danger to them or threat from them-- Why not just "sacrifice" them NOW ENTIRELY and save yourself some grief, eh????

 

[gumpsgirl]

d.k :

* I doubt any of us here have the slightly problem with livestock keeping EDUCATION, MayberrySaint. That's one reason we hang out on BYC. BUT-- this program has NO SUCH THING AS AN EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT TO IT!!! IT IS ENTIRELY GOVERNMENTAL INTRUSION AND UNCONSTUTIONALLY DONE AT THAT!!! (Ed:Wrong Addressee)

Here! Here! I completely agree!​

 

[MayberrySaint]

Quote:
Big Brother is NEVER a good thing. Killing perfectly healthy animals and wiping out an entire way of life is NEVER a good thing.

I would have to disagree with this statement...if foot and mouth disease was found on a farm within 1 mile of your animals...and it was necessary to destroy your animals to prevent it's spread (even if they are currently healthy) is a good thing to protect other animals outside a quarantine zone from becoming infected and the disease spread throughout the farming community.
BTW...Big Brother=Government, so Big Brother provides us with nice highways, social security, medicare, food safety, schools, etc. So Big Brother is a good thing sometimes.

 

[MayberrySaint]

All of the responses to NAIS seem to illustrate the fact that you expect jack-booted thugs to infilitrate your property in the middle of the night and slaughter your flocks...this is a conspiratorial view at best and delusional at worst.

The NAIS has one major goal...to prevent the spread of foreign disease throughout the agricultural industry. Identification of herd, flocks, etc. is necessary to assist with quarantine zones and eradication of possibly infected animals. From the website...

"To protect the health of U.S. livestock and poultry and the economic well-being of those industries, we must be able to quickly and effectively trace an animal disease to its source.

When a disease outbreak occurs, animal health officials need to know:

Which animals are involved in a disease outbreak
Where the infected animals are currently located
What other animals might have been exposed to the disease
By choosing to participate in NAIS, you will join a national disease response network built to protect your animals, your neighbors, and your economic livelihood against the devastation of a foreign animal disease outbreak."

This threat is very real today with international travel and I am sure that terrorists would love to infect a few large farms with foot and mouth or classic swine fever. To control such an outbreak, it is imperative that the USDA be able to identify every animal in a threatened zone and if necessary cull those animals. The NAIS is a program that is modelled on several European Union programs that have helped prevent widespread devastation to the agricuture industry in the UK and Germany during disease outbreaks. As someone who was intimately involved in a devastating disease outbreak in Europe in 2003 and seeing the results of rapid response and control of that outbreak I personally support NAIS 100%.

It is an emotional issue when our own animals may be threatened but the logic of such a program is indisputable in today's agricultural arena and threats to our food supply by terrorist organizations.

 

[MayberrySaint]

Quote:
I submit that you are attempting to argue facts not in evidence. What fortunes the U.S. has seen in the control of diseases in the ag industry stem from education programs and the N.A.I.S. has absolutely nothing to do with that. It is not necessary to know the name and address of every student in a classroom in order to teach a given lesson.

The only facts not in evidence is everyone's expectations that the USDA wants to come and take your chickens away for no reason at all...lol. As a resident of the Eastern Shore, you should know that the USDA and registration of commercial chicken flocks have prevented devastating avian flu outbreaks from ruining the poultry industry in that area. Several outbreaks occurred in the 1980s and 1990s and millions of birds were quarantined and many were killed to control the spread of that disease. If there were undocumented small, backyard flocks that had been infected and overlooked, it is very possible for that disease to have been spread throughout the East coast...how you may ask? At livestock auctions, at a BYC group get together, etc.

Several other diseases have been eradicated under the leadership of the USDA and those efforts would have completely failed if it was not for the voluntary participation of farmers to identify and register their herds and flocks.

 

[speckledhen]

And I completely disagree with everything you just said. I am 100% against NAIS. It is not going to do ANYTHING to protect against disease. How is giving my property a number going to do jack to protect some farmers flock ten counties away? You will not ever convince me that killing healthy animals who have never been exposed to a disease will stop the spread of that disease. It just wipes out a country's agricultural system and heritage breeds for nothing. It's an asinine approach to disease control. Backyard flocks may be the salvation to this country's food supply and should be preserved, not targeted when it's the big factory farm monocultures where disease will spread like wildfire if it gets in.

Edited for bad word usage, sorry.

 

[MayberrySaint]

Quote:
I suggest that you read about the foot and mouth disease outbreaks in the UK in 2001-2002 and how they controlled it and prevented the disease from spreading to other farms including small backyard operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_UK_foot_and_mouth_crisis

The great thing about the US is that we can disagree about issues...you are 100% against NAIS and I am 100% for it. I respect your position but have to disagree with it.

 

[speckledhen]

That's okay, Andy. We can agree to disagree. I have read about the outbreaks and I think the way it was handled was devastating to the agricultural system, so I know we'd disagree even about that, too. This is a complicated issue with many components to it and I think the implications of NAIS are still not fully known. I do believe it will be devastating to the small farmers and the freedoms in this country if implemented.