What have you done today to lower your impact?

We are washing away the foundations of our existence on every front. It is high time we move from crashing about on the planet like a bull in china shop and find a way to go forward with intent. We must find systems of living based on sustainability. The systems and tools exist, it is up to each of us to adopt them.

Blog Archive

Saturday 7 March 2009

Time is running out to STOP NAIS!

Please consider signing this petition to block the USDA from implementing the National Animal Identification System.

You can sign a petition over at Organic Consumers Association

Here's an excerpt from the site;

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working for over five years to force a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) onto American animal owners. NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners across the country.


USDA claims that NAIS is a disease tracking program, but has refused to provide any support for its claims.

In reality, NAIS will:

Create expensive and time-consuming tagging and reporting requirements for small farms. The requirements are particularly burdensome for those farmers raising sustainable livestock on pasture. Ultimately, this will reduce the availability of grass-fed meats, eggs, and milk.

Give factory confinement farms a loophole through the use of group identification, providing yet another unfair advantage for factory farms.

Not provide any information to the consumer, and does not improve food safety, because the tracking ends with the animal’s death.

Replace states' existing, well-functioning disease response and brand inspection programs with an unproven, expensive, and unreliable system;

Impose high costs and government surveillance on every farmer and animal owner for no significant benefits, and will likely force many small producers out of business.

NAIS does nothing to improve food safety for consumers or prevent animal diseases. This program is a one-size-fits-all program developed by and for big Agribusiness. NAIS will increase consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few large companies and put the brakes on the growing movement toward local food systems.

The grassroots movement has already successfully stalled USDA's plans for NAIS, which originally called for the entire program - premises registration, animal identification, and tracking - to be mandatory by January 2009. The proposed rule is an opportunity to get thousands of objections in the formal record, and have an even greater impact. It is imperative that people speak up to protect our right to farm and our food supply!

Take action today! The deadline to submit comments to the USDA is March 16th. Please consider customizing your letter for maximum impact and submitting a comment to the USDA."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for joining the battle to oppose the terrorist plan of NAIS. Brad Headtel

C Robb said...

thanks for visiting and thinks for commenting. I'm not sure I'm prepared to call it a "terrorist plan" but I do believe it would do harm to our long term food security.