Community Farm Alliance rally against proposed farm rules

[Robin Garr]

Join CFA and Allied Organizations for a Protest Rally!

Tell USDA to STOP N.A.I.S!

Come to Louisville to show your support of Family Farmers and Healthy Food!

Friday, May 22 Members of Community Farm Alliance and allied organizations will be speaking out against the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System. Representatives from USDA will be in town hosting a listening session public hearing. CFA and others plan to be there to speak out against NAIS. A press conference will be held at 12:00 noon Friday.

Our goal is to have 100 people present to tell USDA why NAIS is harmful to family farmers, sustainable healthy foods, and our local food economy. YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED!

COME JOIN US AS WE PROTEST N.A.I.S!

When: Friday May 22- sign up to speak and participate in the morning rally at 8:00am or come for the press conference at 12:00noon. We need folks all day- even if you can just come for an hour or so!

Where: Crown Plaza Hotel (near the airport) Louisville, KY

What to Bring: Yourself, your neighbors, friends, family, protest signs, and a LOUD VOICE!

RSVP: Kaycie Len Carter 502-223-3655 or kayciecfa@bellsouth.net

Get Involved to Learn More: We will be hosting a poster/banner making party this Tuesday at the Phoenix Hill Farmers Market in Louisville. (3:00pm 829 East Market Street) Come on out to learn more about the rally and help us get prepared!

Why is CFA Protesting the National Animal Identification System?

The three phase program will require every farm in the country to have a premise registration number (though we already have Farm Service Agency numbers) EVERY animal to be tagged with a radio frequency ID tag (which can be scanned like a bar code) and EVERY birth, death, and movement of EVERY animal reported to the federal government within 24 hours. The program not only shifts all liability to small scale family farmers, while tilting the scales in favor of large corporate factory farms, it is also extremely intrusive and unconstitutional.

CFA REJECTS NAIS based on the following failures of the program:

Undue liability to Kentucky’s livestock producers

Overrides proven disease tracking systems- if it’s not broke, don’t fix it!

Unnecessary costs to family scale farmers

Corporate profiteering

Shifts responsibility away from broken federal health inspection system

Creates unfunded state bureaucracy

Provides no additional information to consumers

I'm not familiar with this organization/movement. Is there a website(s) where I can learn more? It sounds like undue hardship and expense on the small farmers, but I don't have enough information to get involved in a protest at this point. On the surface, it sounds like too much government intervention.

[Robin Garr]

It's a good local (statewide) group, Kim. Here's the Google listing with link:

Community Farm Alliance
Community Farm Alliance is a grassroots membership organization with over 2000 members in 75 Kentucky counties. From creating new Farmers' Markets in ...
http://www.communityfarmalliance.org/

If you're on Facebook, you can also become a fan of their page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4885932205&ref=ts

I'm not familiar with this organization/movement. Is there a website(s) where I can learn more? It sounds like undue hardship and expense on the small farmers, but I don't have enough information to get involved in a protest at this point. On the surface, it sounds like too much government intervention.

By reading the description of the program I'm not so sure it's such a bad idea except for maybe issuing the new premises numbers which appear to be redundant. With all of the various epidemics that have occurred in will occur in the future may prove positive means of animal identification is needed. This actually appears to be a relatively simple system considering it was developed by the gov't.

Heck even our cats have RFID chips inserted in them. It's inexpensive and provide a positive means of identification. I'm sure the reporting will be done online or via a telephone call so it shouldn't really be much of a hassle or time consuming.

Maybe I'm wrong but people need to realize that agriculture like everything else needs to develop new technologies to ensure consumer safety and to maintain their confidence in the agricultural system. The world is changing and agriculture needs to get out of the 20th century.

By reading the description of the program I'm not so sure it's such a bad idea except for maybe issuing the new premises numbers which appear to be redundant. With all of the various epidemics that have occurred in will occur in the future may prove positive means of animal identification is needed. This actually appears to be a relatively simple system considering it was developed by the gov't.

Heck even our cats have RFID chips inserted in them. It's inexpensive and provide a positive means of identification. I'm sure the reporting will be done online or via a telephone call so it shouldn't really be much of a hassle or time consuming.

Maybe I'm wrong but people need to realize that agriculture like everything else needs to develop new technologies to ensure consumer safety and to maintain their confidence in the agricultural system. The world is changing and agriculture needs to get out of the 20th century.

The "world is changing" argument doesn't fly. How exactly is the world changing? How do these initiatives respond to these changes? And, finally, are these changes the best way to deal with whatever issues we are facing [if we are actually facing issues]? I don't know on what grounds these changes are being offered, but those are the questions I would be asking to interrogate the useful of the changes.

I need to do my HW on this issue before I take a stand, but I'm not going to buy the "the world is changing" argument.That argument, it would seem, could be used to defend any decision, program, or initiative.

By reading the description of the program I'm not so sure it's such a bad idea except for maybe issuing the new premises numbers which appear to be redundant. With all of the various epidemics that have occurred in will occur in the future may prove positive means of animal identification is needed. This actually appears to be a relatively simple system considering it was developed by the gov't.

Heck even our cats have RFID chips inserted in them. It's inexpensive and provide a positive means of identification. I'm sure the reporting will be done online or via a telephone call so it shouldn't really be much of a hassle or time consuming.

Maybe I'm wrong but people need to realize that agriculture like everything else needs to develop new technologies to ensure consumer safety and to maintain their confidence in the agricultural system. The world is changing and agriculture needs to get out of the 20th century.

Have you checked out NoNAIS.org ? The big beef producers are promoting the idea because it will open up more foreign markets to them. The problem lies with the small farmer. Most of the local meat producers I deal with at the area farmers markets feel this will put them out of business. I know that if this goes through Anne I will have to get rid of our chickens and goats. We will not be able to afford the paper work and registration costs involved. Also, under the new system we would not be able to take any of our animals to the vet before we file the paper work indicating we are taking our animals off the farm. Yes, the world is changing..moving toward more and more factory farming of animals.
Im guessing you have no idea who raised the meat you eat.

The "world is changing" argument doesn't fly. How exactly is the world changing? How do these initiatives respond to these changes? And, finally, are these changes the best way to deal with whatever issues we are facing [if we are actually facing issues]? I don't know on what grounds these changes are being offered, but those are the questions I would be asking to interrogate the useful of the changes.

I need to do my HW on this issue before I take a stand, but I'm not going to buy the "the world is changing" argument.That argument, it would seem, could be used to defend any decision, program, or initiative.

How has the world changed? Let's see. We used to very seldom see a foreign product nor ship one made in America overseas. Today that is commonplace. Did we used to worry about the content of foreign foods? No, but after the issues last year everyone is highly concerned about it. Did we used to have contamination issues from produce we buy at our local grocery store? No, but how many incidents have we had in the last several years? Did cattle used to be fed and slaughtered at large feedlots? No, but now that is commonplace and the norm. I can certainly go on and on with this list but I'm sure you get my point.

I'm sure there are farms where the cattle grow up from being calves to being slaughtered without ever leaving but are we still sure about every thing they are fed or every medicine they receive? Probably not in most cases. Wouldn't you feel safer if there was a way cattle could be rapidly traced if an issue arose? I certainly would.

As I said there may be valid reasons to oppose this legislation but on the surface it sounds like a very reasonable program and one that can help insure the the foods we eat are safe. Something I'm sure everybody can support.

The job of a bureaucrat is to regulate, and left to himself he'll eventually try to regulate everything. All regulations favor big business because they have more resources to deal with them.

First they came for the smokers, but I didn't object because I didn't smoke. Then they came for large car drivers, and I didn't object because I drove a small car or biked everywhere. Then they came for the me, the foodie, a fois grae eating veal lover, and there was no one left to help me. We will all eat factory food.

** All stolen and paraphrased without attribution.

So how much paperwork and how much $ for the fees? I did read on noNAIS.org but didn't find that info.

So how much paperwork and how much $ for the fees? I did read on noNAIS.org but didn't find that info.

Its hard to get an exact figure at this point but most folks figure it will end up at about two hundred dollars extra per cow. Part of the associated cost for us would be having having to pay someone to come out to my farm with the equipment needed to read the tags. I wont be able to file the paperwork without the tags being read, and I dont have thousands of dollars to invest in the equipment necessary to do so. We raise our chickens open range and I cant imagine getting up every day and running over the whole property to look for new chicks to microchip so that I will be in compliance with the law.
Ill see if I can get more accurate figures but there is so much bs out there I am hesitant to cite one source as accurate.

Get Involved to Learn More: We will be hosting a poster/banner making party this Tuesday at the Phoenix Hill Farmers Market in Louisville. (3:00pm 829 East Market Street) Come on out to learn more about the rally and help us get prepared!

Robin, to bad you posted this on Wednesday a day after.....Oh well, better late than never.

The "world is changing" argument doesn't fly. How exactly is the world changing? How do these initiatives respond to these changes? And, finally, are these changes the best way to deal with whatever issues we are facing [if we are actually facing issues]? I don't know on what grounds these changes are being offered, but those are the questions I would be asking to interrogate the useful of the changes.

I need to do my HW on this issue before I take a stand, but I'm not going to buy the "the world is changing" argument.That argument, it would seem, could be used to defend any decision, program, or initiative.

How has the world changed? Let's see. We used to very seldom see a foreign product nor ship one made in America overseas. Today that is commonplace. Did we used to worry about the content of foreign foods? No, but after the issues last year everyone is highly concerned about it. Did we used to have contamination issues from produce we buy at our local grocery store? No, but how many incidents have we had in the last several years? Did cattle used to be fed and slaughtered at large feedlots? No, but now that is commonplace and the norm. I can certainly go on and on with this list but I'm sure you get my point.

I'm sure there are farms where the cattle grow up from being calves to being slaughtered without ever leaving but are we still sure about every thing they are fed or every medicine they receive? Probably not in most cases. Wouldn't you feel safer if there was a way cattle could be rapidly traced if an issue arose? I certainly would.

As I said there may be valid reasons to oppose this legislation but on the surface it sounds like a very reasonable program and one that can help insure the the foods we eat are safe. Something I'm sure everybody can support.

I'd actually feel safer if the large feedlots didn't exist. But, hey, if we can't have that, let's pander to these corporations and run the small businesses out of town. You know, all in the name of a false sense of safety.

You made some valuable points in what you said, but then kind of killed it with the "insure the foods we eat are safe." If that was the goal, I think we'd be looking at a much different form of legislation. Sounds, more likely, that some other motivation is being pawned off under the umbrella of "safety." If you add the "the world is changing" argument with the "it's all in the name of safety" argument, politicians can 1) gain support for just about anything while 2) providing no real clue to what their real purposes are. Unfortunately, such an approach assumes that Americans are idiots, which offends me.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, to bad you posted this on Wednesday a day after.....Oh well, better late than never.

D'oh! Not my fault, though. I got it in the mail and posted it immediately.

Robin, to bad you posted this on Wednesday a day after.....Oh well, better late than never.

D'oh! Not my fault, though. I got it in the mail and posted it immediately.

Thats what I figured. No problem. I have been bugging one of farmers friends who will be directly affected by this to register here( I think they did today) and post up some real info as to the impact on our local meat producers.

http://www.leoweekly.com/news/bull-shit