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Saturday, February 28, 2009

Red Alert on NAIS -- Bills in Congress!
By Monica @ 7:03 AM PermaLink

****ACTION ALERT****

WHAT: Congressional Hearing on NAIS (National Animal Identification System)
WHEN: Wednesday, March 11
WHERE: Washington, DC

The U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry will hold a hearing on NAIS on March 11, 2009. Bills to enact NAIS into law, HR875 and HR814, are being pushed through Congress, as well as an enormous "Appropriations Bill", i.e. massive spendulus program, with funding for NAIS which passed in the House and is now awaiting in the Senate.

This House hearing is critical to blocking mandatory NAIS. Blocking passage of the appropriations bill, 1105, is also critical.

What do these bills do?

Here is the first one HR 814 - the bottom line is that the Dept of Ag can:

1. Make all farmers who bring an animal to a USDA slaughterhouse participate in this program or the USDA slaughterhouse can refuse them (regardless of whether you are selling your meat in state or across state lines).

2. Farms will need a premise ID to ensure traceability from farm to consumer in order to comply with this bill.

3. The Dept of Ag can send a rep out to your farm to inspect and copy your records for each animal.

HR 814 -TRACE ACT of 2009

This Act may be cited as the `Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act of 2009′ or `TRACE Act of 2009′.

SEC. 414A. TRACEABILITY OF FOOD.

(a) Establishment of System- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall establish a traceability system described in subsection (b) for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging, and distribution of food.

(b) Description of System- The traceability system required by subsection (a) shall require each article of food shipped in interstate commerce to be identified in a manner that enables the Secretary to retrieve the history, use, and location of the article through a recordkeeping and audit system or registered identification.

SEC. 26. TRACEABILITY OF LIVESTOCK, MEAT, AND MEAT PRODUCTS.

(a) Definition of Traceability- In this section, the term `traceability’ means the ability to retrieve the history, use, and location of an article through a recordkeeping and audit system or registered identification.

(b) Requirements-

(1) IN GENERAL- Cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and horses, mules, and other equines presented for slaughter for human food purposes, and the carcasses or parts of carcasses and the meat and meat food products of those animals, shipped in interstate commerce shall be identified in a manner that enables the Secretary to trace–


(A) each animal to any premises or other location at which the animal was held at any time before slaughter; and


(B) each carcass or part of a carcass and meat and meat food product of such animals forward from slaughter through processing and distribution to the ultimate consumer.

(2) TRACEABILITY SYSTEM- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall establish a traceability system for all stages of production, processing, and distribution of meat and meat food products that are produced through the slaughter of animals described in paragraph (1).

(c) Prohibition or Restriction on Entry- The Secretary may prohibit or restrict entry into any slaughtering establishment inspected under this Act of any cattle, sheep, swine, goats, or horses, mules, or other equines not identified as prescribed by the Secretary under subsection (b).

——————————-

The second bill establishes NAIS via the newly created Food and Safety Administration, run by the “Administrator” - whoever that is….

HR 875 - ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION

SEC. 210. TRACEBACK REQUIREMENTS.

(a) In General- The Administrator, in order to protect the public health, shall establish a national traceability system that enables the Administrator to retrieve the history, use, and location of an article of food through all stages of its production, processing, and distribution.

b) Applicability - Traceability requirements under this section shall apply to food from food production facilities (FARMS), food establishments, and foreign food establishments.


ACTION: Please call and fax all members of the subcommittee (below).

1. When you call, ask to speak to the legislative aide for agriculture.

2. Please send this to everyone you know, ESPECIALLY to people in the states with members on the subcommittee. Members need to hear from their constituents- -the people who vote them into office. It's important that residents of Colorado and Connecticut call in. The representatives sponsoring these atrocious bills are Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).

*State***
*Party/Dist* **
*Representative* **
*Phone***
*Fax***
*Website email form*

AL
R-13
Mike Rogers
202.225.3261
202.226.8485
http://www.house. gov/mike- rogers/contact. shtml

CA
D-18
Dennis Cardoza
202.225.6131
800...
(20...
http://www.house. gov/cardoza/ contact.shtml

CA
D-20
Jim Costa
202...
(20...
http://www.costa. house.gov/

CA
D-43
Joe Baca
(20...
(20...
http://www.house. gov/baca/ zipauth.shtml

CO
D-4
Betsy Markey,
(20...
(20...
https://forms. house.gov/ betsymarkey/ contact-form. shtml

GA
D-13
David Scott (Chair)
(20...
(20...
http://davidscott. house.gov/ Contact/

IA
D-3
Leonard Boswell
(20...
(20...
http://boswell. house.gov/ messageform. htm

IA
R-5
Steve King
202.225.4426
202.225.3193
http://www.house. gov/steveking/ email.shtm

ID
D-1
Walt Minnick
(20...
(20...
https://forms. house.gov/ minnick/tours. shtml

MD
D-1
Frank Kratovil, Jr.
(20...
(20...
https://forms. house.gov/ kratovil/ contact-form. shtml

NE
R-3
Adrian Smith
(20...
(20...
http://www.house. gov/formadriansm ith/issues_ subscribe. htm

PA
D-17
Tim Holden
(20...
(20...
http://www.holden. house.gov/ contactform_ zipcheck. shtml

TN
R-1
David P. Roe
(20...
(20...
https://forms. house.gov/ roe/invite- request-form. shtml

TX
R-11
K. Michael Conaway
(20...
(20...
http://conaway. house.gov/

TX
R-19
Randy Neugebauer,
Ranking Minority Member
(20...
(888) 763-1611
(202) 225-9615
http://randy. house.gov/ ?sectionid= 8&sectiontree= 8

VA
R-6
Bob Goodlatte,
(202) 225-5431
(202) 225-9681
http://www.house. gov/goodlatte/ emailbob. htm

WI
D-8
Steve Kagen,
(202) 225-5665
(202) 225-5729
http://kagen. house.gov/ contact.shtml

Also, email Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. His e-mail address is AgSec@usda.gov.

Finally, contact your Senators and tell them NOT to support HR1105.

The message is simple: We don't want, nor will we comply with, the National Animal Identification System in any form.

It doesn't matter that there is ever more consumer demand for locally raised animal products. The government could kill small farming with these bills.

If you are a farmer, take action or lose your right to raise animals.

If you are not a farmer and you plan on raising animals in your backyard, take action or lose the right to raise these animals. How easy/cheap do you think it will be to order a few chicks by mail order from a hatchery when the whole process will require traceability by a bloated government organization?

If you are a consumer of locally raised meat, take action or lose the right to eat the food you want. This isn't an exaggeration. Most people think the choices in our supermarkets are greater than ever before, but this is mostly true for produce and processed foods. Check out the meat products available in London in the mid-1800s. Ask yourself how many of those species and cuts of meat are available in your supermarket today in 2009. Some of this is simply a result of consumer choice, but a good deal of it is regulation. Try finding brain, for instance. It's loaded with DHA and perfectly safe if it comes from grass-fed animals, but the regulators have banned access to it.

The government/Big Ag juggernaut wants to shut down our freedom of choice for their short-term goals. Remember, NAIS is a program invented by Cargill, etc. to gain access to the export market, which requires traceability. They are not content to form a voluntary program on their own; they are the ones who presented the idea to the USDA; they would rather have small farmers pay for the program so that they can benefit (every animal tagged vs. one tag for hundreds of animals for the corporate farm).

If we don't act, small farmers will be forced out of business and we will be faced with one species of chicken raised in a few "approved" warehouses in the United States where the animals are packed in like sardines. Same for every other farm species, of which over 30 will be tracked by this proposed program. Not only is this a violation of our rights, it will further consolidate and endanger our food supply. Any thinking person who understand the principles of disease control could tell you that this is an epidemiologic nightmare waiting to happen -- and the results would be the exact opposite of the supposedly beneficial intentions of this tracking program.

It's that simple. Your sustenance is in peril. Don't think if you are a vegetarian or a vegan that regulation of food "safety" doesn't affect you. "Safety" is just an excuse for ever greater control over our food supply -- whether it is forced regulation /safety /pasteurization / irradiation mandates for meat, milk, or vegetables.

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2 Comments:

At March 4, 2009 9:03 PM , Blogger Andrew Dalton said...

Cargill is pushing this expansion of government power?

Ah, the irony.

 
At March 5, 2009 6:10 AM , Blogger Monica said...

Yup. And they've been doing it for twenty years. Looks like they got their come uppance.

 

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