Local Farmers Corralled in Sting Operation
By Guy Adamson @ 8:22 AM   
SPRINGFIELD (FNS), April 1 -- The kids say they were only doing their part, but authorities say the nation’s food supply is a little bit safer now thanks to the work of these school-age members of the volunteer service group AgriCorps.
Six local farmers were cited for noncompliance with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) thanks to help from area 4-H Club and FFA members, now part of the U.S. government’s AgriCorps food safety volunteer group.
“We really couldn’t have carried out this animal safety sting operation without the help of our youngest volunteers,” said Skip Butts, Sr. Executive Regional Troop Leader of the AgriCorps Volunteers.
According to authorities, the school-age AgriCorps volunteers asked the farmers to bring their best dairy calves and heifers to the county fairgrounds for a 4-H dairy judging competition. But the competition was just a ruse to see if the farmers were following NAIS protocol—they weren’t.
NAIS regulations require all farm animals to be tagged with an identification chip and any movement tracked in the national food safety database. None of the six farmers who showed up were in compliance and all were issued citations. In lieu of a court appearance, all six volunteered to join the AgriCorps Volunteer-Abroad program. None of the four men and two women cited were available for comment since they immediately left for the new AgriCorps farm training facility at Riker’s Island in New York, according several relatives, who asked not to be named.
“The best part is, we get to keep the animals!” said a delighted Lisa Smith, age 10, who begged her neighbor to bring his animals to the contest. “I’m glad they volunteered to go help people in other countries who don’t know how to grow food.”
The local Dairymen Corps, Inc., a public/private partnership organization, will operate the six farms until the local farmers return from overseas volunteer duty, said Butts. He added that additional supply of soy milk from the National Food Reserves will be allocated for the area to make up for any drop in cow’s milk production as a result of the transition.
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April Fools! Yes, this is a fictional story…for now.
Labels: "Safety", Government Idiocy, Humor, NAIS
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