To the Editor:
Make no mistake about what is going on with NAIS and IDME in Maine. USDA officials and “industry giants” are leading consumers to believe with provocative and dramatical articles that deadly diseases like mad cow disease and avian flu are about to swoop down to devour us at a moment's notice. USDA knows and counts on people’s strong reaction to that propaganda. Does the truth matter? The truth is, when you really look, you will find out that NAIS will, if we let it, tag each and every individual domesticated livestock animal that lives on any type of premise, be it a ranch with 10,000 head of cattle or backyard chicken coop with one or two chicken in it. So you say, that’s ridiculous! Yes, I agree, it is ludicrous. But they will do it, if “we the people” don’t say no and mean it.
It’s like the pied piper come to life. USDA is playing a tune that consumers are falling for. That tune is food safety. They use phrases like “protect American animal agriculture” which leads people to believe our food is unsafe without this system. As an example, I gave oral testimony at the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry public hearing in January, 2006. One of the first questions that was asked by a state representative of the state vet was, “Is the ground meat in the store that I buy tonight safe?” Even though there was no mention of food safety, she still feared that her food was unsafe. Without even saying that this will protect your food, people assume it will - but it won’t. NAIS is a system to detect damage after it is already done. So they don't make it safer to begin with, they wait until something happens then trace the damage. Then they test and discover it was “probably” fed contaminated feed, which is the only way, according to most scientists, a cow can get BSE. So they trace where it was fed this feed. So what? Why was this cow still being fed a feed that was supposed to be banned in this country years ago? Or why was this cow allowed to cross into our borders from another country? Don’t we have enough cattle here already? Why not test every cow being slaughtered? USDA stopped Creekstone Farms from doing just that. So many sensible questions being are going unanswered.
Who will actually benefit from USDA’s brainchild called National Animal Identification System? NAIS will benefit big agri-businesses exporting meat out of this country. If you do a search for information on "avian flu" or "bird flu" you will see others making a huge profit selling masks, plastic gloves and survival tips on how to survive this pandemic that has not happened. Money - that is what NAIS is all about. Not keeping our food safe or the health of animals. Big agri-businesses need a system in place so THEY can benefit, not the American public.
These companies are part of the unbridled insanity that will make a huge profit from this hysterical exploitation of fear. Along with the RFID companies and tag and reader manufacturers, big agri-businesses are influencing the development of this scare with propaganda in the media. It’s Y2K all over again! I cannot begin to imagine how much money was spent on items that had to be thrown away after the world did not end on the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999.
NAIS will create a police state for animal agriculture. Policing farmers with tagging animals and reporting movements of each animal and the birth, death or slaughter of every animal on farms, all within 24 hours for fear of a hefty fine. Farmers are being lead to their own slaughter. This will cost someone a large amount of time and money. Who will pay for it? Those farmers you and I count on for our organic meat, or that 1/2 pig you put in your freezer raised on your neighbor’s farm, or that little girl that you buy those fresh eggs from. That’s who! The US government has said undeniably that the US government will not pay for it. But to date they, (with our tax dollars) have spent well over $33 million in grant money to get this started in each state. Maine alone received over $170,000 and more has been applied for. What is the money being spent on? I would like to see an accounting of that money. Will the cost rise each year? What about the time it will take to do a written report for every movement of each animal and mail it within 24 hours to some database company? And who will this database company be? Will they create a private database that no one can hack into? Will they employ a person that will be able to siphon out our personal information and use it for whatever Machiavellian act?
NAIS is impractical because it does nothing to enforce laws and rules to help prevent disease from starting in the first place. What is needed is education. What is needed is more state vets and inspectors visiting farms like they used to. Why not teach farmers what and how to keep records? Not how to tag. Isn’t that why they cannot trace animals? Because farmers and slaughter houses are not keeping proper records. Why not spend money on that? Reporting the movements, death, births, slaughter and loss of livestock is not the answer. NAIS will only eliminate small farmers keeping America fed. Is that what you want? Since the big agri-businesses want to feed Japan, let them tag and report.
Because of oral testimony given, and the outraged reaction of farmers, the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry voted 10-2 to put a hold on going through with any definite legislature until more outreach meetings are held by the Department of Agriculture
I applaud those who voted in favor of holding off. They are representing the interest of Maine. Those two who voted against slowing down may have had a financial interest in the outcome of IDME in Maine. They should excuse themselves from voting on this issue. That would be the right thing to do. Two meetings were held prior to this voting. Farmers, not the Department of Agriculture, orchestrated those two meetings. When and where will these others be held?
Don’t be lead by the pied pipers songs. They will lead American farms down the lane, never to be heard from again.
Respectfully submitted by
Lore Lipkvich
Mariaville, ME