Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>]

Mark Reynolds
Schuyler VA

R-CALF USA Member Alert

To: R-CALF USA Members and Affiliates
From: Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA CEO
Date: March 13, 2009
Subject: Urgent Alert on NAIS; Deadline March 20, 2009

On March 11, 2009, R-CALF USA President Max Thornsberry, D.V.M., testified 
at a congressional subcommittee hearing on USDA's National Animal 
Identification System (NAIS). Dr. Thornsberry presented a powerful case 
against NAIS, but the witnesses were clearly stacked in favor of mandatory 
NAIS. Most of the members of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee's 
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry (Subcommittee) who attended 
the hearing also appeared to favor NAIS.

Our best chance to stop NAIS is in this Subcommittee, and it is right now, 
while
the hearing record remains open. We need thousands of letters from across 
the
country, from livestock producers, main-street businesses and consumers, to 
be
faxed to the Subcommittee before March 20, 2009, the date the hearing record
closes.

Below is a template letter you can use to fax your letter to the 
Subcommittee.
Feel free to use all or part of this letter, or write one on your own. The
important thing is we must literally have thousands of letters from all 
across
the country faxed in before March 20.

This is URGENT if you want to put a stop to NAIS. Please circulate this 
alert
and the template letter to any e-mail or fax list you may have in order to
blanket the country.

There are about 3,000 R-CALF USA members that receive this alert. This is so
important that we are asking every R-CALF USA member to deliver a copy of 
this alert to at least one non-member to get them to also fax a letter to 
the
Subcommittee.

Here is the Subcommittee's Fax Number for faxing your personal letter:
202-225-4544.

Timing is everything. Please help us get thousands of personal letters from
livestock producers, main-street businesses and consumers faxed to the
Subcommittee before March 20. Good Luck!

Here's the one-page template letter (which also is posted on our Web site at
www.r-calfusa.com):

[Put Date Here]

The Honorable David Scott
Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
1301 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-6001

Re: Testimony for March 11, 2009 Hearing on Review of Animal Identification
Systems

Dear Chairman Scott and Subcommittee Members:

I am a [insert livestock producer and/or consumer] from [insert your town 
and
state] and I urge you to reject the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 
(USDA's)
National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

NAIS is government intrusion at its worst. It is un-American for Congress 
and
USDA to force each U.S. farmer and rancher to register with, and report to, 
the
federal government their real property, the number and species of livestock 
they
own, the number of animals produced from each year's production, and the 
date
and location where their livestock are located or moved - even when their
livestock are not moved in interstate commerce or sold for human 
consumption.
With few exceptions, no other segment of America's free enterprise system is
subject to such a heightened level of direct government surveillance.

USDA and Congress are using fear tactics to justify NAIS. They claim the 
U.S.
is behind other countries in disease preparedness and cannot effectively 
control
and eradicate animal diseases. This is absurd. The U.S. veterinary
infrastructure is the envy of the world. For decades, U.S. livestock 
producers
worked with their local veterinarians, state veterinarians, and regional and
national USDA veterinarians to make the U.S. livestock herd the healthiest 
herd
in the world. It is dishonest and irresponsible to assert the U.S. is second
behind any other country in its ability to prevent, control and eradicate 
animal
diseases.

The problem NAIS is supposed to solve is not real; it is speculative. The 
U.S.
has controlled every disease ever to enter the United States. If this were 
not
true, why did USDA significantly cut back its BSE surveillance testing and 
why
does the agency allow the importation of Mexican cattle known to continually
reintroduce bovine tuberculosis into the United States? Congress refuses to
address the real disease problems facing U.S. livestock producers and 
consumers.

The massive meat recalls involving millions of pounds of meat were not 
caused by U.S. livestock producers; they were caused by unsanitary 
conditions at U.S. and foreign slaughterhouses. The 2003 mad cow disease 
case in an imported cow that closed U.S. export markets was not caused by 
U.S. livestock producers. It was caused by USDA's failure to restrict 
Canadian imports after Canada discovered its first case of mad cow disease 
in 1993.

Rather than prevent the introduction of foreign animal diseases by 
strengthening
our border restrictions and addressing the actual source of meat 
contamination
by enforcing food safety standards in U.S. and foreign slaughterhouses, 
Congress and USDA intend to impose the most onerous regulatory regime 
imaginable upon U.S. livestock producers.

Please stop NAIS and work with R-CALF USA to develop a sensible plan that 
would benefit livestock producers by improving our already effective disease
prevention, control, and eradication programs.

Sincerely,

[Include name and address]