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NAIS Has Its First Official Resister--Michigan Responds with a Farm
Quarantine and Threat of Jail
>From www.thecompletepatient.com

NAIS Has Its First Official Resister--Michigan Responds with a Farm
Quarantine and Threat of Jail

by David Gumpert, of Business Week

It's been only a few hours since the National Animal Identification System
(NAIS) made its voluntary-to-required debut in Michigan, and already a
farmer is challenging its underpinnings. The Michigan Department of
Agriculture (MDA) quickly responded by quarantining his farm.

Here is what happened: Greg Niewendorp, owner of a 160-acre farm in East
Jordan in the upper peninsula, made good on his pledge, stated in my
"Farmers Say No to Animal Tags" BusinessWeek.com article in December, to
resist all MDA orders related to NAIS. So when MDA reps came around a few
weeks back to test his 19 cows for bovine tuberculosis, he refused to allow
the testing.

Since MDA has justified its requirement that all cattle wear radio
frequency
identification (RFID) tags to comply with NAIS on the basis of using the
national program to fully eradicate bovine TB, Niewendorp decided that the
time had come to make his stand. "Michigan is being used as a model to
implement NAIS," he told me.

"I have been under a whole-herd (TB) test program for six years," he said.
"This year I refused it."

Why this year? "I made a decision I was going to refuse to comply, and
bring
this to a focal point and show that there are those of us who are not going
to go along with" the government's agenda. The quarantine doesn't have a
practical effect on Niewendorp's farm business, since he doesn't trade
cattle and thus doesn't have animals leaving and arriving. He breeds his
own
cattle, and sells meat directly to consumers.

But the quarantine could have a huge legal impact on him, since
non-compliance with the bovine TB test can lead to a felony charge, with
conviction resulting in a jail sentence of up to five years and a fine up
to
$50,000.

Niewendorp responded to the MDA's action with a five-page letter in which
he
demands that the MDA provide evidence that bovine TB is contagious, and
that
his particular farm is at risk.

He also warns MDA "that your department is not to enter onto my farm
without
a properly executed search warrant since any entry by your department would
be to obtain criminal evidence which mandates a search warrant."

He expresses concern that his cattle could be placed at risk by the bovine
TB test for actually contracting the disease. "I require clear scientific
evidence showing that there is no risk to any of my cattle of such
experimental injections and an agreement by the state to indemnify and hold
me harmless from any unseen or unintended consequences arising from such
injection…"

Niewendorp is clearly a man of his word. One question: Will other farmers
take a similar stand?

Posted on Thursday, March 1, 2007 at 10:22PM