To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [MSAR] an excellent write-up about NAIS
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 11:04:23 -0800 (PST)
This gal has done her home work!
"Excuse me, but what is it about industry officials that keeps them from understanding where most of the opposition to the NAIS is coming from? It can't be that these people are just dumber than a box of rocks.
They aren't -- they are "street smart" enough to have several layers of "flappers" who are told not to bother them with things they don't want to hear.
The bulk of the people who are opposed to the NAIS, especially the direction that USDA was going with it last year, are people who keep animals as a hobby and for their own personal use. Even the horse breeders I know have to have a second job to support their habit.
Their mindset is money. Their goal is money, more money, and still more money in their race horses, and the rest of us can go jump in the lake! Ergo, they just don't care about us, the little guys; they want $$$$$! (And our Government i$
$upporting thi$?!)
For those of us not engaged in multimillion dollar livestock businesses, the NAIS will be a nightmare. We don't need source varification for our market if we don't have a market in the first place. And for those of us who do sell to the public, whether it's a foal, a side of beef, or a dozen eggs, I think we are already source verified, 'Yep, those are the hens them thar eggs came from, right over there...', so we don't need the NAIS for that either.
They don't want us penny-ante folks stealing their thunder even for our small share. I remember a picture on the front cover of Time Magazine where a wealthy porker is sitting in the middle of a big pie, forking in big mouthfuls with both hands, while a little guy is straining to pull out just a tiny piece of that pie.
Those worried about disease should look to encouraging better farming practices in the industrial ag sector. Maybe encourage them to keep
and raise animals in ways that aren't so stressful to the animals that they have to be kept on antibiotics and antivirals.
They don't worry about disease either -- unless it hits 'em in the pocketbook like the recent peanut butter scare. (pooorrrrrrr ConAgra!)
BTW, chronic use of antibiotic and antivirals as growth supplements is the reason why we have risistant strains of e. coli, salmonella, etc. and why we will probably have to use Tamiflu to treat the flu if it ever becomes a pandemic.
If? Try "when!" And are we very sure that Tamiflu will do any good against a manufactured superbug?
High density and integrated poultry and pork farms in south east Asia are where the next pandemic flu will probably come from in the first place, and they are the reason that H5N1 is now endemic in the wild waterfowl population in that area, and the reason we now have to spend hundreds of thousands if now millions of
dollars monitoring migratory waterfowl in the USA.
If you believe they're really monitoring migratory waterfowl, I've got a great deal for you on some oceanfront property in desert Nevada.... <G>
Those worried about FADs entering the USA, perhaps we could beef up the FAS and FSIS. The most common way for a FAD to enter is through imports, both legal and those that are smuggled. Increase port inspections and maybe DHS could actually hire the port inspectors there were supposed to. Oh, and how about actually making the countries importing animals and animal products into the US comply with the sanitary standards they agreed to in the first place?
Don't you get the drift yet? Our own Government is $upporting thi$ whole deal to give these other countries a good head-start into
their plan for "One World Order" -- the grimmest dictatorship we've seen yet!
For those worried about terrorism, how about taking care of the problem with our borders, eh? Just a suggestion.
$$$$$$
And finally, last but not least, for those producers engaged in international trade on the export side....I know the UK et al are requiring source verification, testing etc. etc. etc., you know, the USDA already has a source verification program, it's called, let's see now...oh, I know, it's called the Source Verification Program. WHY AREN'T YOU USING IT?????????? ??????