Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

What are the real risks of contracting a disease. Sometimes people worry about the wrong things. The whole US beef ban in South Korea and limited market in Japan is all due to BSE and the fears that people will contract variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease from it. So what's the real chance of getting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease? According to this story the chances are 1 in 10 billion. If you play the Powerball lottery, you have a much greater chance of that, 1 in 146 million, than of contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. So why are people so afraid of it?

Fear of the unknown I guess. The article explains the risks of real things to be worried about. Heart disease, osteoporosis and breast cancer. Real things to be concerned about, not variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Another thought this leads me to, why does the government want American farmers and ranchers to spend billions of dollars on the NAIS program for a disease, BSE, that the chances of a person getting are so slim? Isn't this an awful big maul to kill such a little fly?

In simple words, "Don't worry about the small shit."

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. Robert Frost

This has to fall into the misleading quote of the year awards.

"The National Animal Identification System is one of the tougher programs to administer, but we are making progress with the voluntary approach," Knight said. "It doesn't cost anything, it's confidential, it's simple to do and, most importantly, it's the right thing to do."

It costs nothing the man says. What, are the ear tags free? I don't think so. Do they apply themselves? I don't think so. Bruce Knight really needs to get his facts straight about the system. It costs a lot in time and labor and is definitely not simple to do. Has this man ever put ear tags in cows before? Does he have any idea the work and time would be required to do this. I have stated from the beginning that to do NAIS I would have to hire another person to work on the ranch just to take care of the system and that would simply break me. I would not be able to operate then. Simple, easy, cost free. what a BUNCH OF BULLSHIT!! Government propaganda to sooth the masses.

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves. Eric Hoffer

Cross posted from No Mandatory Animal ID.

UNITED STATES CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information: Abra Belke, (202) 725-4600
Email Contact: abra@bigskystrategies.com

Food Safety Events Escalate Need for Mandatory COOL

San Lucas , Calif. (May 14, 2007) ~ The melamine contamination scandal that began last March in pet food has expanded in recent weeks to include feed given to hogs, chickens, and farm-raised fish. The revelation that a tainted product can move so quickly through the supply chain and contaminate product bound for American dinner tables is troubling to consumers and producers alike.

The United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) is asking the federal government to implement mandatory country of origin labeling (M-COOL) at the soonest possible date in order to maintain consumer confidence.

“It is imperative that U.S. consumers know where their food comes from,” says Region X Director and COOL Committee Chairperson Danni Beer. “USCA implores the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to implement M-COOL for beef and fresh fruits and vegetables as soon as possible. The American public deserves the ability to make informed choices about the products they consume, beginning with the food we feed to our families.”

Mandatory country of origin labeling was passed as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, but the USDA has until September 30, 2008, to implement the rule. However, implementation of M-COOL is not the only barrier to providing consumers with accurate and complete food labeling information.

In 2003, the GAO reported that the Tariff Act still requires that imported items be marked with their country of origin through to the ultimate purchaser,who generally would be the consumer. However, there is debate on which agency actually has authority to enforce the Tariff Act. USDA contends that the Federal Meat Inspection Act provides that imported meat products, once they have undergone safety-related inspection activities, and are “deemed and treated as domestic.”

These two Acts overlap each other with two different enforcement agencies, resulting in confusion. USCA believes this confusion was alleviated by country of origin labeling provisions in the 2002 Farm Bill and that USDA has the responsibility to work with other agencies and write a Final Rule for labeling meat products that is definitive, efficient, and economical. Lack of clarity on this issue is providing a loophole for processors and importers and prevents consumers from knowing where a product came from.

“The United States has a number of firewalls in place that make food products - particularly beef, born, raised, and processed domestically - the healthiest, most wholesome food in the world,” says COOL Committee member and Region V Director Chuck Kiker. “These firewalls are accomplished through government funded agencies, but the only way for taxpayers and producers to take full advantage of the services they pay for is to label food products with their origin. Differentiation of U.S. product is particularly important when the conditions and rules by which we produce food in the U.S. have been instrumental in building our reputation worldwide as producing high quality beef. American, as well as international, consumers must have the ability to choose to purchase food that has been produced through systems they are familiar with and have great confidence in.”

Currently, the only information available to the purchaser is a USDA mark of inspection and the USDA grade stamp. These labels have no value when determining a product’s country of origin because imported beef and cattle are eligible for these recognizable stamps.

"USCA strongly urges the USDA and Congress to implement accurate and transparent food labeling. We hope that, in the future, mandatory country of origin labeling will allow U.S. consumers the right to make more informed decisions about the food they buy,” said Beer.

Established in March 2007, USCA is committed to assembling a team to concentrate efforts in Washington D.C. to enhance and expand the cattle industry's voice on Capitol Hill. For membership forms and other information visit www.uscattlemen.org .

More and more organizations are jumping on the mandatory COOL bandwagon. People need to pay attention though, Congress wants to mate COOL and NAIS which is not what producers want. Yes, I said producers. If the consumers were informed what these measures would cost them when they buy beef, they would not want them. I see a train wreck coming if COOL is implemented on a hurry up basis by not considering the costs involved with doing this. Hopefully USCA will watch out for this coupling of COOL and NAIS. It will be a killer if they don't.

Truth cannot be defined or tested by agreement with 'the world'; for not only do truths differ for different worlds but the nature of agreement between a world apart from it is notoriously nebulous. Nelson Goodman

A tenth case of BSE in Canada has been reported. Why is this of such interest to me? It has ignited the debate on COOL and expanding imports of Canadian cattle into the US.

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, introduced legislation today that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, from expanding imports of Canadian cattle until the agency implements a system that allows consumers to see in which country their meat was produced.

National Farmers Union President Tom Buis called the latest case of BSE "very troubling."

"It becomes even more disturbing when you consider that USDA has proposed to re-open the Canadian border and allow live cattle imports born after March 1, 1999 and beef of any age into the United States," said Buis. "The Canadian border should remain closed until mandatory COOL is implemented and Canada can demonstrate that its problem is under control."

Speaking for the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, R-CALF USA, CEO Bill Bullard agrees.

From his office in Billings, Montana, Bullard said, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed its responsibility to adequately protect the U.S. cattle herd, the U.S. beef supply, U.S. export markets and U.S. consumers from Canada�s widespread problem with bovine spongiform encephalopathy."

"Despite a very limited amount of testing, six cases of BSE have been confirmed in Canadian cattle born after Canada implemented its feed ban in 1997 � despite USDA�s unsupported insistence that the Canadian feed ban has been effective in preventing the spread of the disease," Bullard said.

"Why is it that U.S. farmers and ranchers have to pay the expense of a lawsuit in order to force USDA to do the job that hard-working taxpayers have already paid the agency to do," asked R-CALF USA Region I Director Margene Eiguren. "There is something wrong with our government when economic trade goals are allowed to continually trump legitimate health and safety concerns."

This is all fine and dandy. I only have one problem with all of this. The powers that be in Washington want to tie COOL and NAIS together to make things extremely difficult for cattle producers. You all know how I feel about NAIS so the thought of resurrecting mandatory NAIS as part of the COOL plan frightens me. This doesn't need to happen but all these people pushing for COOL because of the Canada BSE issue will probable doom us all. Action taken in the heat of the moment usually results in problems down the road and this needs to be considered here. Remember the Patriot Act was a put into effect immediately following 9/11 and now we look back on it as maybe the wrong response to a crisis situation.

If I really thought COOL would help American cattlemen I would probably be more for it but since I don't the issue doesn't really resonate with me. The thing I am afraid of is COOL is going to cost cattle producers a lot of money to implement, and if they tie NAIS with it that will be the case, which will then be a net money loser for me. Hysteria will drive us over this cliff before people can think. Just watch it happen folks. The cliff is right ahead, can we avoid it?

History is a vast early warning system. Norman Cousins

Farmers Fear Livestock ID Mandate

Independent livestock ranchers last week were quick to criticize signals that the new Congress may soon mandate implementation of the RFID-based National Animal Identification System.

Signing on to the NAIS program has been voluntary since it was first proposed in 2003, but Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), the new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said last week that he may soon push for the program to become mandatory.

I know, you really need to hear from me about NAIS but anytime I can quote the Honorable Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and his belief that NAIS should be mandatory, I will.

Be scared, be very scared of this Congress if you don't want NAIS to be shoved down your throat. Rep. Collin Peterson is going to do everything he can to make it happen.

I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. Henry David Thoreau

A little review to start with. What is the purpose of NAIS and how is it going to be accomplished and who is the lead agency in it's implementation?

NAIS is a program by the USDA to allow them to track every animal in the US from birth to death. This is going to be done in cattle by means of an ear tag which even without the RFID technology will allow the USDA to figure out where a particular animal has been from the time of it's birth.

Why do I bring this up? I bring this up because of a little story about a South Dakota farmer and his experience with tagged cattle. It appears this farmer went to an auction yard and bought a bunch of calves to feed on his farm. He fed the calves until they were fat and then took them to the slaughter house for his pay day. He was in for a surprise though.

The packing plant would not pay him for seven head of his cattle and condemned the whole load of offal. Why? Because the seven head in question were Canadian cattle and were not supposed to be in this farmers possession.

"Unfortunately, it appears that USDA is not keeping track of the cattle being imported from Canada - under USDA's rules, these calves should never have been allowed to be sold in a South Dakota auction market. The Canadian officials apparently haven't been able to trace back the movements and origin of the calves, despite the official Canadian tags found in their ears." Fox said that USDA implemented a rule in 2005 to allow the importation of Canadian feeder cattle under 30 months of age, but only under very strict conditions.


"The cattle are supposed to enter the U.S. in sealed trucks and be transported directly to an identified feedlot. They are then to remain in the identified feedlot until they are hauled to a slaughter plant in a sealed truck," he said. "The fact that these calves showed up at a salebarn in South Dakota, were allowed to intermingle with U.S. cattle, and were not represented as Canadian cattle, indicates that USDA is not monitoring the very system it created.

The USDA wants to track all the cattle in the US, around 100 million cattle, and they can't even keep track of the small amount of cattle, I'm sure no more than 10 million, which come into the country from Canada. This is the perfect example of why NAIS is not going to work. The whole integrity of the program depends on the USDA being able to track these critters and here they prove on a smaller scale that they are incapable of doing just this.

Remember this example when the USDA official show up on your doorstep to sign you up for NAIS. Point out their proven inability to track cattle in the market system. See what they have to say about it. I bet they don't have an answer for you.

Doubts raced through my mind as I considered the feasibility of enforcing a law which the majority of honest citizens didn't seem to want. Eliot Ness

Cross-posted to No Mandatory Animal ID

I have been waiting for more information before commenting on the latest case of E-coli hitting our food markets. I see a little more information but no answers yet.

Officials: Lettuce source of E. coli

Lettuce was the most likely source of an outbreak of E. coli linked to Taco Bell, federal health officials said Wednesday.

Taco Bell had said contaminated green onions were responsible for the cases of food poisoning — 71 confirmed cases of E. coli in five states, primarily New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Follow-up government testing, however, failed to confirm that.

Interviews with patients and other work led them to believe that lettuce was the probable culprit, health officials said.

I took up this issue in my companion Blog, No Mandatory Animal ID, during the recent spinach E-coli scare. I renew the idea now.

Sounds pretty silly doesn't it. Tracking a leaf of spinach from field to consumer but that's what they want to do with animals. Why animals and not all food products? Or is the NAIS program just a precursor to labeling all food?

That's it, they will expand the NAIS system to include all food products including Spinach. Let's call it the Federal Uniform Calories Key Identification Tracking (FUCK IT). It will go right along with the Real ID program to track everything and everyone.

That's the answer, track every leaf of lettuce, spinach, every kernel of corn, every scallion and we will be protected from food borne illness. Let's all push for Federal Uniform Calories Key Identification Tracking to give the government ultimate control over our lives and food. If they want to track meat with NAIS why not track everything with the FUCK IT program? Makes sense to me.

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one. Mark Twain

I think this headline is a little premature.

National ID Is Dead

USDA effectively and quietly knocked the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) in the head last Wednesday. It did so with the unheralded publication of the "NAIS User Guide," which replaces all former NAIS draft documents. This document, for the first time, emphasizes NAIS as a voluntary program rather than as a steppingstone to a mandatory one.

In fact, at the very beginning, the guide explains, "USDA is not requiring participation in the program. NAIS can help producers protect the health and marketability of their animals -- but the choice to participate is theirs."

Maybe I'm cynical, but I really don't think NAIS is dead. Can everybody out there remember how the Federal Government mandated a 55 MPH speed limit in the 70's? Since they couldn't set a national speed limit themselves they required the states, by threatening to withhold highway funding, to set speed limits and all states fell right in line and did it.

What's to stop them from doing this here. Requiring a mandatory ID system by the states by blackmail them. I think it is something to be aware of and to remain wary of. Also of note, what will happen with the Democrat congress and in the future a new administration?

All of us Americans that value freedom will need to be wary of NAIS in the future. The USDA might have had to back off for now but vigilance is required to ensure its ugly head does not rear up again.

Blackmail has become respectable. Robert G. Menzies

The Government now claims NAIS will always be voluntary.

HA, IN A PIGS EAR!!!

Check out my thoughts on this at No Mandatory Animal ID.

The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present. Niccolo Machiavelli

NPPC firmly behind mandatory animal ID

Incoming House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson told farm broadcasters at their national convention again on Friday he backs mandatory national animal identification, because USDA is "screwing up" in implementing a voluntary system. Just two days earlier, U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns said he thought mandatory national animal ID would result in "open revolt" among cattle producers.

But that clearly wouldn't be the case among pork producers. National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Joy Philippi told Brownfield Thursday the pork industry has always thought mandatory animal ID is the best approach, and still does.

The Large pork producers are ready to sacrifice themselves on the alter of big government. I feel sorry for them. Benjamin Franklin said "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." The Pork Producers fall into this saying and they will be the big losers in the end.

Then there is the cattle producers. Johanns says there will "open revolt" if mandatory NAIS is foisted on them. Hey, Johanns has finally got the hint, cattle producers don't want this.

The problem is Collin Peterson. He wants Mandatory NAIS at all costs. With him being chairman on the House Ag Committee we that are fighting NAIS are going to have to double our efforts to stop this from happening. Write, call your congressmen. Let them know our opposition to this program. working together, hopefully we can stop this even if the pork industry wants it. They will thank us in the long run when we stop it.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure fooled the pork producers into thinking it can.

If you have paid any attention to me at all, you know I don't support the governments NAIS efforts. We don't need the government mandating yet another expensive program that us producers can't afford to implement for them.

Yesterday I worked my replacement heifers, heifer calves that I am keeping to make cows out of, and as part of the process I had a veterinarian on hand to bangs (Brucellosis) vaccinate them. Now Bangs vaccination requires a vet to do it. He tattoos the animals ear with his tattoo identifying he done it and then puts a metal tag in their ear with a unique identification number along with giving them their vaccination of course.

I asked the vet why the unique id number on the bangs tag couldn't be used as part of the NAIS system. It is a unique number that is sent into the government identifying an animal to a person and I have personally seen it used to track a critter as mine in less than 24 hours. He informed me that technically it should work just as well if not better than the proposed NAIS if the government just handled the paperwork right. According to him to many states do not file the paperwork right, a lot of it finds file 13, so that it is not useful for tracking purposes.

So, instead of throwing a lot of money away devising a new system, why can't we throw some of it at the existing Bangs system to fix the paperwork problems on the government level to track breeding age cows through the US? One of the main reasons behind NAIS is BSE. Since this disease is not transfered from cow to cow and only occurs in older cattle, usually breeding stock, wouldn't it make since to fix the broken system instead of reinventing the wheel?

Typical government inefficiency. Don't fix the broken, just make a new bureaucracy.

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us. P. J. O'Rourke

Cross-posted to No Mandatory Animal ID

Just a few different items from Australia that have caught my eye.

Drought hitting livestock prices

LIVESTOCK prices across NSW are in freefall, with farmers selling off record numbers of sheep and cattle as the drought worsens.

Meat processors say they cannot take any more livestock, and producers say they are concerned about how low prices could go.

Lately it seems like this is all a person hears about, drought, drought and more drought. Whether it's here in the US or elsewhere in the world. It sure makes life for farmers and ranchers of all types tough as the article points out. It's so dry they have to sell stock but there is nowhere for the stock to go so prices go down. Supply and demand, it can work for you, or against you.

US vows not to compete over Japanese beef market

The United States beef industry has pledged to try to expand the Japanese beef market, rather than take market share from Australia.

Australia is currently hosting beef producers from the United States, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand for the annual five nation beef talks.

If you believe this I have some swampland in Florida to sell you too. Of course we are in competition with each other for market share. That's the name of the game. Expanding the whole base is a great idea but there will be some poaching along the way. Deal with it, that's life.

Last, but not least, some notes on Australia's National Animal Identification Scheme (NLIS).

NLIS has been in effect here coming on two years. I haven’t registered my place, and I am selling cattle to a neighbor who also isn’t registered. There is one heck of an underground trade, making the whole thing pointless. I’ve always been opposed to it, but I can mount arguments for its implementation in the bigger picture. In theory it gives the customer what he wants, but in reality it has lots of big holes.

At the last bullocky [ox drover] meeting I raised the subject of just how ridiculous NLIS is, and plenty of people there were in total agreement. NLIS had just bogged them down in paperwork.

Our Patron is a retiring senator. His advise? “Just ignore it!” Which is what everybody who can already does. So it’s only those who put stock through the market that it affects. Hardly a watertight system!

“Just ignore it!” Not advice I recommend while we are trying to stop the NAIS program in the US. It might be the right move though if the system is put in place. The whole farm to factory aspect, don't believe the governments propaganda of farm to plate, the tracking stops at the slaughter house, of NAIS just gives a person a warm fuzzy felling of security doesn't it? Especially knowing that people are out there circumventing it. We in the US need to keep an eye on the Australian NLIS system and the flaws in it for ammunition to stop the movement here. Mandatory NAIS is wrong.

Australia has always been important to me. I'd love to get down there, but I'm not a booking agent. I'm not a promoter, so I haven't had control over that. Tom Cochrane

I've talked about how an ID system should be voluntary and if it was economically viable should not even be required by the government. The free market will provide it. Starting to see it a little now. This article uses the voluntary use of ID tags as an opening to explain how the NAIS system will be great, but I think we need to focus on the fact that voluntarily, due to market pressure, an ID system is being used without the government requiring it of all of us.

Japan reopened its market in July, with the new rules in place.

"It creates an opportunity for ranchers or producers that can verify the age of the calves they are selling," said Todd Clemons, president of Okeechobee Livestock Market in Okeechobee. Local ranchers get a premium of about $20 per animal.

Since April, the Okeechobee Livestock Market has sold 25,000 cattle through online auctions; 80 percent of those were calves with tags that make it possible to verify their age and birthplace.

The calves are shipped to feedlots in states such as Texas, and some are eventually sold to Japan and other export markets.

This is like it should be. The free market working. The rest of the article is a big propaganda piece on why NAIS would be so good for all of us since it would pinpoint "food borne illness." I guess they mean stuff like e-coli in spinach and lettuce. Excuse me, that's right, that will be covered by the FUCK IT program instead of NAIS. That's not an animal so NAIS doesn't apply.

Give it time and maybe voluntarily most animals will have ID. I will point out that the buyer of my calves told me he works with 3 different major packing plants and not one of them wants cattle with ID tags or any kind of source or age verification. They are not concerned about it. In fact if cattle with ID tags show up they charge a $40 per head fee to read the tags prior to slaughter. So the cost of this is on the person bringing the cattle in, not on the packer.

Let's work towards a voluntary system. It's only right.

They are the only honest hypocrites, their life is a voluntary dream, a studied madness. William Hazlitt

Mary Zanoni, Director Of Farm For Life speaks to cattlemen on NAIS.

You don’t have to eat whatever slop the government puts in front of you. Send the slop back to the kitchen and demand a better chef.

I like it!