lao hong han's diary ::
Today marked a major victory in a six-year-long struggle by small farmers in the US. I’m betting, dear reader, that you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about.
The Department of Agriculture decided today to drop NAIS (the National Animal Identification System). This was a voluntary program to identify and track meat and dairy animals wherever they went in the country.
NAIS was started in 2004 by the Bush Administration after a cow with mad cow disease was discovered in Washington State. To non-farmers, this may seem like a sensible measure, but remind yourself, you don’t know a lot of detail about how the meat you buy winds up in that plastic-wrapped Styrofoam container at the supermarket--or on the shish-kebab stick on that whole wheat pita at the Arab takeout place.
1.Agribusiness and factory farms in particular were the big advocates of NAIS. Why? They are the big exporters of US-raised meat and poultry, and having the certified tracking process in place would help overcome legal barriers to US-raised meat being sold to, say, safety conscious European countries and Japan.<snip>
2.Meanwhile, NAIS was hugely expensive for small farmers at a time when the economic crunch on many is near unbearable. (Read, for instance, this harrowing recent story of a NY State farmer’s suicide). A small farmer, who slaughtered some hogs, sold some at auction, and kept some as breeding stock would have to tag each one individually.<snip>
3.Farmers were convinced, with good reason that a "voluntary" NAIS today was likely to become government-mandated tomorrow, which was the plan when it was first proposed. Further, they knew that if any disease did show up at big slaughterhouses, blame would quickly be kicked back upstream to the party least able to defend him or herself, the small farmer, never mind that the big commercial feedlots where animals are prepared for butchering are vast breeding grounds for all sorts of pathogens.
<snip>
Vilsak announced today that a new identification program will be developed and the USDA website has an FAQ about it which proclaims:
Animals not moved out of state, as well as small producers who raise animals to feed themselves, their families and their neighbors, are not a part of the framework's scope and focus.
See, a victory for mass resistance to big capital! And under the radar of the traditional and urban left in this country. And not for the first time. Keep them peepers open, folks!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/2/5/834352/-The-People-Won-One-Today-(Dja-Miss-It)
Much more at the link. I'll bet this fight isn't over though.
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