Berry chooses Jail over NAIS

[Gabe Ayers]

Source: Downloaded on 7-10-09 from http://www.foodrenegade.com/wendell-berry-picks-jail-over-nais/

Wendell Berry Picks Jail Over NAIS

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | Author: KristenM |

[Wendell Berry Picks Jail over NAIS] The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) listening sessions taking place across the country came to Kentucky last month. Wendell Berry, the agrarian poet and small farm activist, was there.

Story after story from these listening sessions has confirmed one thing: small farmers across the country are 100% opposed to the NAIS legislation. As you probably already know, NAIS promises to require every single livestock animal in America to be identified and tagged — no matter the size of the operation. So, you’ve got a few backyard chickens? Some milking goats? A small free-range pig farm? Say hello to expensive tagging & government paperwork. Not only will NAIS be so burdensome as to put many small scale farmers out of business, but it is a huge infringement on our liberties.

Thankfully, Wendell Berry is a passionate man, well versed in civil disobedience.

Listen to this crowd cheer him on as he gave his comments.

Read the text of his testimony:

The need to trace animals was made by the confined animal industry – which are, essentially, disease breeding operations. The health issue was invented right there. The remedy is to put animals back on pasture, where they belong. The USDA is scapegoating the small producers to distract attention from the real cause of the trouble. Presumably these animal factories are, in a too familiar phrase, “too big to fail”.

This is the first agricultural meeting I’ve ever been to in my life that was attended by the police. I asked one of them why he was there and he said: “Rural Kentucky”. So thank you for your vote of confidence in the people you are supposed to be representing. (applause) I think the rural people of Kentucky are as civilized as anybody else.

But the police are here prematurely. If you impose this program on the small farmers, who are already overburdened, you’re going to have to send the police for me. I’m 75 years old. I’ve about completed my responsibilities to my family. I’ll lose very little in going to jail in opposition to your program – and I’ll have to do it. Because I will be, in every way that I can conceive of, a non-cooperator.

I understand the principles of civil disobedience, from Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King. And I’m willing to go to jail to defend the young people who, I hope, will still have a possibility of becoming farmers on a small scale in this supposedly free country. Thank you very much. (applause, cheers)

Did you catch that? Wendell Berry will go to jail if NAIS becomes law!

Fellow Food Renegades, it’s time to join Wendell Berry in fighting back. If you haven’t done so already, visit NoNAIS.org and find out what you can do to help! There are many different ways to get involved in this fight, the least of which is becoming a thorn in your congressperson’s side.

I owe a special thanks to Kim Hartke at Hartke is Online for bringing Wendell Berry’s comments to my attention.

This post is part of today’s Fight Back Fridays blog carnival, hosted right here at Food Renegade. For more news, anecdotes, recipes, and tips related to finding, growing, cooking, and eating Real Food, go check it out!
(photo by geoffandsherry)

Sorry the photo did copy…. but shows the heart and mind of this man and the seriousness of this resistance.

[near horse]

I applaud W. Berry’s strength of character – maybe we should all refuse to participate – nation wide!

Unfortunately, when it looked as though the NAIS program was on the verge of complete failure, the “international market” – specifically South Korea entered the debate and gave the NAIS supporters new life. Essentially, if international markets require traceability on imported meat then we must implement our NAIS protocol or be shut out of these markets. Let those who choose to ship abroad be required to be a part of NAIS – why everyone?

FROM BEEF magazine:

South Korea Reinvigorates NAIS Discussion

Just when it looked like traceability was dead, the marketplace steps forward to reinvigorate it. South Korea has instituted a traceback system on domestically raised beef, and indicated it would require traceback on imported product by 2010. If this comes to pass, then all of the debate regarding the Naional Animal Identification System may be mute. As expected, traceback is moving toward being a requirement for international trade. (See “South Korea Mandates Full Beef Tracing System” in this newsletter).

Korea has fallen to fourth in terms of size of beef market, but it was up 128% in 2008 compared to 2007, and accomplished that after having been open only less than half of the year. Many experts predict Korea could be a billion-dollar market for U.S. beef if we can regain market share and the confidence of the Korean consumer. Those kinds of incentives are the sort that quickly can drive change.
— Troy Marshall

[Carl Russell]

I too am a non-cooperator. However, I do not believe in our judicial system enough to go to jail to try to prove that it can save us. I will not fight with them, and I won’t conform, NAIS will have no affect on my life.

It’s important that people understand that we are not alone when we stand up to them, because the fear is all they have. There is no way they will be able to enforce this lunacy, unless we all scatter and get picked off one by one.

Carl

[Patrick]

@Carl Russell 9932 wrote:

I too am a non-cooperator. However, I do not believe in our judicial system enough to go to jail to try to prove that it can save us. I will not fight with them, and I won’t conform, NAIS will have no affect on my life.

It’s important that people understand that we are not alone when we stand up to them, because the fear is all they have. There is no way they will be able to enforce this lunacy, unless we all scatter and get picked off one by one.

Carl

I agree with you, except that if it does pass and you continue to refuse to comply, it may very well affect your life. When they start forcing veterinarians to report noncompliers, or auctions or slaughter houses to do the same, at some point it will affect you. Who was it that wrote something like: When they came for this group, I wasn’t one of them, so I didn’t complain. When they came for that group, I wasn’t one, so still I said nothing. Then when they came for me there was no one left to help me.

[thousandhills]

great stuff. if I get animals I to will only buy from non-comply.

[danb]

I receive several mailings (surveys, census, etc.) from the USDA each year or so. This year I have decided to protest NAIS by refusing to cooperate in any way with the USDA. I have made up a letter in which I state my opposition to NAIS, inform them that I will no longer work with them until they stop this nonsense and I include it with the unanswered survey (no postage necessary if mailed in the United States). I have done this twice so far this year. One of these surveys stated that my response was required by law. So when they come to get me, I wonder if they’ll let me bunk with Wendell Berry. Or better yet, maybe I can get solitary confinement so I can get caught up on my reading. Hope I can bring my easy chair.:D

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for sharing Jason. I don’t wish to be effected by the government especially with the invasive manner that the NAIS promises. I run a large poultry show in NY and the state vets and I have a good relationship and I enjoy our time together. The second that they try to get me to enforce anything is the day that I am done. I won’t partake in government programs, unfortunately this does interfere with activities that I used to be involved with, but my life is just as full without them. The food traceability act is another “great” piece of legislation that will without doubt embrace the NAIS and other such nonsense. I think ignoring the problem will not be the answer, I may not do much about it, but I like to know what is lurking around the corner. My dog is not licensed anywhere, but that is not because I am ignoring the state law, I am making the decision to not comply. In the mean time keep on farming, or keep being supportive of small local agriculture, we can always use the support of fellow humans.
Erika

[Gabe Ayers]

How do folks respond to the USDA Census of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service? The one that has the YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW written on the front of the envelope. I haven’t bothered this year and have gotten a couple of messages on the phone about the “organic agriculture” survey and haven’t actually talked to anyone about it as they always call during the working day. If I thought this stuff would do anything to help us maintain the right to farm I would be right on it, but it is hard to see that with the current industry developing around information gathering under the cloak of food safety.

Nobody offers to pay for your time to fill out these things, they just suggest it is for your own good….and we were taught to worry about communism and that the Nazi’s were the most evil people in history….

Don’t respond to this if you are worried about being put on a list by USDA….
they may be watching, listening or looking for terrorist… and we ain’t terrorist, just freedom loving Americans.

Migrant seasonal workers, nomadic tribes and gypsies are seen as a problem by many governments…. when they are actually probably important assets to agricultural society and economy…

Disclaimer – This is a private personal posting and not a position of HHFF – despite the canned signature below.

[lancek]

well said jason!

[near horse]

The USDA can get your info from various sources – how about through the brand inspection service, for one – a requirement if you are selling or transporting animals across state lines. BTW – These things are a joke.

[Robert MoonShadow]

@near horse 11091 wrote:

The USDA can get your info from various sources – how about through the brand inspection service, for one – a requirement if you are selling or transporting animals across state lines. BTW – These things are a joke.

Not if you just don’t do it…witness: 2 donkeys, in one trailer, over the only main east/west highway in central Idaho, left Montana to Idaho = no ‘brand inspector’ or any such. Them darn outlaw donkeys!
As Carl said; too many of us to enforce it. If you get worried, you can always just move some illegal immigrants and/or meth ‘cooks’ onto your property & put your critters w/ them: they seem to be pretty much invisible to the so-called “authorities”.
Besides; they’ll have to get in line behind the others that’ll supposedly come for me, when I refuse to participate in the “mandatory” {socialist} health-care system they’re working on.
I’ll be on my farm…hiding in plain sight.

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