This old poem reminds me of the attitude of our government , particularly with regards to the NAIS debacle. Rather than diagnose or prevent animal diseases the NAIS simply wants to perform damage control. 48-hour Trace back will not prevent contaminated meat from reaching consumers nor will it keep any supposed pandemic from occurring. It simply ignores the causes and tries to inadequately deal with the effects. Rather than choose a good fence they have opted for an ambulance down in the valley.
The Ambulance in the Valley by Joseph Malins 1895
‘Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant;
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A duke, and full many a peasant.
The people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally.
Some said ‘Put a fence ‘round the edge of the cliff,’
Some, ‘An ambulance down in the valley.’
The lament of the crowd was profound and was loud,
As their tears overflowed with their pity;
But the cry for the ambulance carried the day
As it spread through the neighbouring city.
A collection was made, to accumulate aid
And the dwellers in highway and alley
Gave dollars or cents – not to furnish a fence –
But an ambulance down in the valley.
‘For the cliff is all right if you’re careful,’ they said;
‘And if folks ever slip and are dropping,
It isn’t the slipping that hurts them so much
As the shock down below – when they’re stopping.’
So for years (we have heard), as these mishaps occurred
Quick forth would the rescuers sally,
To pick up the victims who fell from the cliff,
With the ambulance down in the valley.
Said one, to his pleas, ‘It’s marvel to me
That you’d give so much greater attention
To repairing results than to curing the cause;
You had much better aim at prevention.
For the mischief, of course, should be stopped at its source;
Come, neighbours and friends, let us rally.
It is far better sense to rely on a fence
Than an ambulance down in the valley.’
‘He is wrong in his head,’ the majority said;
‘He would end all our earnest endeavour.
He’s a man who would shirk this responsible work,
But we will support it forever.
Aren’t we picking up all, just as fast as they fall,
And giving them care liberally?
A superfluous fence is of no consequence,
If the ambulance works in the valley.’
The story looks queer as we’ve written it here,
But things oft occur that are stranger
More humane, we assert, than to succour the hurt
Is the plan of removing the danger.
The best possible course is to safeguard the source
By attending to things rationally.
Yes, build up the fence and let us dispense
With the ambulance down in the valley.
Instead of the ineffeicient waste of resources that we call the NAIS, resources would be better applied to cleaning up the meat processing plants and huge agricorps that breed the diseases that the USDA is so afraid of.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
NAIS Meeting in Whitney Point, NY
Report on Today’s NAIS Meeting in Whitney Point, NY
Attendance:
There were about 25 or more people in attendance, plus two ladies from New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a man representing the USDA, and another man from the county level.
One of the ladies from Ag & Markets did most of the talking with occasional input from the others. She asked up front that everyone be respectful of each other even though the topic was controversial. Folks were respectful throughout the meeting, even during the Q&A/comment period.
Presentation of the program:
Q&A session
The real heart of the meeting was the Q&A session: Lots of folks had strong opinions and concerns about the state and federal levels of the program. I don’t recall any farmer there who really had much good to say about the NAIS. As I mentioned, everyone was civil and reasonable. This helped us cover a lot of ground.
The main speaker fielded most of the questions, and did well overall. Here is a summary:
Q: How secure is the database?
A. She could only speak of the NY database, which is only accessible via direct physical (cable) connection to the computer storing the database. Only 5 state vets have access to the database.
Q. There were questions about RFID tags and the frequencies to be used. Also there were concerns about the vulnerabilities of the tags to tampering and duplication of the data.
A. You don’t have to use the RFID tags in NY.
Q. I received an information packet in the mail. It included a card that had my premises ID. What’s going on? (A few people there had this happen to them.)
A. Folks who had previously been registered with state animal disease programs were registered automatically. The literature that was sent to you included instructions in how to opt out of the program. (This must be the data mining hinted at in the last NY State Cooperative Agreement document. None of these gov’t folks seemed bothered at all by the blatant privacy invasion that had been perpetrated upon these farmers.)
Q. How can the program be “Voluntary” and still attain 100% participation?
A. Well, I have to admit that it doesn’t sound very realistic.
Q. What is really meant by a “Voluntary program?”
A. In NY State you will never be forced to participate in the NYAHIS. It will always be voluntary.
(This was discussed at some length with lots of comments from farmers. Many doubted that anyone could presume upon the future and guarantee that things would always remain voluntary. My own comments were that even if things remained unchanged that you could not avoid compliance even when you are not registered. State fairs could restrict participation to livestock with NAIS ID, processing facilities could require that ID tags be present before any livestock could be processed, etc. They had no answer for these concerns.)
Q. Have there been any cost analyses performed? Who is going to pay for the personnel needed to track animals, maintain the needed databases, and enforce the NAIS?
A. State level: Pretty sure that these have been done but could not readily reference any info. Did not know total cost (too variable) or who ultimately pays for it. Federal level: The USDA rep had no answer for these questions.
Q. NAIS does not address issues of disease prevention or treatment. Wouldn’t it be better to close the barn door rather than to go chasing the horses?
A. This was not really answered at all.
Q. There are at least 4 different amendments to the U.S. Constitution that are violated by the NAIS (1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th). Care to comment on that?
A. Hey, It’s a voluntary program. You don’t have to participate.
Q. That’s not a good enough answer. How can you as government employees actively support a program that violates the Constitution?
A. (They really couldn’t answer this one either.)
Q. The NAIS will create a complete “paper trail” for the whole life of livestock animals, say, for example, a cow. The cow can change hands several times and eventually be slaughtered in a USDA plant. What if someone gets sick and sues the place they bought beef from. They can now sue everyone who ever had anything to do with this cow, right from the market back to the farmer who first owned her. How does the NAIS handle the increased liability for farmers?
A. This won’t happen in NY. We are too good at preventing disease from spreading. If you see any problems, report ‘em. (This got a few polite chuckles from the group, even though she was sincere when answering.)
Q. How does the NY program protect farmers from lawsuits?
A: I don’t know but I can look into it.
Q. How does the federal program protect farmers from lawsuits?
A. (From NY level) The federal program has ensured that you will not be held liable. (She turned to the USDA rep but he did not say anything to confirm or deny this.)
Q. Every animal sale that is made has to have receipts. Everyone keeps records of their own animals. Plus there are disease prevention and herd improvement programs that keep records. Isn’t the NAIS redundant?
A. Maybe, but it is difficult to pull all this info together to use it efficiently. The NAIS will consolidate this info to speed up tracking of animals. On the state level it will mean being able to shift from thousands of paper files that must be manually searched to an up-to-date computer database. This will save many, many hours of work.
To be fair to our hosts I must say that they did well in the meeting. They had a tough subject to address with a tough audience (very independent-minded farmers). They were professional and friendly throughout, even when some of the questions were very difficult. They were not rapid big government fanatics trying take away our rights. They sincerely believe in what they are doing and want to help. They are good folks but rather naïve for trusting in the program to fix anything. I hope that we gave them some things to consider.
After the meeting some of the more outspoken farmers were able to talk together. A few of us have decided to keep in touch and continue to fight the NAIS.
Gil
Attendance:
There were about 25 or more people in attendance, plus two ladies from New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a man representing the USDA, and another man from the county level.
One of the ladies from Ag & Markets did most of the talking with occasional input from the others. She asked up front that everyone be respectful of each other even though the topic was controversial. Folks were respectful throughout the meeting, even during the Q&A/comment period.
Presentation of the program:
- The basics of the NAIS were explained in a slideshow. During the slideshow two things were emphasized:
- The Voluntary nature of the NAIS,
- And that NY state is not implementing everything that is being advised by the federal level of the program, (For example, NY will not require the use of RFID tags, and is actively encouraging the use of tags already on the animals).
- It was stated that the NY version of the NAIS is called the New York Animal Health Information Systems (NYAHIS). NYAHIS will attempt to maintain the “positive aspects” of surveillance embraced by the national system, discarding the elements that just do not work with NY State. They believe that in doing this they can still meet the goals of the national program. (Personally, I don’t see how they can do this.)
- The premises number will be 7 alphanumeric characters, and the animal ID number will be 8 alphanumeric characters. (If they were only using numbers that would give the possibility of trying to track over 999 trillion animals. With both number and letter variables in use I don’t even want to think how many that would be. Why does anyone need this many variables?)
- Current status: 51% of premises ID’s registered. (I’m not sure where this number comes from.)
Q&A session
The real heart of the meeting was the Q&A session: Lots of folks had strong opinions and concerns about the state and federal levels of the program. I don’t recall any farmer there who really had much good to say about the NAIS. As I mentioned, everyone was civil and reasonable. This helped us cover a lot of ground.
The main speaker fielded most of the questions, and did well overall. Here is a summary:
Q: How secure is the database?
A. She could only speak of the NY database, which is only accessible via direct physical (cable) connection to the computer storing the database. Only 5 state vets have access to the database.
Q. There were questions about RFID tags and the frequencies to be used. Also there were concerns about the vulnerabilities of the tags to tampering and duplication of the data.
A. You don’t have to use the RFID tags in NY.
Q. I received an information packet in the mail. It included a card that had my premises ID. What’s going on? (A few people there had this happen to them.)
A. Folks who had previously been registered with state animal disease programs were registered automatically. The literature that was sent to you included instructions in how to opt out of the program. (This must be the data mining hinted at in the last NY State Cooperative Agreement document. None of these gov’t folks seemed bothered at all by the blatant privacy invasion that had been perpetrated upon these farmers.)
Q. How can the program be “Voluntary” and still attain 100% participation?
A. Well, I have to admit that it doesn’t sound very realistic.
Q. What is really meant by a “Voluntary program?”
A. In NY State you will never be forced to participate in the NYAHIS. It will always be voluntary.
(This was discussed at some length with lots of comments from farmers. Many doubted that anyone could presume upon the future and guarantee that things would always remain voluntary. My own comments were that even if things remained unchanged that you could not avoid compliance even when you are not registered. State fairs could restrict participation to livestock with NAIS ID, processing facilities could require that ID tags be present before any livestock could be processed, etc. They had no answer for these concerns.)
Q. Have there been any cost analyses performed? Who is going to pay for the personnel needed to track animals, maintain the needed databases, and enforce the NAIS?
A. State level: Pretty sure that these have been done but could not readily reference any info. Did not know total cost (too variable) or who ultimately pays for it. Federal level: The USDA rep had no answer for these questions.
Q. NAIS does not address issues of disease prevention or treatment. Wouldn’t it be better to close the barn door rather than to go chasing the horses?
A. This was not really answered at all.
Q. There are at least 4 different amendments to the U.S. Constitution that are violated by the NAIS (1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th). Care to comment on that?
A. Hey, It’s a voluntary program. You don’t have to participate.
Q. That’s not a good enough answer. How can you as government employees actively support a program that violates the Constitution?
A. (They really couldn’t answer this one either.)
Q. The NAIS will create a complete “paper trail” for the whole life of livestock animals, say, for example, a cow. The cow can change hands several times and eventually be slaughtered in a USDA plant. What if someone gets sick and sues the place they bought beef from. They can now sue everyone who ever had anything to do with this cow, right from the market back to the farmer who first owned her. How does the NAIS handle the increased liability for farmers?
A. This won’t happen in NY. We are too good at preventing disease from spreading. If you see any problems, report ‘em. (This got a few polite chuckles from the group, even though she was sincere when answering.)
Q. How does the NY program protect farmers from lawsuits?
A: I don’t know but I can look into it.
Q. How does the federal program protect farmers from lawsuits?
A. (From NY level) The federal program has ensured that you will not be held liable. (She turned to the USDA rep but he did not say anything to confirm or deny this.)
Q. Every animal sale that is made has to have receipts. Everyone keeps records of their own animals. Plus there are disease prevention and herd improvement programs that keep records. Isn’t the NAIS redundant?
A. Maybe, but it is difficult to pull all this info together to use it efficiently. The NAIS will consolidate this info to speed up tracking of animals. On the state level it will mean being able to shift from thousands of paper files that must be manually searched to an up-to-date computer database. This will save many, many hours of work.
To be fair to our hosts I must say that they did well in the meeting. They had a tough subject to address with a tough audience (very independent-minded farmers). They were professional and friendly throughout, even when some of the questions were very difficult. They were not rapid big government fanatics trying take away our rights. They sincerely believe in what they are doing and want to help. They are good folks but rather naïve for trusting in the program to fix anything. I hope that we gave them some things to consider.
After the meeting some of the more outspoken farmers were able to talk together. A few of us have decided to keep in touch and continue to fight the NAIS.
Gil
Saturday, December 16, 2006
But I Don't Want To Be This Protected
I am not quite sure when it started but I have noticed over time that our government has been changing gears from public servant to public protector. Over the course of my lifetime the government has tried to protect me from
Besides, I never asked to be protected. I am willing to take personal responsibility for my choices and actions, even if there is some risk involved. I grow my own vegetables and raise most of my own meat. I am self-employed and will take care of my own family's welfare. Thank you very much.
I do realize that some government intervention can be helpful at times for people in genuine need. I am concerned at the large number of people who have become totally dependent upon government entitlements. I think that it makes us weaker as a nation and as a people.
I will also admit to some suspicion of our elected officials since they never return the power that was taken to address each danger or emergency. It is especially troubling that they are the ones who always spot the dangers first. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it just seems to be very convenient for them.
- air pollution
- global warming
- killer bees
- work hazards
- swine flu
- communism
- mad cow disease
- poverty
- hunger
- lack of health insurance
- weather conditions large and small, (On the radio we now get winter weather alerts from the National Weather Service - why do I need to be warned about snow in December?)
- sexual predators
- deteriorating ozone layer
- avian flu
- bacteria in restaurant veggies
- terrorists here and abroad
- potential animal pandemics
- and you could probably add a lot more to this list...
Besides, I never asked to be protected. I am willing to take personal responsibility for my choices and actions, even if there is some risk involved. I grow my own vegetables and raise most of my own meat. I am self-employed and will take care of my own family's welfare. Thank you very much.
I do realize that some government intervention can be helpful at times for people in genuine need. I am concerned at the large number of people who have become totally dependent upon government entitlements. I think that it makes us weaker as a nation and as a people.
I will also admit to some suspicion of our elected officials since they never return the power that was taken to address each danger or emergency. It is especially troubling that they are the ones who always spot the dangers first. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it just seems to be very convenient for them.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Looking Back on the 2006 Farmer's Market Season
Well, 2006 was our first foray into making a living at raising pastured poultry. I am pleased with the results.
The farmer's markets in Binghamton and Vestal, NY were both successful. We developed a loyal customer base that truly appreciated the quality of our chickens and baked goods. Even better than selling out most weeks toward the end of the season, were the relationships we developed with the other vendors and with the customers. We really came to care about the customers as people, and my wife actually shed a few tears (along with a couple of customers) when saying goodbye at the end of October. It was a pleasure to interact with people who care about their food and where it comes from.
We got a chance to see a few of them again when we distributed pasture-raised turkeys for Thanksgiving. That also went very well. I hope to increase the number of turkeys next year, since demand far exceeded our supply.
We learned a lot this year and made continual improvements throughout the season in areas of production, presentation, marketing and record keeping. We will be experimenting with having customers pre-order products next year and hope to introduce a few new value-added products, also.
Looking forward to next year!
Gil
The farmer's markets in Binghamton and Vestal, NY were both successful. We developed a loyal customer base that truly appreciated the quality of our chickens and baked goods. Even better than selling out most weeks toward the end of the season, were the relationships we developed with the other vendors and with the customers. We really came to care about the customers as people, and my wife actually shed a few tears (along with a couple of customers) when saying goodbye at the end of October. It was a pleasure to interact with people who care about their food and where it comes from.
We got a chance to see a few of them again when we distributed pasture-raised turkeys for Thanksgiving. That also went very well. I hope to increase the number of turkeys next year, since demand far exceeded our supply.
We learned a lot this year and made continual improvements throughout the season in areas of production, presentation, marketing and record keeping. We will be experimenting with having customers pre-order products next year and hope to introduce a few new value-added products, also.
Looking forward to next year!
Gil
Thursday, December 07, 2006
NAIS Meetings in South Central NY
A local farmer recently informed me of upcoming meetings about the
NAIS. He gave me a photocopied page from the Nov 2006 Dairy and Field
Crops Program newsletter (From Cornell, I think.)
Here's the text of the page:
Finally... National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Explained
Featuring:
Sarah Blood-Szentmiklosy, NAIS Coordinator, NY State Dept. of Ag & Markets.
3 Sites in South Central New York Area aimed at commercial livestock operations:
December 14 - Cortland
NYS Grange, Rt. 13 North
11:00 - 2:30 lunch provided
December 15 - Owego
Treadway Inn, Rt 17C East
11:00 - 2:30 lunch provided
December 18 - Whitney Point
Aiello's, Jct. Rts 79 & 205 (sic - actually it's Rt. 206)
11:00 - 2:30 lunch provided
Benefits of becoming informed:
- You'll learn the ins and outs of the program without wandering
around websites wondering if information is up-to-date
- You can register premises on site
- Gain a better understanding of the program's associated standards and regulations
- Most Importantly - learn how you will be able to leverage advantages in your management program.
Please RSVP by contacting Sharon VanDeuson at 607-753-5078 or shv7@cornell.edu
I contacted Sharon VanDeuson via phone today and registered for the meeting at Whitney Point. All that was required was my name and phone number. No other information was requested.
I hope that they will have a Q&A period since I have lots of questions. I plan to strongly voice my opposition to the NAIS. Any input as to issues to bring up would be appreciated.
NAIS. He gave me a photocopied page from the Nov 2006 Dairy and Field
Crops Program newsletter (From Cornell, I think.)
Here's the text of the page:
Finally... National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Explained
Featuring:
Sarah Blood-Szentmiklosy, NAIS Coordinator, NY State Dept. of Ag & Markets.
3 Sites in South Central New York Area aimed at commercial livestock operations:
December 14 - Cortland
NYS Grange, Rt. 13 North
11:00 - 2:30 lunch provided
December 15 - Owego
Treadway Inn, Rt 17C East
11:00 - 2:30 lunch provided
December 18 - Whitney Point
Aiello's, Jct. Rts 79 & 205 (sic - actually it's Rt. 206)
11:00 - 2:30 lunch provided
Benefits of becoming informed:
- You'll learn the ins and outs of the program without wandering
around websites wondering if information is up-to-date
- You can register premises on site
- Gain a better understanding of the program's associated standards and regulations
- Most Importantly - learn how you will be able to leverage advantages in your management program.
Please RSVP by contacting Sharon VanDeuson at 607-753-5078 or shv7@cornell.edu
I contacted Sharon VanDeuson via phone today and registered for the meeting at Whitney Point. All that was required was my name and phone number. No other information was requested.
I hope that they will have a Q&A period since I have lots of questions. I plan to strongly voice my opposition to the NAIS. Any input as to issues to bring up would be appreciated.
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