Everyone agrees with putting our children first. Yet several Representatives, Dem’s included, are playing politics with our children’s food. Congresswoman DeLauro (D-CT) stuck a provision into the latest agriculture appropriations bill to require school lunch programs to buy their meat from premises registered with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
What’s so bad about this? The short answer is that (1) it has nothing to do with improving the nutrition or safety of the food; and (2) it promotes the sort of factory farming that has led to food poisoning, environmental pollution, and the inhumane treatment of animals.
At the end of this diary is an action step, so that you can help protect our children, our food supply, and our environment.
I am a farmer and an activist. I farm because I love the environment and have learned how sustainable agriculture can address so many of the problems facing humanity today, from human health to protecting wetlands to social justice. I am outraged at the attempt to destroy small, sustainable farms in the name of promoting Big Ag. I'm even more outraged that our children are being used to do it.
So what is the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS? It is a program that was developed by big agribusiness and technology companies to register, tag, and track every single livestock animal in the country. This includes every person raising food for themselves, every kid with a 4-H project, grandmas with a few hens to help supplement their social security check, and grandchildren with pet ponies.
The USDA, in the hands of people who went through the revolving door from Big Ag into government, claims that NAIS is an animal health program. Yet they refuse to release any documents showing any scientific basis for the program, even ignoring multiple FOIA requests. The real truth is that this program will help Big Ag, by promoting exports of our beef to Asia and Europe and by driving small farmers out of business. It will also create a multi-billion dollar business in microchips, scanners, and databases, since the program involves electronic tagging and tracking of over 100 million animals.
How will NAIS drive small farmers out of business? Well, first, every animal has to be physically tagged when it leaves its birthplace, in most cases with microchips or RFID ear tags. That means labor and equipment. Then reports will have to be filed, first to identify the animals and then to record a long list of movements – private sales, deaths, shows, lost tags, .... Those reports will be filed with private corporations, who get to make a profit off the backs of the farmers. And while small farmers face crushing out of pocket costs and labor burdens, huge factory farms will be able to use group identification to track thousands of animals in "lots". Estimates from Australia place the costs at $37 to $60 per animal on average – and since small farmers won’t have the benefit of economies of scale, it is likely to be much higher than that for them. Note that the USDA still has not completed a cost benefit analysis of this program!
So what does NAIS have to do with our children? Logically, nothing. Politically, though, Congresswoman DeLauro (D-CT) and Congressman Obey (D-WI) have decided that they will use an important and popular program – the school lunch program – to push farmers into NAIS. So along with spending precious tax dollars on this corporate boondoggle, DeLauro inserted a provision into last week’s agriculture appropriations bill that requires school lunch programs to buy meat from farms registered in NAIS.
DeLauro claims that this is needed to address the Hallmark/Westland scandal, where downer cows were slaughtered and the meat then provided to the school lunch program. She ignores the fact that the tracking of live animals under NAIS would do absolutely nothing to remedy slaughterhouse abuses!
Take a look at the video (warning: it’s a nauseating and heartbreaking video to watch). Anytime you can get a clear view of the cow’s left ear, you’ll see a tag. The downer cows were already tagged! Sticking a different tag in their ears would do absolutely nothing to address the problem. The fault lies with the USDA’s lax inspections, the "profit as king" mentality of the meat packers, and the terrible conditions of the confinement factory dairy farms which led to cows too weak and sick to walk.
If you’re in a hurry and already sufficiently outraged, scroll down to the end of the alert for the action step you can take to help. Or keep reading for more information.
The most common food-borne illnesses are the result of what happens in the slaughterhouses and food processing and handling facilities. Check out the CDC's website . So when you hear about an e.coli or salmonella outbreak, look to those places. To the extent the handling of live animals has anything to do with food safety, studies show that animals raised on grass – rather than in inhumane and environmentally destructive feedlots – carry lower amounts of bacteria, reducing the chances of contamination after their death (although whether contamination occurs still comes down to the slaughterhouse and food handling practices). Check out Jo Robinson’s Eat Wild website for scientific study after scientific study on how pasture based farms benefit human health, as well as the animals and the environment.
So NAIS won’t improve food safety. The actual effect will be to reduce food safety by hurting small farmers and helping CAFOs. That also harms our environment, as documents by the Union of Concerned Scientists in CAFO's Uncovered
Why do I keep bringing up things like the environment and nutrition, when the main issue here is food safety? Because it’s all part of one big, holistic picture. The science shows that the same sustainable agriculture practices that are better for the environment also mean safer food, healthier food, and decent lives for the animals and the farmers who raise them. It’s a win-win-win. And if DeLauro helps Big Ag to harm small farmers, it will be a lose-lose-lose.
On our own farm, I have watched a transformation happen in just a few years. The land I bought was pretty in a way – nice, green grass – but it was sterile from synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. The soil was so hard packed that it was like walking on concrete and there were no animals around, besides the cattle and the coyotes. After a few years of being chemical-free and under holistic management, the land teems with small life – beneficial insects, lizards, frogs, rabbits, and birds from a wide range of species. The soil also teems with invisible microbes, making it soft and able to capture water to prevent runoff.
Our animals live happy lives, as close to their natural conditions as we can manage. All of them – the cows, lambs, chickens, and turkeys – have names and personalities. They roam outside, take shelter whenever they want, and enjoy good health and community, along with all the attention we can shower on them. Let me introduce you to just a couple of them. Our ram is named Baa-baa (our animals have names, not numbers, but I don’t pretend that we’re creative about it!). He has little tiny horns buried in the wool on his head, which he loves to have scratched. Every evening, he comes up and asks for some attention, as he stands proud watch over his ewes and babies. My husband named one of our turkeys "Pretty Girl," and she would come perch on his shoulder as he did his evening chores (we lost her to a predator, sadly). The other turkeys follow him around on foot, or stand quietly while he scratches under itchy feathers.
(I couldn't figure out how to get pictures in the diary without taking up the whole page, but OrangeClouds115 included some pics in adiary last January)
At the end of their lives, the animals have one bad day, with a brief moment of fear and pain that is ended as quickly as possible. Unlike the animals in the Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse, they are NEVER near an electric prod, hit by a tractor, or abused to the point that they are too weak to stand. Yet Congress wants to favor factory dairies and industrial meatpackers over small farmers! We sell the food we raise to our local community, and watch the children of our customers growing up healthy and strong. We spend the money we make with other local farmers and local businesses, strengthening the economy. And farmers like us want to provide food for our local schools, as part of that community.
I recognize that, to many people, the world of small farmers seems light years away from your daily lives. But if you eat, NAIS will affect you. The costs and intrusion of NAIS will drive many of our small, sustainable farmers out of business, reducing your ability to get healthy, sustainable, and humanely-raised food. Even if you’re a vegan, what do you think many organic farmers use to fertilize their crops? Animals are an integral part of our agricultural system. And how much do you want to pay for the unhealthy, inhumane, environmentally-harmful corporate food? By hurting the burgeoning local sustainable foods movement, NAIS will increase the control of companies like Tyson and Cargill over the food supply. And with increased control, they will be able to set high prices without worrying about people deserting the grocery stores for farmers markets – which is happening now. That doesn’t even start to scratch the surface of the damage done to the environment, local economies, or animal welfare. The provision linking NAIS to school lunch programs, and providing $14.5 million for the program to be implemented generally, is a dangerous step along the path towards forcing NAIS on all farmers.
Demand true food safety for our children. Tell Congress that you want them to keep the school lunch program free of NAIS, stop funding NAIS, and put those dollars into true food safety – increased inspections of slaughterhouse and holding Big Ag responsible.
Take Action
- Call or fax your US Representative. You can look up who represents you at www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-340-9281.
- Call or fax the members of the House Appropriations Committee who come from your State. The members are listed at: http://appropriations.house.gov/... When you see a member who comes from your state, click on his or her name to get contact information.
- Call or fax your Senator if he or she is on the Senate Appropriations Committee. The members are listed at: http://appropriations.senate.gov/...
With each person, ask to speak to the staffer who handles appropriations. If you get their voice mail, leave the following message, or something in your own words that makes the same points:
MESSAGE: My name is __. I am a constituent [or live in your state, if you aren't in their district]. I am calling because the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee has inserted language requiring the School Lunch Program to only buy meat from farms registered in the National Animal Identification System. I am against NAIS, and I do not want it to be tied to school lunch programs. NAIS, which tracks live animals, will not improve food safety because most food safety problems start at the slaughterhouse and food processing facilities. Funding for NAIS, particularly any mandatory NAIS, needs to be stopped. Please call me back at ___.
When you talk to the staffer, be sure to make the same points as in the message, and expand on the issues you care about the most.
For more information, go to the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance