A motion-triggered wildlife camera at the den site of the Profanity Peak pack captures pack members on camera last June 30. Seven pack members were killed by Department of Fish and Wildlife after the wolves killed cattle grazing on public land at the Colville National Forest. (WSU wolf livestock research program)
A WAR OVER WOLVES
Outspoken researcher says his university and lawmakers silenced and punished him
By Lynda V. Mapes, Seattle Times environment reporter
By a slow slide of river deep in Washington’s wolf country, Robert Wielgus laughs at the tattoo on his arm of Four Claws, the grizzly that almost killed him.
“I would rather face charging grizzly bears trying to kill me than politicians and university administrators, because it is over quickly,” said Wielgus, director of the Large Carnivore Conservation Lab at Washington State University.
A Harley-riding, self-described adrenaline junkie at home in black motorcycle leathers with a Stetson and a .357 in the pickup, Wielgus, 60, is no tweed-jacket academic. For decades he has traveled North America wrangling bears, cougars and wolves to collar and study their behavior, including collaborations with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
Wielgus now finds himself crosswise with ranchers, lawmakers and WSU administrators — and their lobbyists. He’s lost grant funding for his summer research, has been forbidden from talking to media in his professional role and has been reviewed — and cleared — for scientific misconduct.
To understand why involves a look at state policy concerning a menagerie of animals: cougars, sheep, cattle and wolves. And one more animal: homo sapiens.
In Washington, it turns out, wolves and livestock are getting along better than the people who manage and study them.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national nonprofit specializing in government scientist whistleblower protection, in April filed a 12-page complaint against WSU officials, alleging the university punished and silenced Wielgus to placate ranchers and state legislators who objected to his research. WSU officials declined to comment for this story, citing possible litigation.
Yreka, CA. July 20 – 1-4 p.m. Yreka Community Theater
Dorris, CA. July 21 – 2-5 p.m. Dorris Community Center
Solutions for attacks on property rights Event
SISKIYOU COUNTY – Ranchers, property owners and Constitutional groups from four Western states will meet at the top of California to discuss solutions to protect private property rights; and open roads in USFS managed lands.
Siskiyou County, California, and neighboring Klamath County, in Oregon, feel plenty of heat as fights over water, wolves and closed Forest Service roads slam in waves one-after-the-other.
Much of rural America feels the heavy-hand of demands from government agencies, Tribes and Enviro NGOs. Yes, ranchers along this Klamath River area are surrounded by over-regulations and greed.
Recently, the Klamath Tribe exercised its priority Water Right in Oregon and shut-off the water to 115,000 acres of pasture and hay ranches affecting over 80,000 head of cattle. And ranchers, along with home owners in Siskiyou County, are fighting a lawsuit to save their Water Right from the Karuk Tribe and NGO Klamath River Keepers.
But in this stifling mud and muck, solutions have been found. They just need to be learned and applied, according to three ranchers that will be speaking July 20-21 at the Liberty and Property Rights Coalition Events in Siskiyou County. Admission is free.
“This is the caper,” said Ramona Hage Morrison, whose family has fought one of the longest battles in the West to protect their Water and Grazing Rights in Nevada.
“They have hood-winked the property owners. Most don’t understand their property rights, but we can fix that,” smiles Hage-Morrison.
Yes, in the face of constant threats, Hage-Morrison is upbeat. Her family has won major “rights” issues in federal court over the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. She will be sharing the line of defense that worked in Hage “takings” case and their “forage right” case.
The Liberty and Property Rights Coalition Event will be held at the Yreka Community Theater, at 812 North Oregon Street in Yreka — at the north end of town. Take the third off-ramp from I-5 exit 775. Time is 1 to 4 p.m. on Sat. July 20th. Several motels are in close proximity of the Event.
Then on Sun. July 21st, Butte Valley Protect our Property is hosting the Event at the Dorris Community Center, again at the north end of town on Highway 97. Time is 2 to 5 p.m.
“This is a celebration,” said organizer Debbie Bacigalupi, “and we are going to learn from those who have won. We are energized as this historical meeting brings property owners from four states into one Event.”
Arizona Rancher Danny Martinez worked with the Hage’s on their lawsuits and used what he learned to defend his ranch from the federal agencies. Martinez will share the remedies he has found. Bring your notebook.
Then Casey Anderson, a rancher from Idaho, will have a slide show on the federal mismanagement of wolves.
Michael Shaw, who just won a significant lawsuit over his property rights against Alameda County, will be serving as Master of Ceremonies for both meetings.
For more information on this Liberty and Property Rights Coalition Event, go to Support Rural America.com or call Louise Gliatto at 530-842-5443.
Travel IH-10 West from San Antonio and you will eventually pass through Fort Stockton, Texas. Continue on and you will notice grass-covered mountains coming into view on the left side of IH-10. These mountains are the Barrilla Mountains. They blend with the Davis Mountains and others that stretch south of the highway for more than a hundred miles to the Rio Grande; mountains covered with rich, rocky, volcanic soil that can’t be plowed; mountains good only for ranching—the bigger the better. Water in these mountains is scarce and deep except for an occasional spring. Ranchers there are totally dependent upon rainfall to produce the protein-rich gramma grasses for which the mountains are known.
Opposite the mountains and to the right of IH-10 west, the land is level and stretches miles north, checker-boarded by farms sitting atop good soil and an aquifer that supplies water for crop irrigation or sprinklers or cienegas.
Thunderheads bring rain to both sides of this stretch of IH-10. They form naturally in the west and northwestern sky and move east, raining on rancher and farmer alike. The ranchers watch these thunderheads and hope for rain. The farmers watch these thunderheads and hope it doesn’t.
The hardest drought ever to hit West Texas began in the 1950s. Southwest Weather Research, a company that seeded clouds, began to dissipate forming thunderheads to eliminate the possibility of hail north of IH-10.
Ranchers in the Davis Mountains asked the farmers to not do this. They needed the rain. Many were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and one more dry summer would push some over the edge. They were running out of water and grass and watching livestock die as springs and dirt tanks went dry.
The farmers said no. Lines were drawn. Thunderheads would form, the cloud seeding planes would arrive, and 20 minutes later the cloud would be dissipated. In desperation, some individual(s)—no one is quite sure who—climbed atop their windmill(s) in the afternoon when the thunderheads formed and seeded them with lead when the planes arrived.
They never downed any, but seeding pilots began discovering an occasional bullet hole during preflight checks. Protests were lodged with local gendarmes.
“You get a look at who it was ashootin’ at cha?”
“Hell no. I was too busy flying.”
“You sure someone was ashootin’ at cha?”
“Hell yes I’m sure. I got a bullet hole right here in my plane you can stick a finger in.”
“Well, see if you can get a good look at who it is that’s ashootin’ at cha, and where he was ashootin’ at cha from, and we’ll go talk to him. Otherwise, ain’t a whole lot we can do.”
Or words to that effect.
Pilot enthusiasm for seeding clouds above the Davis Mountains faded. More
W.R. McAfee Sr. (c) copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
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On April 7, 2001, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ignored state and federal law in the name of the ESA and stopped water to more than 200,000 acres and some 1,400 canal-irrigated family farms near Klamath Falls, Ore., plunging the community toward bankruptcy and devastating families.
Why? Because the bureau said two species of bottom-feeding suckerfish and a Coho salmon, in a reservoir the farmers depended upon, might be “affected” if water was released during the current drought.
The ESA had already been used to cut off water to a group of California farmers, causing their crops to dry up.
In Colorado, the forest service threatened another agricultural operation with a by-pass flow that would have resulted in an 80-percent loss of the dry-year water supply from a key reservoir, with a direct economic loss of between $5 and $17 million.
They also attempted to impose a “by-pass flow” that would have taken some 50 percent of the dry-year water supply provided from a Colorado municipal water storage facility.
In Idaho, a federal permittee was told he would have to bypass water to protect aquatic species or obtain an alternate source of water at a cost of $120,000.
In Arizona, where state law requires water rights be held by the person making the beneficial use of the water, the regional forester had demanded that water rights owned by grazing permittees be transferred to the feds – rights long established under state law for livestock purposes.
Federal agencies nationwide are using the ESA to try to override established water rights, state laws and the McCarran Act. More
Debbie Coffey (c)copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
____________________________________________ “8) Glaringly omitted in this DEIS was the “NEED” for this GDP. The “necessity” was not discribed. Perhaps this water, which will be taken from farmers and ranchers, is to be used for Las Vegas’ many golf courses, fountains and new development projects, and Henderson’s need for watering grass in city parks, etc. “____________________________
The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) wants the rights to pump billions of gallons of water annually from rural central Nevada and Utah toLas Vegas. This will be catastrophic for farmers and ranchers in central Nevada and Utah. SNWA would drain the groundwater below the existing vegetation of about 19,000 square miles (about the size of Vermont). More
The Department of Agriculture has proposed costly regulations to force ranchers, related business, and livestock agencies to tag and track animals that cross state lines.
USDA’s animal traceability rule is a solution in search of a problem. USDA says the rule is to protect animal health. But, the rules don’t identify any specific problems or diseases of concern.
These regulations will harm rural businesses, waste taxpayer dollars, and do little to deal with animal disease, food security, and food safety.
Send your comments today to make sure USDA’s final rule works for farmers and ranchers, and is paid for by the meatpackers that will benefit most.
At a time when farmers and ranchers face significant economic challenges, the last thing they need is more burdensome rules hindering their operations.
You can read more information about the proposed rule on WORC’s website.
“The farmers and ranchers know they won’t be able to truly tell, until the passage of time, if there IS interconnectivity between the valleys. If there is interconnectivity, it will be too late to stop what could be disastrous effects on their farms and ranches. “
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Part 3
Mining companies are buying up ranches left and right, just to get the water rights. Then all they have to do is get a permit to change the use from irrigation to mining. Once appropriated, the water rights are not available for any other development, even if the mine never opens, unless the mine is willing to sell the water rights.
At a Nevada Division of Water Resources hearing in December, 2010, an admirable group of Nevada farmers and ranchers, who’ve had water rights in their families for generations, protested the appropriation of water rights of Kobeh Valley Ranch, owned by mining company General Moly. General Moly wants to change the use of water rights on Kobeh Valley Ranch from irrigation to mining for their Mt.Hope mine. This is in addition to other water rights General Moly has already purchased from other farms surrounding the valley.
To give you some background, General Moly is 25% owned by Hanlong USA Mining, a subsidiary of Sichuan Hanlong Group, a Chinese “private enterprise.” Sichuan Hanlong Group recently received a $1.5 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank ofChina (China Eximbank) to support its investments in overseas mining opportunities, with $745 million towards General Moly. The Export-Import Bank of China is fully owned by the Chinese government and under the leadership of the State Council. It’s a “government policy bank.”
BlackRock Trust Company, which is associated with billionaire George Soros, seems to be the 2nd top owner of shares in General Moly. BlackRock Trust is also the 5th top owner of shares in agricultural company Monsanto. More
Food is a market that will always exist. Many people are turning away from industrial farmed food, seeking healthier choices and getting back to the basics.
Victory gardens in America produced up to 40% of all vegetables consumed during World War II. Over 20 million home gardens, apartment rooftop plants and community plots produced 9-10 million tons of produce; equal to the amount of commercial production at that time. The population during the war years increased from approximately 132 million people in 1940 to 140 million in 1945. Current US population is approaching 311 million people.
A family in Pasadena, California is making a living from selling produce grown in their yard to neighbors and restaurants. They grow 6,000 pounds of produce on 1/10th of an acre of cultivated land per year.
While organic food accounts for only 1%- 2% of all food sales worldwide, the organic market expands up to 20% per year. We believe that the organic market is small right now because of lack of education about health dangers of GE (genetically engineered) food and the lack of labeling of GE food. Most Americans don’t realize that about 75% of their diet is GE. As Americans awaken, the demand for pure non-GE foods is increasing. Organic farming is not only healthier but yields can increase, pollution decreases and water use can be decreased (click here for an example).
Some Americans barter or sell produce grown in their yards to neighbors, farmer’s markets, church communities, etc. You can earn extra money selling produce grown in your yard. Because there is a wealth of information on the Internet about how to grow produce in your yard, we will explore some other innovative ideas and suggestions for creating markets. There will always be a market for food.
Some Americans barter or sell produce grown in their yards to neighbors, farmer’s markets, church communities, etc. You can earn extra money selling produce grown in your yard. Because there is a wealth of information on the internet about how to grow produce in your yard, we will explore some other innovative ideas and suggestions for creating markets. There will always be a market for food. More
Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
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Apparently the plan is to defile the land, livestock and food supplies and then starve us into accepting some food-like product that has no nutritional value and that may also be a hazard to our health.
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A shortage of food is being intentionally staged around the world. Apparently, if we resist the theft and seizure of food production and supply by bio-pirates and facilitated by government puppets, we will be intentionally starved into submission. Threats of the food shortage are constantly launched into “lame stream media” as a warning to the rest of us that we had better comply or face the fate of those poorer nations where millions are suffering from famine or death from lack of food. More
This small group of our farmers and ranchers didn’t sell out for money offered. They’re standing strong. They use words like “community” and “our future” when talking about this issue. If you’d like to support them:
Attend a meeting on Dec. 9 and 10, 2010 (9 a.m. – 4 p.m.) at Nevada Dept. of Water Resources, 901 S. Stewart Street, room #2002, Carson City, NV 89701
“It’s ironic that this mining deal involves the words hope and liberty, because what this really represents is that we are losing both for our country. You can see it on the faces of the farmers and ranchers at this meeting.” More
Comment: As most of you know, S.510 the fake food safety bill which had nothing to do with food safety, passed the Senate this morning. This bill, which will go down in history as one of the greatest weaponless assaults on the States by the central government, is intended to knock the knees out from under what little is left of our economy.
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Section 404 of the bill, forces the subjugation of the citizens of the States to unlawful trade agreements, international organization demands, and will reduce operating standards across the board for bio-piracy corporations in order to maximize their profits and to end as much competition in those markets as possible. These unlawful agreements and the mandates from such odious organizations as the World trade Organization, Codex Alimentarius committees, and other foreign principals have unlawfully usurped US laws and sovereignty, forfeiting our right to self determination and governance.
The bill, which expands a notoriously dysfunctional and incompetent agency, the FDA, is also intended to abrogate the rights of the citizens. The multiple constitutional violations in the bill went by unnoticed by members of the Senate; probably because the majority of them never even read the bill and had no idea what was in it. These violations of rights also seemed to by pass the mental faculties of several high profile front groups and individuals.
Numerous and so-called “consumer organizations” along with so-called “food experts”, some of them nationally known, sent emails out claiming that a few thousand of their members had email or called in, in support of this attack on independent agriculture. Claiming misinformation and myth was abounding surrounding the bill, it was apparent they had either been bought off or were at some point allowed to be in the presence of some of the District of Criminals’ royalty; this audience obviously put them in a state of compliant awe. No one who actually read the bill could come away thinking or believing this bill had anything to do with making food safe; there was nothing in the bill that could accomplish this. More
Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved
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Comment:
Not one Senator stood on the floor and identified even one of the actual threats to our food supply coming from industrialized corporate agricultural operations and contaminated imports. And not one stood up and spoke one word in defense of our family and independent farmers and ranchers who have historically produced the most abundant and safest food in the world. More
“We have no commodity reserves, no grain reserves; no back up supplies to feed the US as this global food shortage grows and food prices skyrocket. Yet this bill, marketed as “food safety”, promoted by hyping food borne illnesses that resulted from the failure of FDA/USDA to operate effectively even on a minimal level, is set to export absolutely every food crop or livestock product out of the country for profit. ” More
Live Link: Morphcity
By Cassandra Anderson
July 28, 2010
Thirty states will be encroached upon by Obama’s Executive Order establishing the National Ocean Council for control over America’s oceans, coastlines and the Great Lakes. Under this new council, states’ coastal jurisdictions will be subject to the United Nations’ Law Of Sea Treaty (LOST) in this UN Agenda 21 program. America’a oceans and coastlines will be broken into 9 regions that include the North East, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, the Gulf Coast, West Coast, the Great Lakes, Alaska, the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii) and the Caribbean. More
Colorado farmers and ranchers are cheering a U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to back off plans for a controversial national animal identification system aimed at stemming livestock disease outbreaks.
Lee Swenson, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, which represents about 4,000 farmers and ranchers in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, said many of the union’s members feared the National Animal Identification System would add to government waste, while doing little to prevent disease and ensure food safety. More
“The question we should be asking is not “How do we make these investments work?” It is “What farming and food systems will feed people without making them sick, keep farmers on the farm instead of the city slums, and allow communities to prosper and thrive?”
For over a year a half now, we have been watching carefully how investors are trying to take control of farmland in Asia, Africa and Latin America as a response to the food and financial crises. In the beginning, during the early months of 2008, they talked about getting these lands for “food security”, their food security. Gulf State officials began flying around the globe looking for large areas of cultivable land that they could acquire to grow rice to feed their burgeoning populations without relying on international trade. So too were Koreans, Libyans, Egyptians and others. In most of these talks, high-level government representatives were directly involved, peddling new packages of political, economic and financial cooperation with agricultural land transactions smack in the centre. More
You might want to look into the anti-trust lawsuit filed in October of this year on behalf of dairy farmers in the northeast facing the same situations you are: and Wisconsin is mentioned in this suit. Its not all that needs to be done, but it is a starting point and one I am sure no one told you about no matter how many times you hit the “donate” button.
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In response to the alert listed below, sent to the Vice President of WICFA, a request was made to gather all the support we could for Wisconsin dairy farmers who have been relentlessly harassed by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) and their constantly changing regulations that have no other intent than to disrupt the dairy farming industry in order to force compliance to unconstitutional and unlawful regulations. Citizens Committee link.
The PPJ Alliance took this seriously and we answered this call for support. At the eleventh hour, this same organization sending this Action Alert out, and a national foundation along with a few locals…….pulled the rug out from under the dairy farmers and called off any public protest of DATCP and their police state policies.
I suspect there is far more to this than the dairy men are aware of. No media, no news coverage, no public attention to what is happening? And in fact, you were all told NOT to show up at a public meeting?
It seems to me there is a possibility that something was in the works you dairy folk aren’t supposed to know about…….and now that we here at the PPJ acted on your behalf……it appears some are suggesting we be the targeted scapegoat for what could be a process still in negotiations……just waiting for the right time to drop the gavel.
That’s just my opinion of course. Time will tell. For those who might believe they will use us to explain their failure to yield positive results…….we’re waiting.
Marti Oakley
UPDATE: It is being suggested by people who were not in attendance at the Madison meeting that those who were there raged, stomped their feet and acted irrationally.
Those who were in attendance reported that the meeting was civil and well received…….there was no bad behavior exhibited by anyone on either side. More
Evil is as strong a word as one can use. It is not a word I, or anyone else should use lightly. I have avoided it a long time in this situation — hoping against hope — that Steve Ingham, Cheryl Daniels, Tom Lietzke & Jackie Owens would find “better data” — reconsider their position — and what it means to Wisconsin — and find a way to work more sensibly.
They have not, they will not, and they have to go, period.
They understand what they do — and they, with purpose and malice misrepresent the Raw Milk situation — while it is in their professional responsibility to understand the situation and make sensible decisions — if it is for the benefit of the whole of Wisconsin, rather than whatever personal agenda they might have.
In this situation — and others like it — most especially as it relates to dairy farmers — it is about the application of unfettered — unobserved — power over good people in order to exterminate their will and desire to survive and grow. Why dairy farmers? Because they can. The bully bullies those they can — not those that can defend themselves.
Food Safety does not like me one tiny bit and has shown every indication that as I speak out and shine the light on them — they will find a way to silence me. More
We have some good news and some news that is not so good.
First of all, we have rebuilt the WICFA website. We have thrown away the frames construction of the previous version so that it will be much easier to view the site in its entirety using just about any screen resolution. I hope that you find the new version easier to read and navigate. If you have any content that would be helpful for others to be able to view, please forward it to cj@wicfa.org and we would be glad to review it and possibly post it to our website. We are looking for some help in putting information together about the raw milk persecutions that are starting to spread around the state. Can you imagine that, we love to call ourselves the dairy state and our state is now attacking farmers for doing just that, dairying? More
I have been asked many times in the last week to give my opinions on Issue 2. I am pleased to hear so many seem to want my opinion before making up their own mind. So, here goes:
I am solidly against Issue 2 and will vote NO on Issue 2!!
The reason is that Issue 2 was created by the confined animal producers to protect their right to raise animals in confinement. It will create a board to oversee animal care made up primarily of these confinement farmers.
Issue 2 is NOT about local food, it’s about Ohio farmers who want to retain their right to raise confined animals. The advertizing is Orwelling double-speak in the worst way I have ever seen.
As you know, raising animals this way is not healthy for you who eat the food, whether it is dairy, eggs, pork, or beef. It takes away the Omega 3, betacarotine and CLA and replaces it with fat and cholesterol. Please read “Why Grass-fed is Best” and “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” More
Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved without exception
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Having attended the trial of Pat and Melissa Monchilovich at Balsam Lake, I found it more like viewing a site being cleared by a bulldozer. Judge Molly GaleWyrick cleared the path for Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture to further its agenda of an alleged disease control program. The Media in their true slanted fashion picked away at the obstructions around the edges, avoiding the hard facts like stones.
I had arrived at Pat’s house before the trial to find a young family supported by the community via phone calls and a helpful sister in law waiting to baby sit. Pat was understandably nervous, as a way of life he had come to know for generations was being threatened.
During the proceedings the Judge indicated that Pat and Melissa should have made their arguments in an administrative hearing not in her courtroom. Interesting thought, as the original motion to dismiss voided by the Judge was based on the failure of DATCP to provide just such a hearing.
When Pat raised the point of not having a premises on title, the Judge turned to the assistant district attorney Moria Ludvigson for an explanation of what Pat was saying, “he must mean that there isn’t a 911 address where the cattle are kept” Moria replied. More
Copyright (C) 2009 Marti Oakley All rights resrved without exception
This is a public announcement of a premeditated assault on property owners in violation of the Wisconsin Constitution and individual property rights made by Donna Gibson on behalf of Wisconsin DATCP (Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection) in an interview with AgriView.
Why is no one pressing charges against her and other DATCP personnel and officials for making public threats and plans of harm to sovereign property owners in the state?
On October 21, 2009 in Wisconsin Circuit Court, Polk County, Judge Molly E. Galewyrick found Pat & Melissa Monchilovich guilty of failure to register premises. During that court proceeding and under oath, DATCP representatives admitted the program was not of benefit and probably never would be. Still, DATCP seems quite proud of their targeting of this family, and their subsequent threats to target others in Wisconsin.
In my opinion, this is nothing less than a threat of intended harm and the use of coercion and duress to force compliance to what is nothing more than an assault on private property rights perpetrated by state officials in violation of their offices and in violation of the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin. It would appear that state officials launching these attacks on property owners are not aware that Wisconsin has such a document or that they are bound to work within its scope and limitations. More
Senator Kohl of Wisconsin who had a direct hand in setting up the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the USDA to force the Wisconsin farmers and ranchers into the NAIS/Premises ID and who also, along with Rep. Obey facilitated the cooperative funding agreement [bribery payment] cementing that contract with the USDA, just announced that $1,550,000 has been allotted to WLIC. This was the consortium set up after NAIS/Premises ID was shoved through the Wisconsin legislature and promoted as a strictly “voluntary” program.
Recent developments lauded by many in agricultural circles as the “end of NAIS’ as a result of funding being withheld or denied on the federal level, apparently weren’t aware that the USDA through its for-profit activities as a sub-corporation of the federal corporate government, has nearly limitless sources of funds that can be used for any thing they deem appropriate. With the agricultural industrial complex willing to supply any and all funds necessary to overthrow traditional farming and ranching in favor of industrialized operations, USDA has no shortage of funds that can be paid to bankrupted states in desperate needs of funds to continue operating. So what if traditional farmers are driven off their lands and forced to forfeit everything they have worked for so long as corporations can make a profit and states can pad their coffers with bribe money.
Issue 2 is an inappropriate use of the Ohio constitution, and would set a dangerous precedent by creating a permanent place for special interests in the constitution.
On November 3, Vote NO!
NOto corporate and special interest takeover of our Ohio constitution
NOto unchecked power and new layers of unaccountable bureaucracy over our livestock farmers
NOto a new board acting as judge, jury and executioner of all animal agriculture policies in Ohio
NOto expanded state government
NO to an appointed board of political cronies who could radically shift livestock standards in any direction
NOto giveaways for factory farms in the Ohio constitution
Don’t allow special interests to hijack the state constitution: Vote NO on ISSUE 2
Quote of the Day: “There are two kinds of people, those who want to be left alone and those who won’t leave them alone.” Doreen Hannes
Subject: Twitter, Facebook, and the fate of NAIS
Washington, DC is relentless in its pursuit of central control. Some people think the opposition to DC should be centralized and coordinated as well. They’d like to fight fire with fire.
But the most effective way to Downsize DC is to inspire more and more people to just say no. It can work. It has worked.
Consider the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). It was envisioned as early as the 1990’s, and plans were put in place in the years 2002-2005. And yet . . . More
This government seems desperate to destroy the small American farmer and organic farmers. This is clearly a bill written with the help of Big Agra, ie, Monsanto. HR 2749 came out of the worst of the “food safety” legislative bills.
This bill would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to quarantine a geographic area. Including “prohibiting or restricting movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” [This means “that has been used to transport or hold such food” would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home or any pickup someone has eaten take-out in, so this means All transportation can be shut down under this]. More
The most expensive meats are purchased at huge local grocery stores. This habit of purchasing is attractive and convenient. Customer enhancements include small sizes, flashy promotions, special light effects and bright colorful packaging. Pricey meats are promoted in “bite size” packages. As food gets higher, portions get smaller.
Consumers often purchase more than once a week causing the dollars to appear less per trip, but actually, the opposite happens when considering long term family food costs.
Chinese/Brazil burgers?
Store displays often provide products from dozens of countries, all with less sanitary production than the USA. Even with Country of Origin laws it is still difficult to identify the source. Some labels say, “Product of Mexico, Canada and USA.” A ground beef product could mix lean frozen trim from Australia, 40% fat could be added from Canadian feed lot steers and include a pinch of USA product. That is how it can, and does work.
All Natural safe foods for important families.
Longhorns Head to Tail Store (LHT) is simple and economical in an otherwise confusing global food system. All LHT meat products are raised and grown naturally in Ohio. No hormones, steroids, growth implants or unnecessary antibiotics are used. Cattle are free range grazed, drink spring water and eat abundant native Appalachian grasses. Simple, old fashioned, healthy and good.
Get Lean, not Fat.
Halves of beef are available cut and wrapped in single portions. The vacu-wrap, air tight, fast frozen process seals flavor and prevents freezer aging. Each half of beef comes in 11″ X 12″ X 21″ boxes. (Normally 4 boxes per half) A half beef is 6 to 7.5 cubic feet. This fits easily into a 6.8 cubic foot freezer sold by most appliance stores for $155 to $180. The cost for freezer electricity is $30 + – per year. www.head2tail.com
Five family processing plants cut and wrap LHT products. The plant owners work consistently on site. These are not huge factories with illegals doing the work. All are Ohio State or USDA inspected. Although some plants are a good distance from Barnesville, the travel is worth the personal quality control.
Easy Transport of frozen product.
All product is available at the LHT Store at 35000 Muskrat, Barnesville, Ohio. Halves of beef may be transported for up to 20 hours without thaw as a result of special packing. It is easy to transport frozen product. LHT delivery routes include areas of Cleveland, Columbus, St. Louis, Colorado Springs, Little Rock, Morgantown, Hagerstown, Tulsa, and Ft. Worth. Request details. www.head2tail.com
Buying in volume saves.
Purchasing in volume can save the average family of 5 up to $800 per year. LHT halves are priced at $2.75 per lb. hanging weight. A half beef weighs from 290 to 390 lbs. Quarters are also available for those with less storage space. The LHT Certified Texas Longhorn Beef can be purchased from a pound to hundreds of pounds. Volume discounts are available on 50 lbs. or more.
The Highest Quality, Lean & healthy.
Lean grind is a full steer product including all steaks, roasts, yet removing fat trim. It is not generic scrap trimmings from over fattened feed lot steers. LHT grind averages 92% lean. There is no comparison in taste and health values for the money. The real proof is taste and cooking qualities. Call 740 758 5050 to reserve a half for your family. Special custom cutting can be ordered in advance. www.head2tail.com
Provided by Longhorns Head to Tail Store, 35000 Muskrat, Barnesville, Ohio
Call for an appointment at your convenience to pick up Certified Texas Longhorn Beef products. 740 758 5050 Ask for “Teu.”
NEXT SHOW – (FRIDAY) at 1:00PM EST or, 12:00PM CST
Call in bumber: 646-200-0326
Ms. Marti Oakley, a Family Farm activist who will be talking about the federal government, and some willing state governments, that are trying to legislate independent and family farmers and ranchers out of business. These government entities are trying to push the small farmers and ranchers off their land in favor of industrialized corporate operations and international harmonization standards. Marti Oakley has some ideas to turn this around.
You are encouraged to call in to speak to Marti Oakley during the show.
If you have specific questions, on this or any other subject, please call the show while it is on the air (646-200-0326) and or email your questions or opinions to me and I will read them on the air.
Click on the link below for more information about the show and or to listen to the show.
If you, or a member of your organization, would like to be on the show, or you would like us to dedicate a show to a specific topic of interest, please email me at: john@FreedomLibertySovereignty.com .
Posted August 26, 2009 7:50 pm CST (C) Marti Oakley
Carl Lanore is the host of Superhuman Radio, a broadcast devoted to living healthy, eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Carl is an advocate of regular excersize, organic and natural foods, and interestingly, body building.
Carl has a series of broadcasts devoted to these issues; realizing the threat that is coming our way via various pieces of legislation designed to replace natural and healthy foods with gmo’s, chemicals and additives and toxic pharmaceuticals, not fit for human consumption, and what affect these unnatural products are having on society as a whole and to our health.
A big thank you to Carl Lanore for giving me the time to discuss NAIS, Premesis ID, and the actual inclusion of farms in HR 2749. Please take time to listen to this and other relevant interviews easily accessible on Superhuman Radio.
Marti Oakley on Superhuman radio with Host: Carl Lanore
This is such a crock even I can’t believe it. This is the actual public statement by USDA claiming they heard substantial support for NAIS/Premises ID. What were these people smoking?
Agriculture leaders, as well as farmers and ranchers, are watching the outcome of the many congressional bills that are being discussed on Capitol Hill. They question whether farmers and ranchers will survive if additional permits and taxation are implemented. Two of the issues currently being discussed are the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) that is included in House Resolution (HR) 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, and the probable taxation of cattle by means of changes in the Clean Air Act. READ MORE…
Over 1000 livestock producer’s businesses die each month in the USA. Many of these family farms and ranches have survived the great depression and weathered the droughts and blizzards. Today a different storm of a political nature is planning to deal the death blows. More
HR 2749, the “Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009” is the latest in a series of misguided “food safety” legislation that utilizes a failed “one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme”. The legislation is completely absent effective regulation for US food imports and corporate agribusiness behemoths such as Monsanto, ADM, Con Agra and Cargill (primary causes of food safety failures). HR 2749 clearly favors the increased greed of the corporate industrial food complex while shifting the cost to small, local farmers, local food producers. It must be stopped at once.
There’s more.
According to Farm to Consumer.org, a non-profit organization protecting the constitutional rights of small family farms and consumers, “this bill would be an “absolute disaster for small farms and artisan food production”.
HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. Power to Quarantine a Geographic Area; the FDA can also Halt All Movement of All Food in a geographic area.
Random Warrantless Searches of Business Records
Establishing a Tracing System for Food
Severe Criminal and Civil Penalties.
Annual Registration Fee of $500
Regulation of How Crops Are Raised and Harvested More
Speech: A Gathering for Freedom and Liberty
06-17-2009 7:31 pm – Wallace
Text of Speech by John Wallace – delivered at the Albany Tea Party’s “March on Albany” Rally, at the State Capitol in Albany, New York on June 16, 2009
I want to thank the members of the Albany Tea Party for giving me the opportunity to say a few words at this great gathering for Freedom and Liberty. Our country’s Founders told us that Governments get their just powers from the consent of the governed and whenever the government becomes destructive of these ends, it is not only the people’s Right, but it is their Sacred Duty to change the government, and that includes the dysfunctional New York State Government.
My fellow citizens, although some foreign countries and terrorists groups do indeed pose serious threats to our country and our state, in 2009 the greatest threats to our freedoms and liberties are not coming from them, but rather, they are coming from within our own country; from our federal government and from our New York State government, because they no longer represent us. That is why we have come here today from all parts of the state, from all walks of life and from all political parties and views: TO RECLAIM OUR FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES.
The America people, including those of us who live here in New York State, are losing our freedoms and liberties because of corrupt politicians, political correctness, a lack of basic common sense by our leaders, as well as the negative influence of special interest groups who are pushing their questionable agendas upon New Yorkers and the rest of the American people from a hundred different directions at once.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln, described our nation as “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I’m afraid that is no longer true. In 2009, we now have federal government and a New York State government of the special interest groups, by the special interests groups, and for the special interest groups.
To those New York State and federal elected officials who may be listening out there today, “We The People” have some demands to present to you today:
We demand FREEDOM FROM CORRUPT ELECTED OFFICIALS who accept millions of dollars in bribes from Special Interest groups every year. More
My guest this week is Ms. Marti Oakley, a Family Farm activist who will be talking about the federal government’s attack on the American small farmer and rancher under the guise of food safety. She will also be discussing the status of the National Animal Identification System. You are encouraged to call in to speak to Marti Oakley during the show. If you have specific questions, on this or any other subject, please call the show whilce it is on the air (646-200-0326).
The agriculture regulators who work so hard to prevent us from obtaining raw milk, or try insanely to register every chicken, goat, and horse in the country, like to think they hold the power to make us follow whatever crazy rules they come up with.
To a certain extent they can, but underneath their bravado, the regulators are well aware of an important truism: the public must be in general agreement for their regulations to work. Or, put another way, if those being regulated disapprove, they will find all kinds of ways around onerous regulations.
The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a case in point. The fact that the all-powerful U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the help of its lap dog state ag friends pushing as hard as they can, has been able to only gain one-third farmer compliance after five years of intensive effort on NAIS is testimony to the farm community’s resistance.
The reason USDA is suddenly pushing so hard on such things as “listening sessions” isn’t that the agency wants to gain feedback from farmers–it knows full well how much most hate NAIS–but rather the agency hopes to fool farmers into thinking they have a say. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund reported in a press release that at the first such listening session in Harrisburg, PA, Friday, 27 of 36 individuals who testified spoke against NAIS. I’m not going out on much of a limb to predict this effort will fail as fully as previous such efforts.
The real message here is that USDA is very worried that NAIS could collapse of its own unnecessary weight, and the active refusal of farmers to participate.
Implicit in comments from Sylvia Gibson and Hugh Betcha on my previous post, individuals are increasingly looking for ways around, between, or outside the regulatory meddling. They want to establish their farms and raise their herds and quietly market their raw milk or cheese or grass-fed beef outside the view of nosy and interfering regulators.
Last week, Lykke wondered if “farmers starting-up a raw milk business have adequate information from the various sources (government, university extension, farm advisors, advocacy groups). I hunt around the web and find so little about the process, best approaches (including how to navigate through the regulations, private lab tests, government testing programs, etc.).”
The obvious answer is that the establishment organizations don’t want farmers to have such information, since raw dairy production may offer them a way to raise themselves by their bootstraps, and Big Ag wouldn’t want that. But even if the USDA and state ag agencies decided they really wanted to economically help their constituencies, I venture it would take a lot of outreach to convince farmers to participate. Given the current regulation-happy approach, farmers are doing everything they can to stay off the radar screen, for fear of being registered, or even noticed.
***
Speaking of regulators, thanks to Amanda Rose for her offer last week to host a book reading/slumber party at her place in California in early October in honor of my upcoming book about raw milk. And to Lykke and Concerned Person for offering support.
We should have some early copies of the book available. I’d like to second Amanda’s encouragement to the regulator types to partake. Despite all my tough talk, I don’t bite. And the book portrays some as real people with real concerns. Besides I can’t wait to see regulators in pajamas.
Below is a letter from a Wisconsin farmer who has devoted himself to fighting back against government seizure of land, livestock and food production. This letter was in reponse to the fake food safety bills intended to end family and independent farming and ranching. Marti
You know, as I have told you before, the Myths piece started with Delauro’s office and went out to the Organic groups, who had a sit down with Rosa’s staff to talk to amendments.
Now, I haven’t heard anything come out of that yet, but in light of this fact we need to remember something. This country hasn’t been able to feed itself for eight years. Organic is about 5% of total production, and that ain’t enough to get this country by on. They are only looking to further their own interest, just like the rest of the corporate entities.
In one generation this nation has gone from the breadbasket of the world to third world status by our inability to feed ourselves.
My generation, my people have been farmers for as long as any can remember, my grandfather ,of Sioux decent, was born in a sod house on the Ogallala river in Nebraska, to those who carved the railroad across northern Wisconsin. We were all farmers.This thing changed when the government and the corporate interest looked to consolidate production back in the last depression.
My father called last week to wish me a happy anniversary, then he told how things were when he was a boy in the last depression. He commented how things today are a lot like then, only worse. Then folks could make their own way, feed themselves. Today that knowledge is gone, and with every passing year more of my kind no longer walk this earth.
Science contrived by the government/corporate interest have brought us to where we are now, and that don’t speak hope to the future.
There is nothing in these bills to improve food safety, the authority to regulate imports and processors is already in place, the powers that be could have dealt with these problems long ago and chose not to.
There is one appreciable difference; the regulation of farming like we are criminals, bent on contaminating everything with cow manure to wild bird droppings. Having our crops condemned for the mere passing of a deer, or coyote.
Because of the “science based ” leafy greens order, written by McDonald’s, Disney and Walmart, growers had spinach and lettuce crops condemned in the Salinas Valley, and lost thousands of dollars. Now the USDA wants to implement the order nationwide. Well,you consumers will be the ones paying now, with sales of lettuce and spinach seed down over 20% there will be less available.
This scenario should be a lesson to all who think government regulation and inspection of farms will lead to anything other than less production and more dependence on foreign imports. This is what government and big industry wants.
Generations of my forefathers are buried here on the land they settled, fought for, and died for. Never has an Easter passed that the memory of burying my uncle who died in Viet Nam, there upon that lonely windswept hill outside Litchfield, Nebraska.
We farmers are too few to win this fight alone, but I will not dishonor those who have gone before, my freedom was bought with their blood. For we are not too few to die, and such is our resolve.
By: Marti Oakley 
To: Wisconsin Dairy Farmers
__________________________________________________ 
Hello WICFA Friends and Members: 
If you are not from Ohio you can ignore this.
By: Paul Griepentrog
Having attended the trial of Pat and Melissa Monchilovich at Balsam Lake, I found it more like viewing a site being cleared by a bulldozer. Judge Molly GaleWyrick cleared the path for Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture to further its agenda of an alleged disease control program. The Media in their true slanted fashion picked away at the obstructions around the edges, avoiding the hard facts like stones.
Copyright (C) 2009 Marti Oakley All rights resrved without exception
This is a public announcement of a premeditated assault on property owners in violation of the Wisconsin Constitution and individual property rights made by Donna Gibson on behalf of Wisconsin DATCP (Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection) in an interview with 
Carl Lanore is the host of Superhuman Radio, a broadcast devoted to living healthy, eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Carl is an advocate of regular excersize, organic and natural foods, and interestingly, body building. 
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HR 2749, the “Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009
