NAIS Has Its First Official Resister--Michigan Responds with a Farm Quarantine and Threat of Jail
It’s been only a few hours since the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) made its voluntary-to-required debut in Michigan, and already a farmer is challenging its underpinnings. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) quickly responded by quarantining his farm.
Here is what happened: Greg Niewendorp, owner of a 160-acre farm in East Jordan in the northern end of the lower peninsula, made good on his pledge, stated in my “Farmers Say No to Animal Tags” BusinessWeek.com article in December, to resist all MDA orders related to NAIS. So when MDA reps came around a few weeks back to test his 19 cows for bovine tuberculosis, he refused to allow the testing.
Since MDA has justified its requirement that all cattle wear radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to comply with NAIS on the basis of using the national program to fully eradicate bovine TB, Niewendorp decided that the time had come to make his stand. “Michigan is being used as a model to implement NAIS,” he told me.
“I have been under a whole-herd (TB) test program for six years,” he said. “This year I refused it.”
Why this year? "I made a decision I was going to refuse to comply, and bring this to a focal point and show that there are those of us who are not going to go along with" the government's agenda. The quarantine doesn’t have a practical effect on Niewendorp’s farm business, since he doesn’t trade cattle and thus doesn’t have animals leaving and arriving. He breeds his own cattle, and sells meat directly to consumers.
But the quarantine could have a huge legal impact on him, since non-compliance with the bovine TB test can lead to a felony charge, with conviction resulting in a jail sentence of up to five years and a fine up to $50,000.
Niewendorp responded to the MDA’s action with a five-page letter in which he demands that the MDA provide evidence that bovine TB is contagious, and that his particular farm is at risk.
He also warns MDA “that your department is not to enter onto my farm without a properly executed search warrant since any entry by your department would be to obtain criminal evidence which mandates a search warrant.”
He expresses concern that his cattle could be placed at risk by the bovine TB test for actually contracting the disease. “I require clear scientific evidence showing that there is no risk to any of my cattle of such experimental injections and an agreement by the state to indemnify and hold me harmless from any unseen or unintended consequences arising from such injection…”
Niewendorp is clearly a man of his word. One question: Will other farmers take a similar stand?
The Complete Patient
in Government policy
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Reader Comments (101)
And kudos to David Gumpert for continuing to follow important stories like this.
NAIS needs more public attention and the efforts of Greg and David are truly appreciated.
Yeah, I have some feelings about it.
Enough is enough!
Keep on fighting guys, the battle is worth the blood!
1938---NAZI Germany makes law that a certain segment of society (the Jews) must register their property with the govt. It was a massive data base that worked! The Gestapo planned their raids on the families that had the best stuff. We all know the rest of the story followed with the Holocaust.
Present day America--- Currently the only segment of society required to register their premises and report their movements to the govt. are convicted sex offenders/ child molesters. Cost of technology to track them is paid for by our tax dollars.
2009- Another segment of society fall into the same category as the two mentioned above. Those who own even one chicken, pet potbelly pig in suburbia, pony or other livestock will be required to register their premises and report their movements with their animals to the govt. Births and deaths included. There will be massive fines for reporting later than 24 hrs. ($1000/day in Texas) Cost of technology for this program to be paid by animal owners.
If animal disease is suspected, all in 6 mile radius could lose their animals to depopulation (killing). At least the sex offenders get to keep their pets!
Is that enough history to prove that NAIS is a bad idea? This short history lesson does not even address the Constitutional and religious freedoms that will be trampled on if NAIS is not stopped, nor the negative economic impact it will have.
Check out nonais.org for more info about NAIS and how it will affect even those who do not own livestock but eat meat.
this fella has decided to challenge the SS,I wish him success and pray that when the time comes I too will be ready to lock and load.
I wanna put my money where his mouth is, so my check of support is in the mail to you, directly, Greg.
Keep fighting!
1st: A terrorist organization (home grown or otherwise) gets their hands a some bio poison or make a bio-hazard poison (bacteria, or viral either can be done with a simple high school science course) spray this into the field, a field’s water supply or on your farm animals, without your knowledge, you harvest these animals or crops without know they are poisoned and then the harvested product gets into the food supply for human’s. People get sick some die, yet there is no way to know where to food was poison at for sure. Was it at your farm, on the truck on the way to the processing plant, did the migrant works pass this poison on the harvest as it was processing. You think about that
2nd Some people get sick a few die, it is discovered they all ate the same can of beans from the same company, that company is searched and everything turns out that it is all right, afterward it is discovered that the tainted beans came from your farm. This company is now being sued for Billions of Dollars, however you are now named in the lawsuit because you supplied the tainted beans, guess what, you lose again. The Lawyers will win they get lots of money, those packers and food processors may go out of business but only the workers will suffer because they lose their jobs, the execs are all protected by the Incorporation law’s, you lose your farm, and your respect in your town. Think about that.
Now if a traceback system could help in the following ways:
1) to quickly locate the source of the containment (in hours not days or weeks)
2) to clear those are not responsible (think about all those spinach farmers whose crops were ok, but still lost their crop because of 1 farms poor management)
3) to track food back to the source, was it harvest as promised, did the clam come from a clean bed, the fish from a good area, is the orange that says Florida grown come from Florida or from Brazil
4) Are you responsible for my child’s sickness or am I
5) Did you taint the food or did some one else
Sorry but if it means that a traceback system will insure that the source of food condemnation can be found faster and save lives, prevent good products from being remove from the food supply while targeting only the bad products I am all for it. I understand you not trusting the government but perhaps if a private company was do the date-storage and you the farmers were able to use it, and we the consumers can then know our food is safe for our children I am all for it.
David
It's time that the real criminals, those politicians and judges, from the presedent on down, who've perjured themselves by swearing to uphold the Constitution, and then working to pass and support unconstitutional progams, or make decisions that ignore the Bill of Rights, etc., are tried, or at least removed from office, for their treasonous crimes.
Getting back on-topic, hopefully others will follow the brave lead of Mr. Niewendorp in Michigan and resist as well. Let's all contact the Governor of Michigan to voice objections to what's going on, letting her know, in no uncertain terms, that people are angry.
Alas, there are still people saying, in essence, that we're worrying about a problem that doesn't exist yet, or who are determined to keep trying to influence others on on-line message boards, such as http://www.equinestudies.org/cgi-bin/esi_bbs
/netboardr.cgi?fid=102&cid=101&tid=184, that the NAIS is necessary, and not understanding the constitutional significance of this matter.
David
David
Surely a smart guy like you realizes that there is no way of completely assuring that there will never be a food related death or injury, there are just too many variables from the time the food is planted or birthed until the time it ends up in the consumer’s stomach. Even the overall health of the consumer is a factor. As well, I would guess that someone of your intellect would realize that VAST MAJORITY of food related illness and deaths are the result of factory farmed foods, not foods from small local farmers, like Mr. Niewendorp’s.
Most importantly, I would guess that anyone with neurons firing at the speed yours do would realize that the MDA and UDSA and other government agencies are probably the least likely sources of REAL protection for either the “dumb hick” or “city know-it-all” such as yourself.
You seem to believe that their mandated NAIS, which Mr. Niewendorp is resisting will help your family stay safe from terrorist attacks while also protecting the poor, helpless bean farmers. I wish you could explain how NAIS will do that… especially since people only get sick after meat is processed and once it has been processed it is no longer tagged with this magic tag. And for the record, farmer Niewendorp only sells his beef directly to customers, so your family would not be in any danger should his beef be contaminated. Oh, but perhaps in your judgment you failed to read that part.
As for your implication that killing 166 people a year and making another 73,000 ill landing you in jail, well perhaps it would land you in jail UNLESS you were the United States Food and Drug Administration. According to peer-reviewed studies published the most well respected, ENTIRELY MAINSTREAM, medical journal in the world, FDA-approved prescription drugs injure 2.2 million and kill approximately 100,000 Americans each year. More realistic estimates put the number of deaths at over 200,000 people annually in the United States alone (see Death By Medicine for detailed statistics). A single drug, Vioxx, according to senior FDA drug safety researcher Dr. David Graham, appears responsible for the deaths of over 60,000 Americans.
FDA-approved prescription drugs have killed millions Americans.
The FDA says the benefits outweigh the consequences. I wonder what a poll of the dead victims families would yield. But that is a story for another day. What I want to point out is that the FDA works hard to keep me from accessing raw milk, even though I am convinced beyond a shadow or a doubt that the very minimal risk of getting sick from it is outweighed by the benefits. This does not matter to the FDA any more than the FACT that outbreaks of disease related raw milk are virtually non existent in comparison to pasteurized milk.
My point here is simple. If you want to protect your family, by all means do so. If you want to do that by following the opinions of government bureaucracies that can be heavily influenced by stakeholders far more intrigued by your pocket book than your health, have at it. Just don’t get in the way of letting me, and Mr. Niewendorp, and his loyal consumers protect our families in the way that makes sense to us.
Michigan does not need a mandatory NAIS for YOUR food sources to be safe. You can always choose NAIS participating farmers. All we are fighting for is the same right of choice.
David
Perhaps some building or farming center or somesuch, or a charitable foundation for suporting people farmers who've run into problems with mindless government bureaucracy and laws, should be named after Gred Niewendorp when all of the dust settles, since he was brave and honorable enough to do what he's doing. Anyway, we need to give Mr. Niewendorp our support, particularly if he runs into any legal problems.