Why Zeke Can't Take Shorty To The Fair
By Henry Lamb
September 17, 2007
Page 2 of 2
Zeke is not going to the North Carolina state fair. There is no law in North Carolina, nor is there a federal law that requires North Carolina farmers and ranchers to register in the USDA's National Animal Identification System, yet the state fair officials are imposing their own requirement.
Colorado state fair officials imposed a similar restriction - without the benefit of law. Zeke, and hundreds, if not thousands of other children, are being used as leverage to coerce farm and ranch owners to sign up in the NAIS - which the USDA insists is a "voluntary" program. Of course, the USDA hands out grants to organizations such as the FFA, and state departments of agriculture to use "creative" measures to expand the "voluntary" registration.
Zeke thinks the man who made this rule should be horsewhipped. Jasper won't go quite that far, but he thinks the man should be removed from his job for abusing his authority, and penalizing kids who have worked all year to compete at the state level.
The National Animal Identification System is sold to the public as a disease control system. It is not. It offers nothing to prevent disease, nor to control disease any better than the various systems that are now in place.
The NAIS was created to enrich the corporations that make and maintain the electronic tags and computer reading devices, and the major meat exporters who cannot export to rich markets unless the U.S. conforms to international regulations that require an electronic trace-back system.
These major marketing forces don't seem to care that the electronic tagging devices have been shown to cause cancer in certain animals. They do not care about the extra cost and effort that is required of every owner of even one livestock animal. And they don't give a whit about Zeke, and his bitter disappointment when he could not take Shorty to the state fair.
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Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), and chairman of Sovereignty International .
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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