VoteKansas.org

Now is the time to contact your Congressional critters and ask them to zero fund the USDA’s latest Naistyness.

The battle continues:

A coalition led by farmers and ranchers is using a last-minute strategy to stop USDA’s new Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) program. The groups involved are using economic grounds - especially the added costs that animal identification will impose on rural America.

In a 9-page letter to the Executive Office of Management and Budget, a unit of the White House, the sixteen organizations in the coalition say animal traceability could cost the U.S. cattle industry more than $1 billion a year.
-FoodSafetyNews

Once again government wants to put the blame and financial burden on the small farmers with no compensations or benefit while not solving any actual problem. NAIS/ADT is really about export markets and profits for big producers. If they want a system of tracking then they should create their own private voluntary system, not one funded by tax payers. We small farmers don’t need NAIS/ADT. We know where are animals are and can trace them from breeding to the customer’s plate without any government “help.”

Do go read the article and contact your reps. The article is open to comments, leave your thoughts.

Use the comments of this post during this month if you have things you would like to bring to people’s attention and are not sure where else to post them. I’ll make a new Bulletin Board each month for free posting.

Have at it, communicate and keep up the good fight!

Cheers,

-WalterJ

I just got a note that NoNAISWA got wiped out by hackers. They’re working on rebuilding the site. If anyone has content please help.

This memo just in:

[DGIF Virginia] “Want[s] to discourage trafficking in pigs to reduce incentive to liberate pig”
-DGIF Virginia Document

Whoa!

Virginia’s Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is seeking to ban ‘trafficking’ and thus ownership of pigs. Now this isn’t aimed at the HUGE mega monster factory farms. This will be aimed at banning small farms and individuals from owning, breeding, selling, buying and raising pigs.

By doing this Virginia’s government will destroy people’s ability to raise their own food or to have small farms.

Michigan was just the beginning…

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is attacking small farmers. Now they’re lying claiming they’re not doing what they are doing. This is patently false. Watch out how they use tricky wording… Among other things they claim that the ‘feral pigs’ are a different species than domesticated pigs.

Modern definition of species is if they can breed together and produce viable offspring then they are the same species. What you’re talking about is different breeds, not different species.

See:

“In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.”
Wiki

This is the generally accepted scientific definition.

Wolves, coyotes and dogs are now recognized as all being the same species. They interbreed very nicely and produce viable offspring despite there being Pit bulls vs Chihuahuas. Those are merely breed differences.

Same with humans. We’re all the same species, even Neanderthals. We can interbreed and produce viable offspring.

There are sub-species, however those are the same species.

The DNR is being unscientific in that they are defining the animals based on phenotypic characteristics and not species characteristics. The DNR is a sham front for Big Ag that is trying to wipe out small producers. They tried this with NAIS. The “feral pig” issue is just one more underhanded attempt to dominate the market. They’re running scared to be trampling on the Constitution like this. Don’t back down.

Fight it, while you still can.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is attacking small farmers. Now they’re lying claiming they’re not doing what they are doing. This is patently false. Watch out how they use tricky wording… Among other things they claim that the ‘feral pigs’ are a different species than domesticated pigs.

Modern definition of species is if they can breed together and produce viable offspring then they are the same species. What you’re talking about is different breeds, not different species.

See:

“In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.”
Wiki

This is the generally accepted scientific definition.

Wolves, coyotes and dogs are now recognized as all being the same species. They interbreed very nicely and produce viable offspring despite there being Pit bulls vs Chihuahuas. Those are merely breed differences.

Same with humans. We’re all the same species, even Neanderthals. We can interbreed and produce viable offspring.

There are sub-species, however those are the same species.

The DNR is being unscientific in that they are defining the animals based on phenotypic characteristics and not species characteristics. The DNR is a sham front for Big Ag that is trying to wipe out small producers. They tried this with NAIS. The “feral pig” issue is just one more underhanded attempt to dominate the market. They’re running scared to be trampling on the Constitution like this. Don’t back down.

Fight it, while you still can.

Big Ag liked to hype in Europe how their Genetically Modified Orgasms(sic) were better. Yet they threaten to sue people in the USA for labeling products as containing GMOs. We’ve fought this battle before in Vermont, and won, with the rBST which Monstersanto quietly divested itself of once the Big Corps like Walmart saw the writing on the wall and refused to carry any more due to consumer uproar.

There is a new push to mandate the labeling of GMO products. Monstersanto and their ilk are fighting against such labeling. You can make a difference by letting the government, your representatives, state and local know how you fee.

Check out this article in the recent NYTimes.

Not all people as as rude but it seems I observe a remarkably high percentage of vegetarians and vegans who become evangelical about their dietary choice treating it like religion. Please go see the example here and since you’re a good omnivore, speak up. Keep it very rational, direct and precise. But make a presence because right now the radical, evangelical dietary left wing is running rampant. While you’re at it, invite your normal diet friends to help out too. If we don’t speak up this tiny minority of carrot crunchers are going to legislate what you can eat.

From snezzy in comments:

Darrol over at NAISstinks.org is reporting that the new USDA NAIS rule was presented to the OBAMA for sign off about a month ago. Does anyone know the status?

(April 27th, 2012) USDA submitted it Animal Disease Traceability Rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review.

That just makes me SICK!

We are now in our last week of our Kickstarting the Butcher Shop at Sugar Mountain Farm. We made our initial goal of $25,000 for the butcher shop equipment thanks to all of you!

We made our second goal of an additional $5,000 for pouring the abattoir tower. Thank you, again!!

Some people have asked how high can we go? The sky’s the limit. There are more goals ahead such as pouring the floors of the abattoir, the roof of the abattoir, etc. Help spread the word to as many people as possible in this last week so as to raise additional funds for the higher levels where all backers can get additional rewards added on to rewards packages such as more sausage, hot dogs, bacon and other Goodies.

Win: T-shirts, mugs, DVDs, books plus more meat and other goodies on rewards tiers.

Goal: Get the word out in this last week. Let’s blast past a new level to help fund the next step: construction of the abattoir to bring slaughter on-farm!

The Message: Kickstart the butcher shop at Sugar Mountain Farm for pastured pigs http://smf.me Pls RT

Feel free to add to that but use at least those words and short link to get things spreading further.

Actions:

1. Tweet the message to followers
   Bonus Credit: Follow @SugarMtnFarm
   https://twitter.com/SugarMtnFarm
2. FaceBook write the message on your wall
   Bonus Credit: Like this post, Friend & Event “Finals Week”
   http://facebook.com/SugarMtnFarm
3. Blog the message above with some intro discussion.

Bonus Credit: link to a picture from the project so it shows on your blog - pictures attract attention and make people interested in things.

4. Discuss our project and mention the message in discussion lists - don’t spam though.

Leave a comment on Update #41 letting me know what you did.
e.g., 1,2,3,4.

Our project ends May 15th. If we can break through to the $35,000 level then backers can get extra meat and goodies added to their rewards as show in in the chart on Update #40.

On May 16th when our project is done, I’ll pick seven random winners from the commenters on Update #41: one for each day of this final week, to receive their choice of a T-shirt, mug, Sugar Mountain Farm Book, Farm Tour DVD, a small ivory pig tusk or extra meat in their meat package!

Daily Spark: Resolve is an anagram of Lovers.

Use the comments of this post during this month if you have things you would like to bring to people’s attention and are not sure where else to post them. I’ll make a new Bulletin Board each month for free posting.

Have at it, communicate and keep up the good fight!

Cheers,

-WalterJ

This week we’ve gotten a bunch of publicity which has driven our Kickstarting the Butcher Shop project to over 93% funded. Check out the new Cartoon Info-Graphic by our son and daughter Ben & Hope.

If you haven’t been to visit it yet, go to http://smf.me where you can see a video of our farm, photos and description of our project. You can get great rewards including our pastured pork, bacon, hot dogs, sausage, T-shirts, ivory tusks and more.

Please back our project, even if only for a little bit. Help make the butcher shop at Sugar Mountain Farm a reality. We’re almost there!

Thank you!

-Walter

Score one for the family farm:

Under pressure from farming advocates in rural communities, and following a report by The Daily Caller, the Obama administration withdrew a proposed rule Thursday that would have applied child labor laws to family farms.

Critics complained that the regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on farms owned by family members. The U.S. Department of Labor cited public outcry as the reason for withdrawing the rule.
-DailyCaller.com

Be ever vigilant. Once the government gets their nose under the tent they rarely retreat. Rather they tend to force themselves more and more into control of our private lives. Government’s eyes should be looking outward, not inward at citizens lives.

Apparently there has been a little glitch recently and all comments were getting marked as spam. Fortunately someone emailed me and I found the problem. Those comments are now unspammed and hopefully the problem is fixed. Sorry about that!

Perhaps you’ve heard about this sort of thing. The government, for your own good, is going to require you to buy certain things. No, I’m not talking about the Health Care Mandate. In Wisconsin they have a NAIS Mandate. Mandatory premiss registration, animal ID, etc. But, they are so generous. They’ll allow you to write off 25% of the forced costs from your tax burden.

Gee… So it still is going to cost you 75%. Since it is a government mandate it will be over priced because the vendors have a lock on the market. You know how these things go. Using some rough numbers, what should have cost $10 per animal is going to cost $20 but you’ll be able to deduct $5 making it so you’re only paying 50% more than you would have not spent had you been willing to spend it if it wasn’t a mandate. Confused?

But it is a mandate and you wouldn’t be paying it at all except that it is a mandate. So now you’re out $15 per animals. Oh, and did you know, surely you did as a farmer, that you’re only making or losing $5 a head? So now, with the government mandate, for your own good, you stand to lose $20 per animal instead of losing $5 per head.

Oh, one last detail, if you don’t get any profit then you don’t get to deduct that 25% of the cost of the mandated program which means you’re losing another $5 per animal for a total of $25 each. Oh, well, I guess you’ll just have to make it up in volume.

Remember: government is here to help you.

Among the bills [Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker] will be signing is SB396, which authorizes the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture to hire an independent agent to administer the livestock premises registration program and create an income and franchise tax credit for producers to cover their costs of radio frequency identification tags.

Under the bill, an income and franchise tax credit for 25 percent of the amount that a taxpayer paid in the taxable year for radio frequency identification tags for the taxpayer’s livestock located in this state and 25 percent of the amount that a taxpayer paid in the taxable year for equipment used in this state to read radio frequency identification tags on livestock. If the amount of the credit exceeds a taxpayer’s tax liability, the taxpayer does not receive a refund, but, instead, may carry forward the amount of any unused credit to subsequent taxable years.
-Wisconsin Ag Connection

Whit Carter has just pushed us up over the $10,000 funding level at our Kickstart the Butcher Shop project! That means we’re 40% funded at the one week mark! Congrats to Whit who unknowingly won a T-shirt! What other prize levels do I have in mind you might ask… Special numbers, round numbers, spiky numbers, prime numbers… Ah, the possibilities!

Thanks to everyone who has helped get us there. Ben is working on a new cartoon info-graphic to go with these breath taking heights as the graph soars higher.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, a photographer from the local Times Argus newspaper was here to get pictures for a story they’re running. We had great weather and the pigs were posing out in the pasture for him. Yes, we actually have some green grass starting to show up! Wah-hooie! Or as the pigs are saying, Grunt!

Go check out our project and see the video of our farm and ongoing construction of our butcher shop. Back our project and you can get great rewards from swag like T-shirts to genuine pastured pig ivory tusks (some huge ones!) to the really good stuff: meat such as sausage samplers and Pick of the Pig!

Use the comments of this post during this month if you have things you would like to bring to people’s attention and are not sure where else to post them. I’ll make a new Bulletin Board each month for free posting.

Have at it, communicate and keep up the good fight!

Cheers,

-WalterJ

Do you know what Kickstarter is? Check out the post on my farm blog about:

Kickstarter.com - The Butcher Shop Project

Here’s the direct link and here’s a short link to pass around:

http://smf.me/k

We are doing a Kickstarter project to help raise money as we go into the final stretch of construction for our family’s on-farm butcher shop. This will let us start cutting meat here at our farm. I appreciate any and all backing you can do and just as importantly spreading the word about our project. The more people that know the better!

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm

Government nonsense is blooming in Michigan:

Michigan DNR Going Hog Wild
By Pete Kennedy, Esq. | March 15, 2012

In a brazen power grab threatening the livelihood of hundreds of small farmers, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is using the state Invasive Species Act to expand its jurisdiction beyond hunting and fishing to farming operations. On April 1, 2012 an Invasive Species Order (ISO) that DNR issued in December 2010 prohibiting the possession of a number of different types breeds of swine will go into effect.

The order allows DNR to seize and destroy heritage breeds of pigs that farmers are raising; and DNR will not compensate farmers whose pigs are destroyed. In the logic of the department, “Indemnification in [Michigan] statute is for livestock and invasive species are not livestock, and are therefore, not eligible for indemnification.”
-Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Aye, it’s crazy, unscientific and a blatant trampling on the Constitutional rights. But, it’s easy to understand. It is all about greed and cutting out the competition. What is particularly, almost, amusing is that Big Ag feels threatened enough to have pushed for this.