How to Fight NAIS - Educate!

NAIS has gotten this far because of lobbyists money and public complacency. Today we welcome a new President Obama to our White House. He has been saying that each of us must take responsibility for ourselves, our neighbors and our community, if we are to bring America back to its potential. The USDA's NAIS program is completely anti-thetical to that mandate.

When I contacted my state Ag department, I told them that it wasn't their job to keep my herd safe. They actually told me the "terrorists were going to get my chickens." I asked them how they'd know, and they said "it's really easy to find who has small farms. They'll find you." I told that woman that I live in a tiny town and didn't know 5 families in my town that had chickens. I didn't tell her that at that time, I didn't have any birds. ( I do now.) That's when I found out that the feed bills were being reported to the FDA, and that the USDA was using that information and others, to create their own database for NAIS. When I tried to tell the public, no one cared.

Now that we have faced salmonella and e.coli outbreaks, melamine contamination and listeria infections, people are starting to finally ask "where does my food come from?" They are taking the responsibility to seek out the source of the best food, their local farmer's market or farmstand, and by it directly from the farmer. That local farm economy was a $5 billion business in 2007, and growing, in more than one way. Big Ag sees that, and it worries them.

Farmers need to reach out to the consumer and show why and how they do what they do. Consumers need to reach out to the farmer, and help the local government be "farmer friendly," so that the very thing that will help keep safe food available, can continue. Sustainable farms, organic farms, hobby farms, are all parts of the solution to global warming, climate shift, environmental degradatation. The practices of mono-culture, feed lots, and other industrial processes are the ones that created the "dead zone," in the Mississippi Delta, water pollution from run off, and the impending dust bowl that seems to be building following a multi-year drought with continued industrial practices on mega-farms.

President Obama, Mrs. Obama, teach your children about small farms. Grow that garden on the White House lawn, but don't just let the National Park tend to it. Let your daughters get their hands dirty growing food for their family dinner. Show developing countries that independent growers can solve food shortages where governmental programs may not be able to. President Obama, order the USDA to stop enacting NAIS. It hurts us on many levels. It is anti-environmental, anti-small business, anti-citizen independence, and anti-Constitutional.

This nation was founded by farmers. It was grown by farmers, but the future of farming is really threatened by the ill-informed, well-intentioned legislators, and the bureaucrats looking for their next, better, job. Let us continue to have citizen choice. Let people decide between the "cheap food," with higher health and environmental costs that are deferred until later, and the "fair priced food," that actually pays the farmer, the community, the land and the world with healthier people, economy, soil and water. There is no such thing as a "free lunch," but a locally grown one gives you a lot more than just a full stomach. It builds a future!

Please, if you're reading this, spread the word about NAIS. Speak to your legislators about its perils and its costs. We need to stop NAIS, but it has to come from a louder voice than just us small farmers. It has to come from you, the consumer, who wants the chance to make your own best choice.

Thank you,