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A stop livestock movement exercise is taking place on the Oklahoma/Kansas border on Oct. 22. The goal is to practice stopping animal movement across borders during times of contagious animal disease. Traffic will be screened at two border locations; one three miles north of Turpin on Highway 83 and the other at the intersection of Highways 160 and 183 near Sitka, Kansas.

Truth for Tuesday---Sharon Zechinelli This week Truth Farmer will feature guest, activist and author extraordinaire, Sharon Zechinelli. Sharon has been fighting against the National Animal Identification System for years. Sharon has written a book entitled "First They Came for the Cows" which is available through her directly at henwhisperer@gmail.com, or through Amamzon.com chronicling the events and discoveries made by "Maddie" as she unwound the web of deceit used to foist this program upon the public. Sharon and Doreen have appeared together on a few radio shows and Cattlenetwork.com "Five Minutes with Jolley". Sharon has a wealth of information to share...

Britain's sheep farmers are on the brink of revolt over European commission proposals ordering them to electronically tag and identify every single animal in the 30 million-strong national flock. They claim the move will devastate the industry and could force farmers on to the streets in protest if Brussels insists on imposing regulations they claim are "crazy" and "unnecessary". The regulations, to be introduced in January next year, mean each sheep must be fitted with an electronic ear tag. The move is designed to track all individual sheep in the wake of the foot and mouth epidemic of 2001. But...

Zeke lived with an FFA teacher because he had no other home. He worked for his room and board; he fed the pigs and chickens, and helped with the milking. The summer between the 8th and 9th grades, Jasper, the FFA teacher, took Zeke to a neighbor's ranch and let him pick out a day-old Hereford bull for his first FFA project. The deal was that Jasper would pay for the calf, and for the feed, and Zeke could repay Jasper when the calf grew to become the Grand Champion Steer at the state fair, and sold at the fair's...

Those familiar with the political scene know the unexpected is often expected, and March 2 was an example of that when opponents to the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) marched to the state Capitol in Austin. The event included people from all over Texas, either walking or riding one of the many horses, tractors, or flat-bed trailers. The march included a woman with a caged chicken on the head, children enjoying the excitement, and plenty of signs that ranged from “Don’t Tag Texas” to “Think green ... not pavement.” One person in the parade was NAIS...

AUSTIN — A protest against toll roads highlighted a rally on the Capitol steps Friday, but the Texas Independence Day holiday put folks in the mood to raise hell about other grievances as well. Many also complained about a national animal identification tag. Some grumbled about the state's loss of control of its borders. A few warned about the coming "North American Union." And some excoriated the United Nations for wanting "to take your gun," exhorting anyone within earshot to "get us out of the U.N." The "liberty or death" chant of a thousand or more protesters marching up Congress...

In what is being projected as an economic boom for the East Texas region (if it comes to fruition), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will soon begin work on a feasibility study for an East-West corridor. The announcement was made last week as the TxDOT Commission voted to move forward with the study that will cost an estimated $2 million. The corridor is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition. "If we had a major four-lane, east-west highway through Jasper it would mean to us what I-10 means to Beaumont and I-20 means to Shreveport," said Jasper...

Bovine bombardment is part of the most recent plan to thwart Texas legislators’ plan to implement a federally mandated animal identification system. Protesters plan to tell state government officials, “Don’t Tag Texas,” March 2. Farmers and ranchers will turnout in numbers at the state capitol that Friday, livestock in tow, to declare their discontent concerning the newly proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS), as well as the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). A media release from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, said the protest is motivated by individual freedoms, which they fear could get trampled along the way. “Freedom-loving Texans planned...

ne hundred and seventy-one years after the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence, opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan to send a message to lawmakers: Don’t Tag Texas. A massive rally is planned for March 2 in Austin, with organizers hoping to see at least 100,000 - if not a half-million people - march up Congress Avenue beginning at 2 p.m. to the Capitol steps to stage a several-hour rally that will oppose not only Gov. Rick Perry’s signature project but also a federal animal identification program. “Don’t Tag Texas covers both issues: toll tags and animal tags,” said...

Calvin and Carol Whittaker live in one of the most beautiful parts of Idaho, a little Northwest of Idaho Falls, in the community of Leadore (pronounced "lead ore" because it was a mining town when it was named). They have lived in the area all their lives, as did their parents. They have operated a ranch for nearly half a century, as did their parents. And they have been productive, law-abiding citizens. Several months ago, Carol heard about a National Animal Identification System that would require registration of their ranch into a federal database, and the numbering of their livestock,...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking more and more like the Big Brother government that has infected Washington in recent years. The "2006 Agricultural Identification Survey," recently mailed to thousands of private landowners, is a good example. The instructions for the questionnaire say "Response to this survey is legally required by Title 7, U.S. Code." Title 7 of the U.S. Code is an enormous document, containing 105 chapters, each of which is a lengthy book unto itself. To find the specific requirement, a person would have to read all the way to Chapter 55, Section 2204g, to discover that...

Based on reading the USDA’s draft proposal for the National Animal Identification System some people are wondering how the USDA is going to tag all the wild animals that fall within the working species groups that must be tracked. The USDA says we don’t have to tag the wild animals. That is good to know... It is the year 2009, February 22nd, the birthday of General George Washington. Today it is a bit windy and the cold is biting here on the eastern slope of Sugar Mountain in northern Vermont. The USDA shows up at my doorstep demanding to know...

She didn't kill anyone. She didn't rob a bank. In fact, she didn't commit any illegal act. It's what she didn't do that made her an outlaw. We'll call her "Sally" – so the jackboots can't track her down. Sally got up on the morning of Jan. 2 and went about her daily chores – fixing breakfast, feeding the animals and cleaning the house. Aside from the cold, and the new year, everything was pretty much as it had been everyday for many years. But today, Sally became an outlaw without even knowing it. Way back in 2003, the Wisconsin...

Mandatory Premises ID registration and the USDA's proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) are dead in Vermont! See this article for more details: http://nonais.org/index.php/2006/08/18/vt-premises-id-killed/ In a nutshell, which is where these programs belongs, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture (AoA) has finally heard the enormous protest against the program and said they are letting the proposal for mandatory Premises ID expire and will not share information with the feds thus killing NAIS at the same time. Secretary of Agriculture Steve Kerr told a crowd of nearly 100 at a Montpelier hearing Thursday that the agency would let its proposed rule that...

Recent letter to my state reps regarding Premises ID component of NAIS.Dear Representative, An interesting thought occurred to me on the way out to feed the pigs: Premise ID implies farm. Farm buildings are tax exempt real estate in many states. If the Vermont Agency of Agriculture (AoA) is going to be forcing the obligations of Premises ID onto everyone with any livestock, then those people with even one chicken should also accrue the benefit of being a farm - that is to say any portion of their property used for said livestock should be exempt from real estate taxes....

RFID tags in our livestock, in our pets, in our licenses, in passports, in food, in clothing and maybe someday in you. It is getting rather excessive. Fortunately there are a number of ways to kill RFID chips. See the Technical Documents section of the right hand sidebar for how to build your very own RFID bomb with which you can clear you home of unauthorized RFID chips. For the less technically inclined there is a simple device that most people already own which does a admirable job of frying RFID chips. The way that passive RFID chips work is...

euphemism Main Entry: eu·phe·mismPronunciation: 'yü-f&-"mi-z&mFunction: nounEtymology: Greek euphEmismos, from euphEmos auspicious, sounding good, from eu- + phEmE speech, from phanai to speak -- more at BAN: the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant; also : the expression so substituted- eu·phe·mist /-mist/ noun- eu·phe·mis·tic /"yü-f&-'mis-tik/ adjective- eu·phe·mis·ti·cal·ly /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb -M. Webster The government works hard to put a positive spin on the bad news that what they want to do is kill all our livestock. They use words like depopulate: depopulate Main Entry: de·pop·u·latePronunciation: (")dE-'pä-py&-"lAtFunction: transitive verbEtymology: Latin depopulatus, past participle...

McDonald's is paying premiums, and Wal-Mart is making demands. And, with the impending reopening of the Japan market, we're likely to see premiums equaling those producers enjoyed last fall for source- and age-verified cattle. -Troy Marshall of Seed Stock Digest If NAIS goes through McDonald's and other big buyers will stop paying premiums to farmers that offer Animal ID and Trace-Back. Everyone will be required to provide that service of trace-back so there will be no incentive for buyers who want trace-back to pay for it as stands with the existing market driven system. NAIS is a great way for...

Just yesterday I was talking about this issue with one of my chickens. We were trying to figure out the nature of evil - where evil lies in the hearts of NAIS and men. On the one hand we have the beef exporters who push NAIS so they can reach foreign markets like Japan. This was the origin of what has become known as the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) which is the USDA's proposed plan for tracing the birth to death movement of every animal in the United States. I point out that Sam Sarpy, a rancher in Montana,...

The USDA and state Ag Dept. officials like to claim that the big producers are united behind the USDA's proposed draft of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). This is not true. The reality is more and more of the big producers, breed organizations and other large stakeholders are resisting NAIS. The “Livestock Marketing Association, along with other industry groups, is letting Congress know there is a lot of dissatisfaction with this program, and there are many questions about it that need answering before we can move forward." - Robinson of the LMA "Regarding animal identification, members approved by a...