Free Republic

Some say that if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, the simply shouldn’t buy Monsanto’s GMO seeds. But it isn’t quite that simple. Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples, and then sues, saying they own the crop. Meanwhile, Monsanto is taking many other steps to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of normal seeds: 1.  They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest. 2.  They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so...

AUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say. Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas. -snip- Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that's nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering. -snip-

Police are hunting a cat-napper who has taunted owners with a letter claiming their pets have been "relocated." In the letter the abductor says their pets have been dumped at least 25 miles away as punishment for "invading" his garden. So far seven cats have vanished from the same road in Southampton, Hants. The author taunted owners saying: "They have not been harmed, just re-located. You have virtually no chance of getting them back. "If you were lucky enough to get your cat back... the second time they get caught in my garden, they will be destroyed." Shocked residents, who...

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...

Not registering By Jim Massey Editor MADISON — The May 1 deadline for Wisconsin dairy farmers to register their premises under threat of not having their milk-shipping licenses renewed is on hold. A standing-room-only crowd of about 75 people on April 25 voiced their discontent and heard an update about the premises registration issue. A group of Wisconsin farmers — mostly dairy producers — have expressed concerns about the mandatory premises program and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection's plan to not renew dairy farm licenses for unregistered farms. Concerns expressed at the March DATCP board meeting prompted...

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...

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 upper 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.

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...

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...

MONTPELIER — The state's controversial mandatory farm registration program is effectively dead, or at least in a coma. 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 would require those keeping livestock to register with the state to expire. His agency likely will begin working on a new program to aid in disease management sometime in the next few months, but that proposal could be different in several key aspects, in part because of objections by small farmers and activists. "The concept was grounded...

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...

When the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease was discovered in December 2003, then-Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman pledged to hasten creation of a national identification system for tracing livestock quickly during a disease outbreak. She said she asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief information officer "to make it his top priority." Today, more than two years later, the U.S. still has no national ID system for most farm animals, including chickens and beef cattle. The USDA, which has been discussing a system for nearly a decade -- and has spent $84.7 million to develop it -- now...

The Grannys Strike against Peta. Like David and Goliath Linda and Karen threw rocks at Peta in Norfolk Va.

Dedicated and activist Grannys protest Peta.

USDA ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION BOONDOGGLE REPORT Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., introduced two bills that would amend the Animal Health Protection Act to direct the Sec of Agriculture to establish an electronic livestock identification system. This is where a multi-billion dollar federal program started spreading it’s roots. Now over $70,000,000 has been doled during the past 30 months to promote, study, plan, and implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The original idea was to develop a 48 hour national computer method to locate the life time communication path of any critter that might test positive for the dreaded BSE. Once the...