Deluged by public protest over the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), the USDA announced on Feb. 5 that it is now officially dropping the controversial program. Originally proposed as law under the Bush Administration, NAIS would have created onerous financial burdens on small farming and ranching operations, not to mention an extraordinary invasion of privacy and excessive government interference.
This is a major victory for grassroots activism. Decades of rules and laws designed to favor corporate agriculture giants and industrial-scale factory farming have driven most smaller-scale operations out of business, and NAIS could well have been the final nail in the small farmers” coffin. Under the NAIS, small-scale growers would have been unable to financially compete under a system that would have given absurdly unbalanced advantage to industrial-scale factory farms or CAFO”s (concentrated animal feed operations).
Fortunately, the cause of the small farmer was taken up by health-conscious food consumers across the USA. Tens of thousands of American parents concerned about the health of their growing children, professional cooks, food cooperative members and farmers” market customers were quick to recognize this threat to high quality, locally-grown food, and took the time to contact the USDA on behalf of small-scale farmers.
It”s no mystery why corporate agriculture was pushing NAIS. Corporations are about maximizing profits, and the bottom line is that free markets are not as profitable as captive markets.
Through decades of consolidations and acquisitions, corporate agriculture replaced what used to be a diverse, competitive free market with a handful of giant monopolies. Fifty years ago, every town had at least one butcher shop where locally-raised animals were slaughtered. These local butchers were highly trained experts who took pride in a job well done, and who knew their customers by name. Today, more than 80 percent of the USA”s animal slaughtering is funneled into a few huge-scale industrial operations which process hundreds of cows, pigs or sheep per hour, work that is typically done by minimally skilled, rushed and underpaid workers.
Educated consumers prefer to avoid meat that has such a high potential for contamination, not to mention avoiding the ill-health effects caused by eating animals that must be fed antibiotics every day just to keep them alive, and which are daily fed an organ-stressing brew of hormones and unnatural supplements to increase their weight gain. The only way to avoid eating such harmful meat is to hunt or grow it yourself, or buy locally-grown meat from smaller operations. Consumers have proven again and again that they are willing to pay more for better quality, safer food. If given a choice, consumers prefer to avoid factory-farmed food.
NAIS is another example of what happens when large corporate interests control Washington. NAIS was corporate agriculture and the Farm Bureau”s transparently heavy-handed attempt to exert mandatory government rules and a system deliberately designed to make it financially impossible for the small farmer or rancher to comply, and thus force small growers out of business. Then, consumers would no longer have a choice. And that would mean higher corporate agriculture profits.
This was a classic David (small growers and the American people) versus Goliath (corporate agriculture) scenario, and fortunately for the health of this country”s citizens as well as the future of sustainable farming, in this case, the people won.
The overwhelming public opposition to NAIS proves that the small farmers” best friend and ally is the alert food consumer. Such consumers understand that without strong local networks of small farmers and ranchers able to direct-market to consumers, we face a future of having no choice except to eat factory-farmed food. This is why consumers across America understand that saving the family farm is critical to being able to continue to put high-quality, healthy food on their own family”s table.
In Europe they”ve coined a term, “Eat the view,” meaning, eat locally grown produce and meat, and thus keep your local farmers in business. Good words to live by here in Lake County.
Deb Baumann farms fruit trees, walnuts and vegetables near Upper Lake.
