"A Chip in a Fuzzy Ear"

This is of concern for all of us nationwide!! Find out what you can do

locally about this!

Natalie in TX

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From: CarolAnn@...

A Chip in a Fuzzy Ear [link defunct]

Greetings Friends of the Farm,

When word reached Aunt Penny and Tootie about the proposed National Animal Identification System, they were mighty confused. First of all, the rhetoric spoke of "mad cows" disease. This ID system would be yet another means of tracking any cow so infected. Well, that sounds prudent, but the hens don't know what a "cow" is; never have they seen one. Oh, they know opossums, raccoons, hawks, cats and dogs, and they are appropriately fearful of all of these animals, but a cow? What does a cow have to do with them?

It was explained to them that the NAIS would be a marketing tool for selling deceased animals to Japan. Again, what does all of this have to do with their little farm? No deceased hens on the farm are ever sold to whatever Japan is. Instead, they are buried under the pecan trees with the appropriate sendoff.

First I certify that the hen is indeed dead. She may have had a heart attack during the night and fallen off the perch onto the predator-exclusion wire, a terrible place on which to breathe one's last, as deposits of poop cling to the wires. Or, in the case of a really weakened chicken, the hen may merely have sat upon the ground for a few days, her head drooping, until her heart finally stopped. Whatever the manner of death, I bend over, surrounded by hens wondering if I have found something to eat on the ground, something which, unbelievably, they have neglected to find, and pick up the expired flock member by her legs. At this maneuver, the hens suddenly back away in alarm.

Why, their cousin is DEAD! How could they have missed that fact?

Well, they've been hard at work--focused solely on finding the next edible morsel. I carry the cousin out, as the others stare, some jumping out of the way, in case it's catching. Outside of the pen, I lay the deceased gently upon the soil, fetch a shovel, and excavate a hole. At this point, all the hens swarm the fence, as the shovel is their friend -- a machine capable of turning up tons of worms. However, the cousin is tucked in, with the wasted worms, and covered up with a silent thank-you for her presence on the farm.

No thought ever, of sending her to Japan, wrapped in styrofoam and plastic. So, the hens cackle that there is no real reason why they would be involved in either cow diseases or foreign markets. Why, they wonder, would the regulators include tiny farms, back yard flocks, the lady with one pet hen, the rider with two horses, the misfit with one goat, the farmer with ten cows, in this massive bureaucratic, state/national registration and surveillance system?

"Technology, " I explain brightly to Auntie and Tootie. Finally, to thwart disease and terrorism, there will not only be satellite surveillance of pastures, backyards, barns and coops, but, miraculously, mechanisms that can be installed in their bodies -- for a reasonable price perhaps, since we're talking about billions of chips -- that can track their every movement. Up on the perch, at the feed pan, out the Hen House gate, to the back field, to the farm stand, under the fig trees. Anywhere they go, someone in Austin/Washington will be able to say, "Oh, there goes No.3456789234567890, aka Tootie Tootum." Naturally, if Tootie leaves the farm, perhaps to make a special appearance at a social soiree, she would have to give those in charge a 24-hour notice, and then re-notify the regulators once back at the farm. It's a matter of homeland security. If notice is not given, and an official, searching for miscreants, doesn't find her on the farm, then, you know, there has to be a fine. A big one.

And what if the hens don't want to be a part of this strange system -- which amounts to government control of all livestock? Well, first of all, their carcasses will not be welcome in Japan, and furthermore, there will have to be hefty non-compliance penalties; a thousand dollars a day has been mentioned. Once "cowed" into the fold, the hens can be relieved of the presumed "terrorist" label.

Blackly, I consider that perhaps, other than the new money involved, this is all a ploy to discourage small producers in providing healthful meat, dairy and eggs to their local communities. For the proposed plan places onerous paperwork, costs, as well as insult, upon small farms, and backyard enthusiasts, whose every hen and every pig and every cow and every horse and every goat -- each -- have to be identified and monitored, while granting exemptions and the ability to identify flocks of 30,000 chickens with just one number (the styrofoam/plastic-wrapped factory farms.) The burdens fall on the people humanely producing real food, while the facsimile wranglers skate free. Many small animal-product producers will go out of business over this loss of freedom.

"Well, what's the upside? the hens ask. "You get a 'chip' inserted in your fuzzy ear," I reply. "Will it match my beauteous plumage?" inquires Aunt Penny. Tootie wants to know if it will look good with her gold-rim glasses. "But," they both begin to worry, "will it hurt?" Well, there is a "gun" involved, that sticks the chip underneath the skin. But maybe it delivers just a sharp peck.

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For market this week, Wednesday and Saturday, 9-2:

Leeks; Spring Garlic; Salads (Baby Lettuces, Succulent Spinach, Winter Greens Mix, Chicory Salad, Arugula); Carrots; Turnips; Beets; Fresh Onions; Cauliflower; Broccoli; Romaine Lettuces; Butter Head Lettuces; Escarole; Endive; Chard; French Sorrel; Chervil & Parsley; And in the farm stand barn: Smoke-dried Tomatoes; Pure Luck's Goat Cheeses; Wateroak Farms' Goat Cheese, Yogurt & Ice Cream; RainWater; REAL EGGS while it's still possible (Louis' free-range Eggs & Hen House Eggs); White Mountain's Tofu & Smoke-dried Tomato-infused Wheat Roast; Miles of Chocolate....and Bourbon Pecan Tartlets by At Home on the Range....

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USDA is stepping back to let the individual states begin the process: Premises registration & surveillance first, and next, the chipping of millions of animals. The Texas Animal Health Commission (the regulators) will host an open meeting Thursday, February 16th, 8 AM, Red Lion Hotel (I-35 @ Hwy290East). They will discuss the NAIS at approximately 10 AM, with PUBLIC COMMENTS to follow. If you'd like your grand children to be able to experience what a real egg, a heritage turkey, or grass-fed beef taste like -- if you'd like to be able to take your horse on a trail ride without notifying anyone -- then try to make this meeting. Maybe we can convince The Powers that this system would be appropriate only for huge producers who wish to sell to foreign markets, and whose procedures yield unhealthy animals. Perhaps we can keep one more personal freedom -- the freedom to nurture our own food supply -- alive a bit longer. For more info, see the web site of the Texas Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association: TOFGA.org.

Carol Ann

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Boggy Creek Farm
Larry Butler & Carol Ann Sayle
3414 Lyons Road
Austin TX 78702
512/926-4650
info@BoggyCreekFarm.com
www.boggycreekfarm.com
The Farm Stand Is Open Wednesdays & Saturdays, 9-2