Grants to States and Tribes from the USDA to counter "misinformation"

From Nonais.org

USDA Offers NoNAIS.org $10M Grant
News — walterj 3:13 pm

Well… not really. The USDA is offering a grant to states and tribes to pay for propaganda, er, I mean information, to counter the ‘misinformation’ about the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Funding Opportunity: USDA-GRANTS-051106-001
Posted Date: May 11, 2006
Closing Date for Applications: Jul 25, 2006
Archive Date: Aug 24, 2006
Category of Funding Activity: Agriculture
Expected Number of Awards: 111
Estimated Total Program Funding: $10,882,000
Eligible Applicants

* State governments
* Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)

USDA initiated implementation of the NAIS in 2004. The Department’s first priority with the initial funding in FY2004 was to have the components of the national premises registration system in place in every State by July 2005. With this accomplished, the next step was to use FY2005 funds to increase the number of registered eligible premises in each State. As of April, 2006, over 245,000 premises have been registered nationwide, or approximately twelve percent of the estimated number that are eligible. Funding for FY2006 will be provided to State and Native American Tribal governments to support the continued implementation and maintenance of the national premises identification system and NAIS within their respective areas. *We would like to achieve a national target for premises registration of fifteen percent by July, 2006, twenty five percent by January, 2007, and thirty five percent by July, 2007.* Since the majority of premises will be registered in a voluntary system, it is critical that we provide all individuals, business, and organizations a correct and consistent message about how they will benefit from NAIS and their responsibility to participate. **Misinformation and adverse publicity has been somewhat detrimental to the adoption of NAIS in many areas of the country.** USDA is working with States, organizations, and other stakeholders to develop appropriate educational and outreach materials. Applications for cooperative agreement funding must include an aggressive plan for education and outreach, including effective use of existing outreach resources such as cooperative extension, state AVIC offices, and state industry organizations, to stakeholders at all levels within the state or tribe…

If you have difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, please contact:
Eileen Berke, Phone 301-734-8330 APHIS, Agreements Services Center contact

It is nice to be appreciated. Unfortunately I don’t qualify since I am neither a federally recognized state or tribe so apparently the USDA is not going to be funding NoNAIS.org’s effort to get out the truth. Still, it is nice to know they noticed our efforts. Consider: the USDA is spending $10 million of our taxpayer dollars for propaganda to counter our efforts to spread the word about the horrors of NAIS. $10,882,000 should buy them lots of propaganda and Madison Avenue hype to spread their lies that NAIS is a wonderful thing.

Frankly though, that is a pretty bad investment to payback ration given that I have not yet spent $1,000 in my effort to counter the USDA and state agriculture department lies about NAIS. I doubt that every NoNAISer put together has come close to even 1/10th of 1% of ten million dollars to date in our fight against NAIS. That makes us over 1,000 times more effective than the USDA and means that as usual, government is terribly inefficient. Imagine the educational outreach to small farmers and homesteaders that we could do with $10,882,000 ÷ 112 = $97,160…

*By the way, noticed the target Premises ID levels which I italicized above. Previously the USDA has been rather tight about these numbers. So now we know what those goals are refering back to the USDA’s April 2006 NAIS document on page 3.

**Gee! When people find out the truth they don’t want NAIS… Wow!!! What a concept!

Also see these articles Govi Double-Speak and TAHC Brochure Lies.

Hat tip to Nicole.