Farmer's Head to Washington

Issue #19.09 :: 02/27/2007 - 03/05/2007

Farmers head to Washington Vocal locals oppose national animal I.D. system

BY MEG MCEVOY

In 2005, a law was passed that said Albemarle farmer John Coles couldn’t sell his unpasteurized goat cheese anymore. Coles now makes his living selling vegetables, grown at his farm off Route 29 about eight miles north of Fashion Square Mall, and gives away pounds of cheese on a donation-only basis. Like many small farmers, he’s opposed to more regulations on what he can and can’t do with his homegrown products. Coles is also not a fan of a law that would require all farms with livestock to register and tag animals with radio transmitters. Albemarle goat farmer John coles traveled to Washington, D.C. with other local farmers to lobby against a national animal I.D. system that would require electronically tagging all livestock. The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) (www.usda.gov/nais) has aimed to do just that. A measure supported by the agricultural industry as a way to prevent and track the spread of disease among herds, NAIS has the small farming community in an uproar. In February, local farmers brought their opposition to Washington. The Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (VICFA) (www.vicfa.net) joined with similar groups from surrounding states at a reception and lobbying event at the Cannon House Office Building. “We had a small army of volunteers,” says Deborah Stockton, editor of the VICFA VOICE newsletter. The group faxed invitations to every member of Congress and laid out a spread of locally grown food. They had eight congressmen turn out, plus several dozen more congressional staffers and aides. Among those at the reception was Virginia’s 5th district representative Virgil Goode, who sported a VICFA button and sipped on raw milk. Though small farmers face many issues, VICFA’s main beef is with NAIS. “The reason they’re doing this is to prevent mad cow disease and avian flu,” says Coles. “But these are problems that only exist in [big] agro-business.” Originally, the federal government announced NAIS would be mandatory by 2009. Due to grassroots opposition, according to Stockton, the USDA has turned their attention to the state level, awarding grants to state departments of agriculture who require animal tagging and premises registration. The national website now emphasizes that the program is “voluntary.” Stockton says February’s event was a good start towards battling NAIS, and they’re already planning another event for next year. “The biggest problem facing us it that we are not real to [legislators],” she says. “They legislate according to industrial agriculture.”

Farm Food Voices 2007 Recap

A Very Brief Letter from Farm Food Voices DC 2007

Greetings dear wonderful activists,

It was great!!!

We will post a more full account of Farm Food Voices DC 2007 on the NICFA and VICFA websites when the aftermath flurry has settled a bit, but here is a 'note' for now. I imagine others who were there will post letters from the event--I know Sharon Zechenelli--who drove down from Vermont in the snow with Sally Beckwith--sent a "postcard" last night that Walter Jeffries has already posted (http://www.nonais.org), and Kathryn Russell, of VIrginia, has posted a brief write-up on several e-groups, including Americans_Against_NAIS@yahoogroups.com and sayno2nais@yahoogroups.com.

Our purpose for holding this event was for us, the local/sustainable/independent farmer/consumer world, to become real to the legislators in Washington, and we accomplished that. As Joel Salatin said in his inspiring talk, this marked the beginning of this "movement."

As best as we can figure, we had about 250-300 visit the reception. It was a somewhat mobile crowd, as is the nature of that type of reception, but it looked like about HALF of the people were legislative staff and congressmen. That's pretty amazing! A veteran DC lobbyist friend of mine who joined us said there were about 3 times as many people there as he had expected on a day like yesterday--in addition to the weather it was a very busy legislative day on the Hill (Capitol HIll). We suspect that probably five, or more, times as many of our people would have been there if the freak weather had not bound them in. Those who were able to come included folks from, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey and Florida, that we know of. Sid Sargent from Arkansas took a 31 hour bus ride to come, and waited in the Cannon Office Building from 8:00 a.m. until she could in to the reception; Karen Sylvester from Tennessee arrived by bus in DC yesterday morning at 4:00, stayed in the bus station until she could get in to the Cannon Building, then had to get back on the bus at 1:00 p.m. for her return home. Both Sid and Karen walked the halls delivering copies of the Talking Points to all the legislators. Thank you Sid and Karen!! We are hugely grateful for all the efforts everyone made to participate in this in any way. Every effort, from every person, matters. Those who did so much in preparation, only to be thwarted by a rare ice storm, need to know their presence was felt, even if their bodies were not there.

The Congressmen we know attended included Ron Paul, of Texas, who spoke with eloquence and passion; Virgil Goode, of Virginia, who proudly wore a VICFA button; Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, who also spoke briefly--and who has been talking openly with us about this since last summer; a congressman from New Jersey; and Congressman Salazar of Colorado. We are pretty sure there were others, so if anyone who was there knows who they were, pls. let me know. As mentioned before, there were dozens of staff aides and legislative assistants, representing their respective Congressmen and Senators. We had a great talk w/Curtis Ellis, aide to Rep. Steve Kagan (D-WI, member of the Ag. Committee) who asked us about the Farm Bill, and he sent us a copy of a press release Kagan put out last night that included the following: "The solution to our health care crisis will come from our farms and our diet as well as our hospitals and research laboratories. We must help our small farmers maintain their way of life." I don't know for a fact that our event was an influence, but I'm inclined to believe it was. Pete Thomson, aide to Bob Goodlatte, will become famous when we post our picture of him drinking raw milk (I must confess, I handed him a cup and said, "Drink this while we take your picture," and he did, squawking a bit after when I told him what it was, but since he later ate raw milk maple ice cream--all provided by the Amish farmers who came, I didn't feel so bad...).



Many folks had made appointments with their state legislators, and we would like very much to hear back from those folks!!!

The food was awesome. Jon and Nina White came down from New Jersey w/their artisanal raw, aged cheeses and fresh breads, and we overflowed with superb offerings from Weston A. Price folks in the DC area and dishes others drove in with from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and perhaps elsewhere. A group of about ten Amish farmers from the Lancaster, PA, area came with their exquisite raw milk, cream, butter, yogurt and ice cream. They blessed by their presence, as well as their food.

There is much more to tell. Planning is already started for next year....

Deborah Stockton, Editor
VICFA Voice

Off to see the wizards

Going to the lobby day in DC, Farm Food Voices. We have an appointment with Senator Leahy on Wednesday. Ron Paul is going to speak as is Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. We got booted from the original reception room for a House Ag Committee meeting but got better space in the Cannon House Office Building Caucus Room. That room looks like it ought to be in a palace.

Pray for good driving weather.