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FARM-STYLE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 -- 1:03 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
A national animal identification program will likely lead to civil disobedience.
The program (NAIS) is currently being discussed at a series of informational meetings around the country.
Many producer groups and the USDA want to implement a system for tracking individual animals to help prevent disease outbreaks.
Kennedy says many of their members believe NAIS is the Mark of the Beast warned about in Biblical prophecy.
"If this program goes through, there's going to be substantial non-compliance," Pete Kennedy, President of the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, predicts.
Kennedy says many farmers will refuse to comply on ideological or religious grounds. Others simply won’t be able to afford to mark all their animals, possibly with chips that emit radio-frequencies.
"If they comply, they go out of business to stay in business." Kennedy notes. "Th expenses and the time involved in satisfying the NAIS requirements, they have no choice not to comply if they want to stay in business."
Other groups, such as Madison-based Family Farm Defenders, have openly called on its members to resist. Their website says farmers “should not cooperate with these absurd policies.”
Wisconsin livestock owners already have to register their properties with the state. Many Clark County Amish farmers have refused to comply. Clark County’s District Attorney, Darwin Zwieg, filed the first test case for the law in Clark County Circuit Court. The Amish farmer, Emmanuel Miller, Jr., of Loyal, will go before the court in July.
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