THEY DON’T QUIT

                  Nearly a decade ago we won the mandatory national Radio Frequency Animal Identification (RFID) regulation.  It was pushed on the heels of the mad cow paranoia as a way to track and find diseases quickly. 

                  For you youngsters, it was a draconian measure that was incredibly prejudiced against small outfits.  For example, a Tyson factory could register one RFID tag for a whole house of 20,000 chickens—one per flock.  But an outfit like ours would have to RFID every single chicken.  Costs ranged from $2 to $5 per tag.

                  Every time you moved animals from one addressed premise to another, you had to notify authorities.  Thousands of farmers around the country attended the hearings and voiced their opposition.  The backlash was severe and eventually the USDA pulled the plan.  It’s been dormant for a long time and we thought it was dead.

                  But how things can change.  Recently, as you know, H1N1 high pathogen avian influenza was found in some chicken flocks in Texas and then found in some dairy herds.  Then it was found in dairies in two other states as a result of dairy cows being sold and transported.  Then a dairy worker got it.  

                  The orthodox narrative blames wild birds, especially waterfowl like ducks and geese.  I haven’t heard of large wild bird deaths.  Now it’s been found in milk, but fortunately pasteurization kills it.  Do you see where this is going?  We have another epizootic stalking the land so we’d better get the government involved.

                  For the record, my initial thoughts about Covid in the spring of 2020, for which I was excoriated by friends in the organic/pastured livestock movement, have now been proven to be exactly correct.  Go back and read ‘em.  Today, I think I can safely say that if the government had not uttered a word about covid, had not instituted one policy, one press release, one passing interest, we would have handled it far better than we did with bureaucrats’ intervention.

                  Unfortunately, the “never let a crisis go to waste” crowd is apparently leveraging the current H1N1 situation to push for mandatory RFID in livestock again.  Since the earlier failure ten years ago, think how much additional tracking capacity government agencies have.  In addition to tracking movement, a slaughter house could be forced to not process animals without RFID tags.  This would force compliance to join the system.  

                  Further, with RFID, any “Best Management Practice” of the day could be enforced and tracked.  Mandatory mRNA jabs, vaccinations, pharmaceutical use.  An endless list of protocols could be required and tracked.  If RFID scared independent-minded people before, it’s way worse now since data processing and Artificial Intelligence have progressed.

                  Indeed, sabers are rattling to outlaw raw milk, period (including herdshares, etc.) due to H1N1 being found in milk.  Wouldn’t that be just like the government to criminalize even drinking raw milk from your own cow in order to protect people from H1N1?  

                  You see, dear folks, this is where “government oversight” eventually goes.  It’s never satisfied.  It pushes, pushes, pushes and never gives up.  It’s like a fire; never satisfied until it consumes everything; in this case, consumes every freedom.  It never stops.  Government regulations and bureaucrats never wake up one morning saying “I think we’re regulating enough.”  It’s like gravel on your road—one more load will help.  One more regulation will help.  Always and forever.

                  If RFID became mandatory—you cannot have an animal without RFID—what would you do?