There Is a Difference Between Vigilance and Paranoia
Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel
Colorado Springs, CO
Originally sent to subscribers 03/22/24
It’s sad but true that even media we normally can trust can be deceived because they do not understand the cattle and beef business. And unfortunately, there are contrary players in our industry willing to exploit those opportunities.
Such was the case Wednesday when a congressman and an R-CALF committee chairman spun USDA’s electronic ID plan to contain and fight foreign disease outbreaks into a pretty fantastic conspiracy plot.
The file cabinets of state veterinary offices and state brand offices in the U.S. contain detailed but necessary records of animal health, sickness and ownership across the country. County tax records in some states contain tallies of cattle ownership and numbers. A certain amount of absolute freedom of information has historically been given up by cattle owners to prevent the spread of disease and the theft of cattle. We’re not sure if many decades ago such regulations were considered a conspiracy to hoodwink cattle owners or find out how many cattle they had.
But R-CALF and other fringe cattle groups have consistently opposed replacing or duplicating plastic or metal ear tags with any electronic identification. The primary argument has been the fear of someone, especially the federal government, from finding out how many cattle any individual had. They’ve added new fears to their list.
Ironically, we are only a few months removed from yet another instance of a crooked operator playing games with cattle numbers to the tune of thousands of phantom cattle. It is the most common of all cattle fraud schemes. There are many sources of information on cattle ownership, including breed registries and tax rolls, in addition to the sources mentioned above but still the frauds happen. But electronic ID wouldn’t change that because it would be under the authority of state veterinarians and not accessible except in the case of disease outbreaks.
Keep in mind, the RFID requirements do not apply to feeder cattle and feedyard cattle. It is only for intact cattle over 18 months of age, a small portion of the total cattle herd, nearly the same as brucellosis and TB regulations for decades.
So there is a dichotomy on how much government or anyone knows about cattle ownership. Neighbors often know a lot more than anyone. One southern cattleman we talked to recently pointed out his water district has drones in the air all the time monitoring conditions. We would presume that includes cattle numbers and grazing pressure. Yet inflated numbers still produce fraudulent loans and business operations.
We are the last ones to trust the state or federal government if we can get around it. But one has to consider the context. We live in a state that even now is considering banning the sale or manufacture of their definition of “assault weapons.” It has long been the fear of gun owners and American citizens that requirements for background checks and gun sales would provide the government with a list of gun owners for purposes of confiscation, eventually subjugation.
That possible threat to liberty, freedom and private property rights is very important, is foundational to our Constitutional government. But is the tracking of cattle ownership, transfer and health status by health departments on the same threat level?
We have written often on the coercion and obliteration of liberties governments have been forcing, or attempting to force on Americans, especially the last three years. Only today, the EPA released new rules further designed to force us to give up gas and diesel powered vehicles by ordering the end of manufacture, increasing the cost of those allowed and mandating the adoption of EVs as the only transportation option. The pandemic showcased the tremendous power of state and national government if misused and misled.
It is obvious now to the most oblivious that global warming/climate change has been the excuse to impose voluminous damaging rules, regulations and unnecessary costs throughout our economy and culture.
However, some judgement and discernment must be applied to government actions, especially if supported by the majority of the members of an industry for its protection and survival.
On a segment on Fox Business channel on Wednesday, March 20, a congressman from Kentucky said he felt the USDA’s electronic identification program was a pretext to get a list of cattle so that they could ban the raising of cattle to further the globalists’ goal of eliminating the cattle industry. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has succumbed to radical cattlemen’s fears that beef packers intend to take over the cattle industry and force vertical integration on it like the poultry industry. He also cited the foreign influence or ownership of a couple of packers. He raised the specter of American cattlemen working for foreign meat packers.
Shad Sullivan, an R-CALF member from Olney, Tx. raised RFID as the prelude to land seizure in furtherance of climate change goals. He also talked about the possibility of government agents coming to a ranch to verify cattle and ownership, implying that it would be for climate change goals, not strictly for cattle health reasons as authorized by the state veterinarian, not some climate change czar. The state veterinarian would be allowed to access the system only in response to a health problem.
The culmination of Massie’s hysteria was the USDA electronic cattle identification program by state veterinarians as a “central bank digital currency” for cattle. If the government deemed your “social credit score,” as developed in Communist China to track their citizens, was not up to snuff, “they will shut you down” and not allow a cattlemen to sell through the auction.
Playing off the controversial Covid vaccine mandates, Massie even envisioned people not being able to sell cattle because they didn’t have certain vaccinations.
He’s way too late to the real world there, too.
Sullivan described his reaction to USDA’s budget inclusion of $15 million for the electronic ID program as “putting me in a frenzy” and fearing EU style climate change restrictions in the U.S.
There is no question President Joe Biden’s regime has taken us closer, provide us with a glimpse, even provided real examples, of what authoritarian, big-government rule entails.
But this is a time to exercise our Constitutional rights and to vote, not succumb to hysteria and conjecture on issues where it is not justified. Vigilance is necessary and must be constant. That is not the same as paranoia paralyzing all useful activity.
To contribute to AFF with a credit card there are two options:
To use any credit card on Square, click first link below:
To use your Paypal acct. click below:
تعليقات