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Lobby group condemns proposed agriculture licensing program
A national lobby effort against a proposed United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) licensing program has been launched by the Virginia
Independent Consumers and Farmers Association
(VICFA).
The USDA proposed
National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would require micro-chipping with
radio frequency identification and mandatory government registration of all
poultry, hogs, and cattle, and other livestock.
VICFA says this licensing program's protocol discriminates against small producers
and many fear it will be used by industrial agriculture to further destroy local
and home-grown food production.
VICFA, a statewide group of farmers and consumers established five years ago
to protect consumer food choice from government intrusion, has created the
National Independent Consumers and Farmers Advocates (NICFA) Fund to represent
the numerous anti-NAIS constituency groups. This fund creates a national
political presence to protect food security in America.
"Real food security comes from community-based, bio-regional food commerce,
not from transnational concentrations of production, processing, and long
distance marketing," said VICFA spokesperson Joel Salatin.
"The USDA already has the authority and information to deal with disease
outbreaks; this is just a smokescreen to further harass people with backyard
poultry flocks and a 4-H steer so the big producers can have it all," he said.
Editor WorldPoultry
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