Recently, Republican Eric Cantor announced a Republican "listening tour." The next day Rush Limbaugh said:
"We do not need a listening tour. We need a teaching tour. That is what the Republican Party, or, slash, the conservative movement needs to focus on. Listening tour ain't it."
Cantor got the hint and changed his tune very quickly. But so did, unfortunately, the USDA. That's right - the United States Department of Agriculture. No, they weren't planning a Republican listening tour. They were planning a National Animal ID System (NAIS) listening tour to find out why SO MANY family farmers, horse owners, pet owners, and people who like to buy food from family farmers were INFURIATED by the idea of NAIS.
Turns out, it's a teaching tour, more or less. They want to teach us to like this program that is going to crush family farmers without really improving food safety at all. Each "listening" session gets kicked off with an hour of the USDA talking. That's followed by a mere 2 hours of public comment, and then breakout groups. Consider also that this is planting season for anyone who grows crops in addition to raising livestock, and they only gave farmers two weeks notice about the listening sessions.
You can also submit comments via the internet. You can't mail or fax them in. And an awful lot of farmers don't have internet. So many, actually, that rural broadband is a current major initiative at the USDA.
At the end of these "listening" sessions, the USDA will be able to say that they listened to the opposition before cracking down on mandatory animal ID. Except that they won't really have listened.
Want to take action? Don't just send in comments to the USDA (I will make sure to post instructions and talking points on this blog). Read this article about NAIS and then CALL the office of Rosa DeLauro, the Congresswoman from Connecticut. She's the major force behind this initiative to speed up the implementation of NAIS. Don't email unless you live in her district because members of Congress often filter out emails from outside the district. Instead use these numbers:
Phone: 202-225-3661
Fax: 202-225-4890
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