Allowing only one color of pig (or cow, corn, wheat, tomato, etc.) is a very bad idea. You can help. Action alert!
As we reported in April, Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued an Invasive Species Order, or ISO, that was supposed to “help stop the spread of feral swine and the disease risk they pose,” not to mention their “potential for extensive agricultural and ecosystem damage.”
Quite intentionally, we believe, the ISO’s unnecessarily broad definition includes heritage or “old world” breeds and open-range pigs raised on small family farms. These are included because they do not have the uniform color and appearance of factory-raised pigs.
The order allows DNR to seize and destroy non-conforming animals—some farmers’ principal livelihood and what remains of porcine genetic diversity—and will not compensate farmers whose pigs are destroyed. Even pet pigs could be in danger.
Many observers believe that the Michigan Pork Producers Association is behind the order. The MPPA is a coalition of CAFOs or factory farming operations that would view the small pig farmers as undesirable competition. The ISO eliminates this competition and ensures that consumers have no choice but to purchase white pork from the confinement facilities, which are exempt from the ISO.
In addition, the order is also described by some farmers as “a brazen power grab” by the Michigan DNR to expand its jurisdiction beyond hunting and fishing to now include farming operations.
Since our earlier report, four lawsuits have been filed by small farmers against the DNR to overturn the ISO on the grounds that it is vague and contradictory. Two of the plaintiffs are heritage breed farmers who actually received an order for them to “depopulate.”
To say that the order is vague and contradictory is an understatement. We doubt that whoever wrote it ever saw a pig. One of the defining characteristics of a feral swine in the ISO is tail structure: “Sus scrofa exhibit straight tails. They contain the muscular structure to curl their tails if needed, but the tails are typically held straight. Hybrids of Sus scrofa exhibit either curly or straight tail structure.” So in plain English, a pig with either a straight tail or curly tail is either a feral or a non-feral swine! If it is the wrong one, eliminate it!
The lawsuits were consolidated into a single hearing to determine whether the ISO—and DNR’s Declaratory Ruling interpreting the ISO—could be voided. A ruling is expected next month.
At the same time, there is a campaign to petition the governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, to rescind the ISO. If the governor lets it stand, other states will take note, and we may get the same sort of order from other state agencies. The ISO is not only bad for Michigan local farmers. It would also leave us with only one kind of pig by destroying the genetic diversity of pig genes presently available.
If humanity goes down the road it seems to be on and discards its heritage seeds and animals so that powerful corporate interests, assisted by friends in government, can control our food supply, we shouldn’t be surprised if the eventual result is mass starvation.
If we stop this outrageous order in Michigan, we won’t just have stopped it there. We will have prevented its spread to other states.
Action Alert! If you’re a Michigan resident, please write to Gov. Snyder and ask him to rescind the ISO. Besides being terribly unfair to small farmers, heritage and “old world” breeds of pigs are important to provide genetic variety to an increasingly limited gene pool.
This may be a silly question, but are non-Michigan residents also allowed or encouraged to take part in this action, or would it be harmful to the effort?
Hi Catherine–Not a silly question at all! This particular Action Alert is only for Michigan residents, but I encourage you to visit our Take Action! page to see how you can help our national campaigns: http://www.anh-usa.org/main-menu/take-action/
Thanks for your continued support!
Genetic variety in animals is important. Please help to protect this type of variety in pigs and other farm animals.
Variety is the spice of life. “Selective breeding” (inbreeding) for particular traits is unhealthy, for the organism being inbred and the consumer that is consuming it.
Obesity is just another symptom of malnutrition. We are eating too much because our real food is devoid of nutritents. That is because of how agribusiness does it’s business. Monsanto is contaminating seeds so they can have a seed monopoly. This should not be.
Pork and shell fish and fish with skin was never meant to be considered food. They are unclean. They are unclean because they were created to clean the earth.
Your website is interesting in it that, for a foundation that is based on “natural health” and getting to the truth, you have a near absolute cognitive disconnect between health and food, aligning yourself with junk science like the Weston A Price Foundation which is nothing more than a lobbying group, and you have just put seeds on the same level as living, sentient beings. It is no wonder that alternative medicine and health has such a bad reputation.
My dear,
Seeds and bees and birds and dirt and air and water and all the rest ARE sacred.
If you limit the control of the seeds so that much of what you end up with is a monoculture – controlled by a handful of corporations whose main objective is to make money by selling the chemicals, where do you end up?
Fewer farmers, less diversity, all marching lockstep – eating the same stuff, getting the same illnesses, taking the same pills, getting the same shots and eventually – the masses will self-deport by becoming sterile. Where is the freedom in that?
In my opinion this is another of the many attempts to limit freedom in the USA (the land of the free?) ,eliminate competition from small private farms to favor big CAPOs. Unless this ISO is rescinded, the people of Michigan will be forced to eat pigs whose meat is laced with dangerous antibiotics, growth hormones, and perhaps worst of all with genetically engineered corn which as proven by recent trials in France, will cause cancerous tumors in people who consume this meat. Not only is it an attack on freedom, but also an attack on people’s health and their very lives.
.
would you please indicate that this action is only valid for Michigan residents? thanks…
It isn’t only the Michigan Pork Producers Association behind this unconstitutional Michigan regulation. Monsanto, the corporation thought of as the most evil company on earth, holds the patents on the exact same 8 breeds of pigs that the Michigan DNR states are permissible to own and raise. Watch HOGWASH – Bakers Green Acres vs. Michigan DNR at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vZ6vp82wj0.
It’s long past time to arrest and lock up the criminals in government, corporations, and banks, take down the United States Corporation, and reinstitute the Republic of the United States.
“We shouldn’t be surprised if the eventual result is mass starvation.”
With the firm belief in looking for the bright side of things I offer this. Given that the UN’s Agenda 21is in firm control of the high level politics of this nation and Agenda 21 posits a perhaps 80% reduction in population, is it not possible our masters are just balancing future food supply with future vastly reduced demand?
So there may actually be little starvation; the “vaccination”, GMOs and other depopulation methods together with the growing euthanasia being practiced in our hospitals and “hospices”, now codified into law by “obama care”, will take care of much of the actual killing.
This amounts to bullying of the worst kind. Who gets to make these decisions on what are considered “feral” swine???? they clearly don’t know what feral means. It does not mean the breeds that were used years ago and should be kept now for genetic diversity.
The “potential for extensive agricultural and ecosystem damage” would be those large farms raising only one breed of pig.in great numbers.
Wake up and do your part to stop this foolishness.
Didn’t we learn anything about the Irish tater blight during the 1840’s? Diverse species trump monoclonal plants and animals, but that seems to be the OWO agenda.
Albert, weary weeping watchman
I fine it most difficult these days to allow the Federal Government do my heavy thinking for me… as it appears that they really don’t have a real handle… on what they are doing
Government needs a good house cleaning this November…so get out there and vote the idiots out of office that are making these idiotic rules & regulations into laws. We need to stop thinking that the Government is here to help the little guy or to take care of the little guys. This isn’t going to happen ever. So get the word out tell everyone who is making up these idiotic laws and then vote the idiots out of office…in other words get off your duffs and take a stand!!!
how can we “vote them out” if the Electoral College votes in whomever they want ????
The electoral college voting only applies to one office — the President. There is also a Congress – two houses. We elect the Congress directly. Pay attention — read up — make sure you know that the person who is running to represent you actually represents your views. Don’t pay attention to the ads from the other candidate — they have a stake in the election and frequently lie or misrepresent. Instead look up your Congressional Representatives’ and Senators’ voting records in Congress — it’s published and online. How someone votes is the one thing they can’t take back (and opting out of voting counts too — not taking a stand is a stand in itself). Look at their entire record. You might not agree with them on everything, because they represent many people. But look at their entire record. Don’t just vote for the Party (whichever party you’re in). Vote for the individual. If only one person is running in your district (i.e., not multiple candidates), and they do not represent you in any way — where possible, write in a name. I frequently write my own in in such situations, but someone you admire who fits the qualifications (age, citizenship, lives in the district you’re writing them in for, etc.) would work. Just don’t let the person running unchallenged go into office with 100% of the vote, just because they’re the only one on the ballot — unless that person represents you (and remember you won’t agree with them on everything, but there should be common ground). If they go in with 100% of the vote, they’ll use that in their next campaign when they may have a competitor, or maybe feel like they don’t even have to try to please you — their employer — and just drift along. Additionally, there is a court. The personality of the court is reflected by it’s members. The President chooses candidates for the court when a vacancy occurs, but the Congress must approve the appointment or it doesn’t happen. If you see someone brought up for appointment that you feel does not represent the character of the United States — write your President (email works) and your Congressional Representatives — sing out in protest. An appointment isn’t final until it’s approved. At least protest if you think a potential judge is not good. Don’t let him or her slide in with no protest. You’re paying ’em. They may get hired anyway, but protest the decision before it’s final so they can’t slide in with 100% approval, because no…
We see why they Expect riots etc.
I see the opportunity for the Corporate Totalitarian system seeks to control every facet of Nature’s bounty until we reach the sci-fi horrow state of living in a ontrolled lab experiment. Will you people please stop this obsessive money worship and let us live in harmony with the Nature that God gave us? Oh, excuse me — I forgot, the Corporate Indudstiral Farming IS God now, right? The Founders of the lost democracy would turn in their graves.
If I am not a Michigan resident, is there some way that I can still help? Is there an Action Item for out of state residents? Thanks. Should we call their congresspersons about this?
Hi Robert–Thanks for your comment! I recommend that you forward the Action Alert to friends and acquaintances in Michigan, and perhaps also post the alert on Facebook/Twitter. The more we are able to get the word out, the more effective we can be!
To the person who made the comment that FEMA and other governmental agencies are preparing for internal unrest in the USA (in terms of stockpiling caskets and buying enormous quantities of ammunition, hiring more police and security personnel, etc.), there are many reasons one could foresee for this:
the taking away of our liberties in the form of what we can grow or raise for our own food,
the taking away of the ability to choose what we want to eat (organic vs factory raised or laboratory-made food stuffs),
the fact that what is right is now wrong and what is wrong is now right (meaning we never know when we’ve stepped out of the boundaries of what the laws considers to be right),
And, the two main reasons for the supposedly upcoming unrest:
whoever wins the presidential election, the other side is said to be “unhappy” about it. In other words, various individuals have already said that if Obama doesn’t get reelected, there will be rioting in the streets. Great way to have peace and understanding and to be a good sport/loser, not.
most people are unaware that the US Farm Bill has not been reapproved–80% of the bill goes to pay for food stamps. When the food stamps run out on December 1, 2012, there will be many, many, many people who will be livid and rampaging. That’s when even more shooting and looting will occur.
So yes, there are some very valid reasons as to why the US government is “getting ready” for internal unrest in our country. Let’s all pray and give positive light and love to the situation that could very well be on our front steps in a few months. But if we all pray and ask for peace and understanding and love to illumine everyone, we can perhaps help mitigate the worse of what will come (I would say might, but I fear it’s coming no matter what).
I’ll leave you with that, with love and light.
“So yes, there are some very valid reasons as to why the US government is “getting ready” for internal unrest in our country.”
Oh yes and how much of it has been engineered over the time? IMO almost ALL of it. The object of those who control this good country has long been the destruction of the USA. They have left few stones unturned.
In 2008, 180 countries declared that their citizens have a fundamental right to food. Only one country voted against this rudimentary right. Can you guess which country that was?
How can the proclaimed land of the free and home of the brave justify such a mean spirited decision? And is it in the best interests of their citizens or in the best interests of someone else?
Instead the United States made it’s intentions perfectly clear and voted against the right to food for it’s citizens. There is no right to food in the USA, nor is there any right to food legislation pending. Pretty simple isn’t it?
I’m wondering if the USA’s refusal to participate in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provoked the growing grassroots right to food movement and the real food revolution? Is the war on food just beginning to heat up?
We must vote with every $$$ that we spend supporting industrial food, GMO’s Soon our choices will be limited to ONLY industrial food.
There is a war on food!
http://www.natural-health-home-remedies.com/food-wars.html
If the government and corporate farms keep it up– someday human kind is going to wake up to a planet full of food but is so toxic humanity will die
The only way to have real LIBERTY/FREEDOM is DON”T VOTE!!! Quit picking your next slave master.
Are there leaders if there are no followers?? Both parties Dems/Repubs, play the people like
a tennis ball, volleyball, ping pong ball–any ball that’s lobbed over a net!! They run this dog/pony
show every 2-4 yrs–it’s so disgusting to watch. Wake up people!! It’s like the Wizard of Oz–the elitists are nothing but ugly, scared old men/women behind that curtain. Quit giving them control
over every aspect of your lives.
The USD is now worth .03 on the dollar–that’s correct–the USD has lost 97% of its value. The
elitists are giving the illusion that they hold all the cards–when all they have is their lies and pile
of worthless money.
They keep people in line by FEAR and DEPENDENCY!! They have created this plastic, GMO, fake unsustainable world. They are trying to destroy mother nature by contaminating the air, water, land, food, animals and all micro-organisms on the planet.
If they don’t like what mother nature has to offer, then they are the ones that should leave this
planet. Sometimes I wonder where they really come from?? They love to create division, fear,
hatred, lies. They love having people fight, instead of working together.
Human labor is the most valuable commodity in the planet. Without people thinking, designing,
creating, growing–which is what WE THE PEOPLE do, the elitists would not have their huge
corporations/govt’s. The PEOPLE hold the power, and they really need to look inward–follow
their hearts–ie think with your heart, not your mind. Your mind will become distracted by all
the lies/hatred that are out there. We should all work together and help each other, and we will find new beginnings for our country and the world.
NAMASTE
This is absurd! Seems like we are losing our freedom more and more… If we don’t do something now we will be no better off then the commuinistatic countries. Please sign and pass to your family friends, no matter where you live.