The Michigan Department of Agriculture at long last force-tested and tagged Greg Niewendorp’s twenty head of cattle today.
About twenty supporters and six media representatives were in attendance, Charlevoix County Sheriff George Lasater told me late this afternoon.
“It was very peaceful,” he said.
As he recounted the events, four MDA representatives—inspectors and vets—showed up at 9 a.m. as the sheriff served the administrative search warrant, which allows the agency to administer the test and RFID (radio frequence identification) tags, and then on Thursday to read the tests. Greg, he said, “didn’t cooperate, but he didn’t get in the way.”
The big challenge for the MDA reps was to locate the cattle on Greg’s 160-plus acres of land, much of it heavily wooded. “It took them two to three hours to locate the cattle,” according to the sheriff. “They had to walk the area. Then they had to set up corrals” to administer the test for bovine tuberculosis.
I couldn’t reach Greg for his account of the events. He has refused since early this year to cooperate with the MDA, based on his contention that the tests are unnecessary and an infringement on his property rights. He objects to the tagging of his animals because it constitutes implementation of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which is supposed to be voluntary.
Michigan last March became the first state in the country to require NAIS tagging of cattle, based on new regulations from the MDA, seeking to curry favor with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When Greg in late February declared his refusal to go along with the testing and tagging, the MDA immediately slapped a quarantine on his farm.
According to the sheriff, “I did not anticipate any problem from Greg. He knew what to expect from me, and I knew what to expect from him.”
But just in case, the shefiff had two officers waiting in town, if needed. Moreover, the Michigan State Police had two cars with four officers in wait as well.
The next step: “I told Greg we’d be there Thursday at 9” for the MDA to read the tests.
I’d say Greg made his points about as strongly as one individual can, short of resisting violently. He has demonstrated the state’s commitment to forcing farmers to have their cattle tested, even when those farmers are only selling their beef privately to willing consumers. He has also demonstrated the state and federal commitment to packaging NAIS into the bovine TB testing program. I expect there will be additional tests of resolve down the road. These issues won’t go away.
I’m sure he could get enough donations, and start over with emus or something.
Following is a statement by Greg Niewendorp on the forced testing and tagging, by the Michigan Department of Agriculture on Monday, October 8, of his carefully raised and managed herd of heritage cattle.
East Jordan, MichiganTuesday Oct. 9, 2007, 2:47 a.m.
In reviewing the events of the last 24 hours, several thoughts need to be addressed and considered. The most pertinent, which I woke up to at 1:00 a.m., is the Mark of the Beast. The Amish community, in Michigan and elsewhere, believes the premises ID to be the Mark of the Beast. As a result, several Michigan state senators became incensed with then Director of Agriculture Mitch Irwin. The situation became so heated in Lansing that the Michigan Agricultural Commission, heavily influenced by Farm Bureau [bureau: from the Latin for fluff], decided to relieve Irwin and brought in Don Koivisto as replacement. So we, already, have taken out a Director of Agriculture and now were going to take out another one over the same issue, because Gregory Lee Niewendorps God given divine rights to freedom to express his spiritual beliefs have been violated, again.
Do the Amish have exclusive right to the belief that the RFID and the premises ID is the Mark of the Beast?
So now the question is, do I have my cattle available for them when they come to read the results of the caudal fold skin test on Thursdayby subjectively feeling for the bump under the tail? And this is supposed to be objective science we are dealing with here. I will be on my property free-grazing my cattle on horseback, and they can come and find me. Do I herd the cattle to the holding pen that they left on my property? Do I willingly cooperate? Were coming into the end of our grazing season and I have to free graze on the unfenced portions of my property which are brushy woodland. Government is forcing us to do business on their terms, where they are claiming control of our cattle. They attempted to force me to sign a compliance statement last February, which I refused. Is this action that they have taken a consummation of the contract of the conveyance of my property, where I am now a tenant and they control the property?
What we saw in the last 24-hours were people who wanted to break out of our old system of a culture of individualism in to a new system where human politicalness is no longer relegated to private relationships where it is distorted into narrow, private, ego-driven struggles. Private life is too small a stage for developing our political capacity. Being political means being confrontational. Change only comes and goes the direction we want if we demand it. We are not going to power for a decision, we are going to power with a decision.
To Maria, the warrant was obtained based on the Michigan Animal Industry Act, which specifically provides for bovine TB testing. There are provisions in the act for exemption from the testing if a region, or possibly even a farm,hasn’t had an outbreak for three years. Greg claimed to the local prosecutor that he qualified under this exemption, but the MDA didn’t agree, and it prevailed.
It seems as if a number of these things need to be dealt with in courts, though as Kathryn Russell points out, the courts have their prejudices and predispositions.
I am going to say right here and now that the "prejudices and predispositions" in the courts and throughout our government – city, county, state, and federal – are the secret handshakes they use, and the bloody oaths they take as they scratch and claw their way to the top of their favorite secret society. After years of intense research on this subject, I am convinced that secret societies – freemasons, shriners, knights of malta, etc., etc.- are the glue that holds this unholy alliance together arouond the world, to make slaves and robotrons of us – at least the few of us they plan to keep alive to do their dirty work. Judges, attorneys, politicians and bureaucrats swear their allegiance to "the Brotherhood" rather than the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I believe that the more of us that know this and expose them as such will make a difference. This explains why nothing changes between Democrat and Republican administrations, as we continually slide into a deeper abyss each year, no matter who occupies the White House and Congress. It is not hard to find out which traitors are members of which secret society. Our leadership, whether elected or in private industry, is replete with them. I hope some brave man like Greg can beat them at their game. They need to know that we "useless eaters" are not brain dead.
Don’t mean to get on my soapbox, but I am furious that our "leaders" can’t respect our right to conduct our businesses and lives with the dignity and carefulness that most of us do, as they trample on our existence with their drunkedness of power and greed.
Greg, you are the man of the day!
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, voluntary is mandatory!