Ozarks Property Rights Congress
 Meeting – May 27 -  7:00 p.m.
Hayloft Restaurant  in Mountain Grove, Missouri
Come early if you care to eat, as no food is allowed in the meeting room due to limited staff.

President’s Update by c. Russell Wood

The Missouri legislative session has ended without too much serious damage to private property rights, or so it looks at this point. We`ll have up to date reports at the next meeting.
   Doreen attended the meeting USDA held in Kansas City to lay out their approach to their new version of NAIS. It`s now called Animal Disease Traceability and she will be at the meeting in Mountain Grove to tell us all about it. (See her article starting on page 2)
    Although the animal care regulations proposed in Jefferson City didn`t pass, that bogus animal rights petition pushed by the HSUSA  is still out there and is expected to be on the November ballot. It`s a bad one and we`ve got to defeat it or lose our rights to raise animals on our property. It is worded and presented as a soft and fuzzy puppy care issue, but its intent is to stop animal agriculture.
    Many of you are asking what has happened in the dispute over the boundary lines between the Conservation Dept. and neighbors on the Massingill property in Douglas county. In a recent conservation I had with Tom Draper( who is now assistant director of MDC) he indicated boundaries are not going to be changed at this time and MDC was not pursuing any change in usage. He said the neighbors need to show a history of possession and use in order to be able to establish a base for any realignment of ownership of the disputed ownership. I think the MDC would like the matter settled and they obviously want no more of a fuss over it.
    We`ve asked Rep. Tony Dugger to join us for the upcoming meeting and keep us informed.
    Hope to see you Thursday night.    Russell

Upcoming Meetings

The Missouri Primary Election is on August 3 and voters want to face the candidates in person. OPRC is happy to provide opportunities to bring voters and candidates together. We encourage those in other areas to plan some voter/candidate get-togethers.

June 1 – Lawrence County Chapter - Mt. Vernon - Red Barn Restaurant - 7:00 pm
 Topic: Reviewing and personalizing the land use plan that Douglas County so generously allowed us to use as a template.
June 8 – Far Southwest Chapter - New-Mac Community Center, Anderson, Missouri – 7:00 p.m. -  Speaker will be Senator Chuck Purgason
June 10 – Meet the Candidates in Gainesville – 7:00 p.m. Vaught’s Family Restaurant – On meeting nights food is served from 5 to 7 p.m.
Vaught’s is located on Highway 160, west of Gainesville, west of the junction of Highway 160 and Highway 5 South
June 19 – Meet the Candidates in Ava. 1-3 p.m. at the Ava Victory Academy, located near the intersection of Highway 5 and 14, between McDonald’s and Taco Bell. We hope to have some district and state wide candidates attend.
June 24 – Meet the Candidates in Mountain Grove – 7:00 p.m. Hayloft Restaurant
July 13 -  Far Southwest Chapter - New-Mac Community Center, Anderson, Missouri – 7:00 p.m. Topic: Meet the candidates for State Representatives
July 17 – 10th Property Rights Conference in Cabool. (Details in June news)

 
“All Doesn’t Mean All”

A Special Report from Doreen Hannes on the
USDA Kansas City Meeting on Traceability–
© Doreen Hannes 2010 

  On May 11th, the USDA held the first of three public meetings on their “New NAIS” program “Animal Disease Traceability”.  The meeting began at 8am with three power point presentations. California State Veterinarian, Dr. Richard Breitmeyer gave the first presentation. This was the same presentation he gave at the mid-March NIAA (National Institute of Animal Agriculture) meeting, also held in Kansas City.
 Breitmeyer’s presentation focused on the difficulties around tracing the contacts of tubercular (and suspect) cattle in the state of California and other states without the aid of an interoperable database covering all animals and all movements. According to his presentation, the state of California has approximately 57,500 known live cattle imports from Mexico per year. This is significant in that more than 75% of all tuberculosis in cattle is of Mexican origin. Breitmeyer lamented that when he began as a vet 25 years ago, the US had nearly eliminated TB except for in small areas of northern Michigan and northern Minnesota where the soil make up continues to keep TB in the wildlife and therefore occasionally in cattle. Breitmeyer’s presentation was actually quite a good illustration of many of the failed policies of the USDA in disease control, the lack of quarantine at the borders chief among them. Of course, he is a proponent of a NAIS style system because having all that data available would make his job easier…At least on paper.
  The second presentation was given by a very soft-spoken APHIS/VS (Veternary Services) representative, Dr. TJ Mayer. He stressed that the “theme” for the development of the “new” program is “collaboration”. Those to be affected must be involved in the process of developing the solution for the lack of traceability that now exists— particularly in cattle. Cattle are the primary focus for this new plan, and the methodology for bringing cattle to 95% traceability back to the point of identification in 2 business days is dependent on “collaboration” in developing the processes in our states. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)  Mayer also illustrated that the desired traceability would be implemented gradually through partnerships of stakeholders and building upon the requirements outlined in the rule that is to be developed for criteria that states must meet for interstate commerce.
  The third presentation was by Becky Brewer (Oklahoma State Vet) and the apparent lead member of the newly established “Regulatory Working Group”. Dr. Brewer related the thinking of the Regulatory Working Group on the measurable outcomes of the ‘traceability’ standards to arrive at 95% of “all” animals traced back to the ‘traceability unit’ within 2 business days. Brewer stated, “In government speak, “all” doesn’t mean all.” This may explain why the USDA kept insisting that when opponents of NAIS cited documents verbatim, we were “spreading misinformation”. Evidently the English language is a linguistic and statistical anomaly in the hands and mouths of bureaucrats. They can’t say what they mean and mean what they say.
   There were no question and answer sessions after the presentations. Instead every table was given a USDA facilitator and three segments of questions to answer regarding how we might achieve the desired outcome of getting animals id’d back to the ‘traceability unit’.  The tables were marked with species placards and there were at least five cattle tables, three swine, two poultry, one sheep and goat, and one other species.
  When I entered the room I noticed that Kenny Fox of R CALF USA was at a cattle table and I failed to notice the “other species” table so I sat at the sheep and goat table. There were no people at the poultry tables. The cattle tables were quite full, and all of the reporters were sitting at the ‘other species’ table, so I thought I would just sit at the empty sheep and goat table.
  When the facilitating began, I was blessed with three USDA representatives at my table, where all the other tables only had one. I shared the table with one sheep broker from New Mexico. He deals in 20 to 30,000 head of sheep annually mostly exported to Mexico and was quite content with the Scrapie program. This program identifies breeding animals back to the flock of origin with a number assigned to the flock manager and not the land the animals are held on. It also allows for tattoos as an alternate form of official id for interstate commerce, and does not use RFID tags, although it could in the future.
  The USDA representatives at my table were not particularly interested in hearing about how the failed agricultural policies have created a problem that the USDA would now like all of us to ‘partner’ with them to solve. They did take copious notes, and were quite proficient in ‘mirroring’ my statements while slightly adjusting them to fit their desired outcome more handily.
  At the end of each of the three segments, a representative from each table stood and gave the ‘report’ from the table on that segment. The consensus of the cattle groups were that only breeders should be identified, RFID tags should be avoided, back tags should continue to be used for feeders and slaughter cows, and a NAIS styled system would not work at all.
  The USDA is currently promoting the use of ‘bright’ tags for cattle. These are very similar to brucellosis tags in numbering and appearance. However, when the only question and answer segment of the day took place and Neil Hammerschmidt  (one of the main authors of NAIS) gave most of the answers, he made it clear that the USDA still wants to ‘aggressively’ pursue the use of 840 tags.
  The bottom line about the entire meeting is that the USDA will try to have a draft rule ready in June from
the “Regulatory Working Group.” This rule will define the “performance standards” that are to be met by the states to engage in interstate commerce. The USDA plans to publish this proposed rule in November or December of 2010, allow a 90 day comment period, and finalize the rule (make it law) from 8-10 months after the comment period is complete. There may be different requirements under these performance standards by species, potentially exempted sectors or movements. There is concern that incentives and disincentives for states must be expressed clearly and not be too “heavy handed”. In other words, if a state meets compliance levels in hogs and not cattle, the hogs should not be refused access to interstate commerce.
  It appears to me that we must proactively engage our state legislators to statutorily define requirements for interstate livestock movement and not allow the Missouri Departments of Agriculture the leeway to cooperate with the USDA to achieve the goals of the USDA as those goals are still NAIS oriented. The USDA will not dismantle the National Premises Repository although Hammerschmidt stated that if a state were to want to withdraw all of their participants, they could do so. Also, according to Hammerschmidt, they still want to move ‘aggressively’ to 840 tags as official identification along with electronic Certificates of Veterinary Inspection.
  The onus of implementing the graduated Animal Disease Traceability program rests squarely on the individual states. Either the states will define those standards statutorily or the USDA will bring about their final desires incrementally through the regulatory process.
 
Listen to Doreen Hannes’ radio show, Truth Farmer, every Saturday from 10-11am Central on libertynewsradio.com.
 Also check out www.newswithviews.com  for her articles and many other excellent researchers on topics affecting your freedom…also her blog,
www.truth-farmer.blogspot.com

Special Report- 2010 Missouri Legislative Session Review

by Paul Hamby
Missouri Campaign for Liberty /www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/MO/

4.5 months.  70 days in session. 163 house members.  34 Senators.  Approximately 1800 bills & resolutions filed;  106 passed. Down from 150 typically passed.
 Most legislators go to Jeff City thinking their job is to pass laws, pass tax credits and provide money for the specials interests who funded their campaign.   Sadly, that is how politics usually works.  The real purpose of being elected to the Missouri Legislature is to protect Missouri citizen’s Liberty and rights.  Our legislator’s constitutional purpose is to fight against those who want to pass more laws and fund special interests.  From that perspective, here is my review of the 2010 Missouri Legislative session;
     HCFA - The Health Care Freedom Act. (passed) Initiative in response to the federal health care bill, and prohibits any law (state or federal) from forcing a patient, employer or health care provider to participate in any government or private health care system. Does not limit your options or rights, just stops government from forcing you to purchase a plan.
 On August 3, Missouri voters will be the first in the nation to accept or reject forced Obamacare. This showdown of the sovereign people of
Missouri vs the Federal Govt of Pelosi/Reid/Obama will be one of the top stories of the August 2010 elections.  The world will be watching.  More on this developing story and how you can help coming soon.
      Ethics Reform (purged then passed) allows the Missouri Ethics Commission to investigate ethics violations without an outside complaint being filed and makes it a crime to obstruct an ethics investigation.  In addition, the bill requires contributions of more than $500 to incumbent officials and their challengers during Missouri legislative session be electronically reported within 48 hours; makes clear that no
statewide elected official or lawmaker may offer employment where compensation is above actual
Legislative Session Review Cont
expenses to another statewide elected official or lawmaker in exchange for his or her official vote; and limits the transferring of contributions among most committees.
 This bill is mostly political theatre.    Watch for incumbent politicians to tout this during the election cycle.  Mostly a waste of time - but at least they were not spending tax money while providing the entertainment of ‘ethics’
 Ag Bill (purged then passed) this simple bill quickly grew to an unconstitutional omnibus bill with 42 pages of “Someone should do something!”  Several grass roots groups including Campaign for Liberty worked hard to purge the bad stuff from this bill.  Two significant items we removed are;
 “the “Missouri Animal Care Advisory Committee”, which would have written pro-CAFO, industrial ag supporters into statute as official advisors to the General Assembly and set a precedent for industry advisory groups.
 ”the so-called “Right to Raise Animals” (in numerous bills), which could have taken away local control and stopped the General Assembly from passing future state CAFO standards if corporate agri-business decided it was an “undue economic burden”. Kudos to Senators Rob Mayer, Chuck Purgason, Wes Shoemyer, Clemens & Rep Belinda Harris.
    Message for the 2011 legislators; Omnibus bills are unconstitutional and they are bad policy.  We will not tolerate Washington DC style legislation in Missouri.   Next year we will oppose all Omnibus bills regardless of content.   Follow the rules - One issue per bill.  Vote on that issue. Move On.   
     10th amendment resolutions.   (passed house committee, then stalled) Affirms of the sovereignty of the people of Missouri under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.  Sometimes it takes a few years for a bill to get passed.  Jim Guest presented 10th amendment resolutions before Tea Parties became popular.  In the past 18 months, most tea parties had some reference to the 10th amendment or state sovereignty.  Special Thanks to Jim Guest for lighting the torch that so many others are now carrying.  Kudos to Rep Jim Guest,  Mike Dethrow, Brian Nieves,  Alan Icet, Chuck Gatschenberger. 
     Private and Home Schools gain equal rights.  (passed)    Authorizes certain specified individuals in addition to the school superintendent to issue a student work certificate.  Current law says 14 & 15 year olds must have a work permit in order to be gainfully employed under child labor standards.  These “work certificates” are only provided by the public school superintendant of the school district in which the child resides.  Under this bill all private and home schools may issue certificates to their own students without having to submit to the public school superintendant.  Kudos  Reps Jamilah Nasheed, Chris Carter
     Bright Flight Scholarships for Home School students. (passed)  When the Bright Flight Scholarship was first created by the General Assembly the administration of the scholarship was not micro managed in statute.  As a result home school students who otherwise qualified for the scholarship were denied out of discrimination against home education.  In more recent years this discrimination has been eliminated through appeals and pressures from home schoolers and political supporters.  SB 733 now protects home school students from the potential of future discrimination by explicitly including home schools in the statutory guidelines for the scholarship.  Kudos Senator David Pearce, Rep Gayle Kingery
    Sunshine Law expansion (passed) For any public meeting where a vote of the governing body is required on issues regarding a tax increase, eminent domain with respect to a retail development project, certain types of improvement or development districts, or tax increment financing, the governing body of such county, city, town or village must give at least four days notice before the proper notice is not given, no vote shall be taken until proper notice has been provided. Any legal challenge to the provisions of this section must be brought within thirty days of the subject meeting or such meeting shall be deemed to have been properly noticed and held. Kudos  Senators Eric Schmitt,  Brad Lager
        Red-light cameras  (failed) would ban municipalities from using red-light cameras to enforce driving laws or raise money.  This issue needs a lot of public education.