Speak Your Piece: Let's Toss Green Leafy Laws

editor — Tue, 4 Dec 2007 20:43:40 -0800

Danger zone? Or is it just a fine plot of chard, kale, beets, spinach and lettuce?
Photo: Silvercreek Garden , Bellingham, Washington

The following conversation takes place in the not-so-distant future.

“Grammy, in our history class today the teacher read to us from a book called Little House on the Prairie”

“Oh, I remember those stories. Do you like them?”

“Yup, but I didn’t know about some of the things she read to us.”

“Like what, my darlin’?”

“Well, how did they eat things right out of the garden. Were they that brave? Or were they just so hungry they didn’t care if they died?”

Speak Your Piece: Tag EVERY Animal?

editor — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:23:17 -0700

Sharon Zecchinelli's hogs, Pork and Chop, would have to be individually tagged.
Photo:Vince Zecchinelli

As my friends and I rode our horses the other day in the Cold Hollow Mountains of Vermont, I tried to savor the moment. Besides hearing the grunt of a moose, whose retreating tracks we saw on the ride back down the mountain trail, there was sign of a big deer alongside a set of canine tracks. I made note of the place where some partridges rose up out of the bush. Here and there fall colors were beginning to appear in the sugar bush.

I sighed, as I always do, thinking about how these days of having the freedom and liberty to own and ride horses with friends could be slipping away due to the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

NAIS is a mandate – not a law – dreamt up by various federal acronyms: the USDA (United Stated Department of Agriculture); the APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services); and the NIAA (National Institute for Animal Agriculture). The idea of NAIS is to supposedly trace back disease in the “national herd" within 48 hours of its discovery.

By Sharon Zecchinelli

Speak Your Piece: Let's Toss Green Leafy Laws

Speak Your Piece: Tag EVERY Animal?