Tell Your Rep. to Vote YES on the Hageman and Spartz Amendments to H.R. 4368

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Support Independent Farming and Honest Government

WE EXPECT THE VOTE TODAY AROUND 4:30 (9/27/23) PLEASE CALL THIS MORNING!  Your calls can change votes!

Representatives Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Victoria Spartz have introduced important amendments to the agricultural appropriation bill H.R. 4368 (that sets USDA‘s budget for the 2024 fiscal year) that need your support. Both amendments will likely be up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this afternoon.

The Hegeman amendment will prohibit any funding “to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the proposed rule entitled ‘ Use of Electronic Identification Eartags as Official Identification in Cattle and Bison’; USDA publish the proposed rule in the federal register on January 19, 2023. The proposed rule would make electronic ID eartags mandatory.

Implementation of the Electronic ID requirement will vertically integrate the cattle and bison industry—at this time ranchers raising cattle and bison are the last independent producers of animal proteins; the pork and poultry industries have long been vertically integrated. Implementation will make ranchers slaves to the meatpackers and would, in the words of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), establish the equivalent of a social credit system for those raising cattle and bison.

For those of us wondering why industry would spend billions on the production of “food” (insects and lab-grown animal protein) that no one wants to eat—Electronic ID is a vehicle to reduce the amount of beef on the market, and increase its price. Electronic ID is not about food safety, it’s about changing human behavior to stop consuming a food that is important for the health of hundreds of millions of Americans. The Hageman amendment MUST pass.

The Spartz amendment will prohibit federal funding “to carry out any program established under a commodity promotion law.” Currently, producers of 20 different commodities make payments to their respective commodity promotion programs, known as checkoff programs. The programs have done little to help the small farmer and have been characterized by big business cronyism and a lack of accountability. The Spartz amendment will deny USDA any funding to administer the promotion programs which would mean the programs’ end.

ACTION TO TAKE 

Call or email asking your U.S. Representative to vote YES on both the Hageman and Sparta amendments. Calls are better; if it all possible, please call.

Find your U.S. Representative’s contact information is here:

https://www.congress.gov/members

TALKING POINTS – Hageman Amendment 

1. Electronic ID is unnecessary; the current traceability system (branding and metal eartags) is working fine.

2. The electronic ID requirement would lead to the vertical integration of the cattle industry, costing cattle farmers their independence and putting them under the control of the meatpacker monopoly.

3. The expense of complying with the electronic ID requirement alone would put many farmers and ranchers out of business; there is a heavy paperwork mandate, and having a microchip for every animal is expensive.

4. The electronic ID requirement will reduce the number of cattle and significantly increase the price of beef. The requirement is not about food safety but rather about changing human behavior to decrease meat consumption.

TALKING POINTS – Spartz Amendment

1. The checkoff programs are a waste of money that have done little to help small farmers and ranchers.

2. The checkoff programs have little accountability. It has been difficult for Congress to obtain accurate records showing where the money the programs raise has actually gone.

3. The effect of the check off programs has been to promote monopolies and big business cronyism.

PLEASE CALL YOUR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE NOW.

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