Wild Winds Sheep Company

In the October, 2009, issue of the Shepherd magazine, page 14, center page is an article on "Product Labeling: Use of the Voluntary Claim "Natural" in the labeling of Meat and Poultry Product"  this is Docket FSIS 2006-0040 A under www.regulation.gov this is currently open to public comment.  I made and posted my comments concerning the term and use of all natural and how animals should be raised using that word. 

The term "all-natural" will soon be regulated by the Federal Government.

There are numerous comments posted by animal hate groups and very un-informed people.  I do not want some city dwelling arm chair activist telling me how to raise my livestock.

Here is what I posted (this is currently how I raise my animals):

• Animals are allowed to freely graze, exercise, with room to grow under natural conditions.  A feed-lot is not a natural condition for any animal.
• Animals are never confined in a “feed lot” situation for any length of time, unless weather or range conditions suggest otherwise.
• During times when pasture isn’t accessible due to weather or range or pasture conditions hay or silage feeds should be encouraged as part of sustainable land management practices.
• Animals have free choice mineral supplements, salt blocks or mineral tubs and fresh water at all times.
• Supplemental grain includes whole and crushed grains and non-animal based oils or protiens without antibiotic additives.  
• Ionophores should be allowed as they are not traditional antibiotic nor are they growth enhancers; rather they are to prevent parasitism.
• Anthelmintics should be allowed to prevent internal and external parasitism.
• Minimal vaccines should be allowed and based on regional needs.
• No growth hormones administered.
• Antibiotics should not be used to promote growth; however, antibiotics to treat sick or injured animals should be allowed.
• Animals are humanely treated at all times; use of electric prods should be prohibited. 
• Minimal or restricted of herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers on pasture or grazing grounds.
• Docking of tails and castration and disbudding should not be restricted, as these practices are for the health and welfare of the animal and animal handler.  Safety is always first for all.
• Shelter should be provided so the animal can get out of any weather condition.

Sincerely,

Catherine Wissner
Wild Winds Sheep Company
Carpenter, WY. 82054

 

 I typically don't put on my political hat, but this is something I just can't ignore.

 So; have any of you been following the 2009 Food Safety Enhancement Bill HR 2749?  I have and it has me very concerned, I have attached a brief of it, worth the reading as it may really change how we do business next year. Read on please.

Catherine Wissner, Wild Winds Sheep Company, Wyoming

"I Live in the garden; I just sleep in the house." Land of the Free, because of the Brave.

HR 2749

  On August 3, 2009 HR 2749, The Food Safety Enhancement Act was submitted to the US Senate, the Senate referred this bill to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for recommendations.  HR 2749 was passed by the House with little to no public review or input. Your help is needed to prevent this bill from being passed by the Senate into law.  Below is a very brief summary of HR 2749.

 

HR 2749 targets without reference to size or scope of farms "devoted to the growing and harvesting of crops, the raising of animals... or both" including an operation that manufactures grains or other feed stuffs that are grown and harvested on such farm .. For consumption as food by humans or animals"  harvesting also includes "washing, trimming of outer leaves of, and cooling produce."

 

The bill will require a unique FDA identifier for that facility, it will allow the FDA to inspect the facility and audit books. It will mandate a $500 yearly fee that will be annually "adjusted to reflect the greater of; the percentage change that occurred in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumer" or "the total percentage change for the previous fiscal year in basic pay for Federal employees stationed in the District of Columbia" or "The average annual change in the cost, per full-time equivalent position of the FDA of all personnel compensation and benefits paid with respect to such positions for the first 5 years of the preceding 6 fiscal years."  Registration fees will be due on December 31 of each year.  Fees will be used to defray the cost of food safety activities in order to solicit the views of the regulated industry, consumers and other interested stakeholders.

 

This bill will require the owner, operator or agent of a facility to conduct a hazard analysis, implement effective preventive controls...maintain records of monitoring, corrective action and verifications records and identify "hazards that is reasonably likely to occur".  It also requires a food safety plan and a food defense plan.

 

HR2749 also allows for the establishment by "regulation scientific and risk-based food safety standards for the growing, harvesting, procession, packing, sorting, transporting and hold of those types of raw agricultural commodities..that are fruit, vegetable, nut, or fungus: and for which the Secretary has determined that such standards are reasonable necessary.." It may also include standards addressing manure use, water quality and animal control...as determined by the Secretary." 

 

The bill does have one paragraph that proclaims; "shall take into consideration,..impact on small-scale and diversified farms, wildlife habitat...and organic production methods."

 

Civil penalties under this bill start at $20,000 and can go as high at $7,500,000.  This bill was introduced into the House of Representative on June 8, 2009 and passed by the House on July 30, 2009.  This bill is being "fast tracked" through our US Congress.

 

As a result of this bill passing the US House my farm insurance premiums have already gone up, I sell at the Farmer's Market and to various restaurants. If this bill passes it will put me out of business and many other just like me, so much for the local smaller carbon foot print movement of food.

 

 

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2749   

 

For a Current Version of the bill

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-2749     

 

To contact you state senators go to this web site;

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.  

 

The 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, released in April of 2008, claimed that 18 percent of global greenhouse gases are caused by animal agriculture.  The Center for Consumer Freedom helped to clarify this claim.

Buried in the report is the information that deforestation-mainly in the Amazon Rainforest-is included in that figure.  Without it, livestock’s contribution falls to less than 12 percent.

But even 12 percent still sounded a bit high.  In April 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006, detailing a complete accounting of global-warming-related emissions in the United States and where they come from.  This report said that 6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions is from all of agricultural, not just meat production. 

It gets more interesting still.  The EPA separates out the various kinds of agricultural emissions into two categories, one that relates to raising animals for food and the other for non-animal related agriculture (like; grain production).  The result: greenhouse gas sources directly related to livestock production in the United States only accounts for 2.58 percent of the total.

2.58 percent is a far cry from 18 percent.  

From the EPA's Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.

 

My husband and I limbed up a very old Elm tree this weekend, it lives on the east side of my high tunnel.  I need that morning sun to get the tunnel warmed up and the plants growing.  The tree is unfortunate to be under the power lines, I am sure when it was planted the lines were not there.  This area of Wyoming didn't get power until sometime in the 1940's. 

The power line tree trimmers have topped the tree so many times that parts of the main trunk have died as a result.  The limbs that have been topped also produce sucker shoots that are weak and tend to break in high winds. Topping a tree is about the worse thing you can do to them, other then driving nails into the trunk. This poor old tree is also under attack by the elm beetle and is riddled with bore holes.  The tree really should come down. Trees are hard to come by in the prairie, so we left it standing.

I still have some lambs getting out, I still haven't figured out where they are escaping from.

I just finished reading a couple of good cook books; they are great for that trip to the Farmer's Market, "Local Flavors", by Deborah Madison and "Vegetable" by the Culinary Institute of America.  Catherine

The wind finally stopped blowing, at least for today.  According to the web site windpowermaps.org Wyoming has huge wind energy potential. That  translates into tie small animals down, batten the hatches, nail things down and wear safety glasses when you do chores.

I did fix some fence in yesterday's wind storm, thinking that that is were the sheep were getting out. This morning I was greeted by only six instead of the normal 16, mobile lawn mowers.  All six of them are from this year's lambs group.  Two of those six are from the group I was given.  Again, that constanct concern of finding food, even when it plentiful in the pasture.

I cleaned out my high tunnel, (an un-heated greenhouse) and planted oats.  I'll turn the oats under sometime in March.  This will help improve the soil structure, add nutrients that my vegetables used and provide food for the earthworms.

I read that California passed initiative #2 on farm animal housing. More government meddling!  While I have a great appreciation for free range, pasture raised and all natural with animals. Especially mine.  I have  toured the egg production houses, I feel that veal farms are, strange, and a female hogs with piglets is the most dangerous animal anyone could raise.

There is another implication which most people never think about.  Eggs are a cheap source of protein, easy to prepare, fast food that is good for you, even a kid can cook up eggs and have a good meal or snack.  In the fact that eggs are an inexpensive protein, makes them something that single parents, people on food stamps, children, the elderly and families trying to stretch their food dollar can afford.

By placing restrictions on the egg industry the price goes up proportionally to the dollars invested in the system. The farmer will pass that cost on to the customer. This may price many people out of a cheap source of protein.

No one ever thinks of the weak links in society when touchy feely laws are passed from arm chair want-to-be activists, someone always pays the price, it's usually those who can least afford it.  

While I don't like the idea of hens being crammed into a small cage, people going without a cheap source of protein isn't right either. Where do you draw the line?  Catherine

 

 

Last spring I was given 8 sheep from a person who could no longer afford to feed or care for them.  These sheep were thin, long over due to be shorn, long toes in need of general care that my sheep receive on a scheduled basis.   After a month in a quartine area, with all the food they could possible want to eat and a clean bill of health, I let them in with the rest of the flock.  It was the normal who are you routine.  They spent the summer grazing on green grass hills with the rest of my flock, and my livestock guardian dogs and llamas for protection.  Life is good.

No animal ever gets over worrying about their food even when it's in front of them.  These eight girls are no exception.  Now that fall is here, the grass is brown and they need to go farther out in pasture for food, the old fears have returned.  In fact it has shown up in some rather interesting sheep behavior.

I have watched them dig under my fence, jump my fence, squeeze their pudgy bodies though breaks between buildings and fencing and just show up.  They like to show up in my front yard, do a quick tour around the house, like they may have missed something from yesterday's tour.  They hike down my driveway and eat the grass between the gravel road and fence.  Once that tour is over they wait for me at the gate to be let back into their corral.

All my sheep are good natured, friendly, safe to be around (except the rams, they are never safe) and generally happy free ranging girls. Most have names, some are retired 4-H show sheep, some I have purchased,  some are daughters and some given to me.  I try and follow the National Organic Program policies on animal welfare and attend animal husbandry conferences when I can.  I want my sheep to have a good life.  Catherine