SmallHolders Alliance (SHA) started 6 years ago, with the onset of the USDA Scrapie Eradication Program. It was to unite small farmers in MA, so we could speak as a unit and not fight our battles alone. After a brief burst of action, SHA became idle. However, with the advent of the USDA's National Animal Identification System, I brought it back to life. SHA will continue to serve as a loosely based grassroots communication system between New England's small livestock farmers, but we will also use this site to communicate activities on the struggle against NAIS.

I am the Massachusetts State Coordinator for Liberty Ark Coalition, and am willing to speak to any group that wants to learn more about this program. If you'd like more information about Liberty Ark, or NAIS, check out the links on this page.

January 16, 2009 - It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you that the USDA has decided to make NAIS mandatory. On Jan. 13, 2009, they filed with the Federal Registry, their intent to use all existing animal health program, such as Scrapie, Brucellosis, TB, Pseudorabies and others. The new ruling can be found at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-353.htm or here

This new ruling seems to change their position on using tattoos as identifying marks and enacts a uniform AIN eartag. It also adds another layer of identification for sheep and goats, instituting a Flock Identification Number.

Please read the ruling, and then spread the word. The comment period ends March 16, 2008. You can comment at

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2007-0096

June 15 - USDA Faces Budget Cut, House Considers Massive Food Safety Bill

Connecticut's Congresswoman DeLauro cut the funding for NAIS in the 2010 Ag Appropriations Bill, not as an answer to our prayers, but as a way to force them to mandate NAIS. It appears that she hasn't heard the calls of the hundreds of ranchers and farmers who have attended Listening Sessions hosted by the USDA throughout nation. While hundreds may not seem like much across the country, consider these issues:

Publicity has been terrible, Very Short Notice in some States
This is planting season in most of the country, or harvesting season in
other areas. This is not the time to ask farmers to sit at a meeting.
The meetings are often in remote areas, away from many active agricultural areas.
Farmers aren't much for meetings in even under the most ideal circumstances.

The resounding answer from the Listening Session audiences has been "It Won't Work. I Won't Comply."

However, the House of Representatives has just submitted a very dangerous bill for small farmers, HR2749. Click on the number for more specifics about this issue. Imagine office workers setting "Best Practices!" How do we tell them that this is not an inventory program for office supplies, but an impossible, costly program that cannot possibly work? Please spread the word and help us stop the invasions and incursions that 2749 allows.

May 30 - MA Hearing on Anti-NAIS Legislation

Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 1:00 p.m. at the State House Rm A-2

The MA Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture will conduct a hearing on SB376, "An Act Relative to Farm Protection." This bill would stop NAIS in all its forms as far as the Commonwealth of MA is concerned. This is an open hearing, so if people want to attend and speak, they may. Written comments can also be submitted. Members of the Committee can be found and contacted here.

Click here for information on USDA's Listening Sessions being held Nationwide!

January 21, 2009 - Yesterday the CT Dept. of Agriculture is pushing legislation to limit the sale of raw milk in Connecticut, and to change the standards at which farms would have to operate if they were to sell it from the farm. CT is one of the few states that has allowed the sale of raw milk in retail stores. In the summer 08 the state of CT had more than 200 cases of e.coli 0147:HN, and three of those cases were linked to a particular raw milk farm. That farm is owned by the town and had hired a set of contractors to run the operation. That is not typical of most raw milk operations. For more information, and what you can do to express an opinion, click here.