The agriculture regulators who work so hard to prevent us from obtaining raw milk, or try insanely to register every chicken, goat, and horse in the country, like to think they hold the power to make us follow whatever crazy rules they come up with.

To a certain extent they can, but underneath their bravado, the regulators are well aware of an important truism: the public must be in general agreement for their regulations to work. Or, put another way, if those being regulated disapprove, they will find all kinds of ways around onerous regulations.

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a case in point. The fact that the all-powerful U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the help of its lap dog state ag friends pushing as hard as they can, has been able to only gain one-third farmer compliance after five years of intensive effort on NAIS is testimony to the farm community’s resistance.

The reason USDA is suddenly pushing so hard on such things as “listening sessions” isn’t that the agency wants to gain feedback from farmers—it knows full well how much most hate NAIS—but rather the agency hopes to fool farmers into thinking they have a say. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund reported in a press release that at the first such listening session in Harrisburg, PA, Friday, 27 of 36 individuals who testified spoke against NAIS. I’m not going out on much of a limb to predict this effort will fail as fully as previous such efforts.

The real message here is that USDA is very worried that NAIS could collapse of its own unnecessary weight, and the active refusal of farmers to participate.

Implicit in comments from Sylvia Gibson and Hugh Betcha on my previous post, individuals are increasingly looking for ways around, between, or outside the regulatory meddling. They want to establish their farms and raise their herds and quietly market their raw milk or cheese or grass-fed beef outside the view of nosy and interfering regulators.

Last week, Lykke wondered if “farmers starting-up a raw milk business have adequate information from the various sources (government, university extension, farm advisors, advocacy groups). I hunt around the web and find so little about the process, best approaches (including how to navigate through the regulations, private lab tests, government testing programs, etc.).”

The obvious answer is that the establishment organizations don’t want farmers to have such information, since raw dairy production may offer them a way to raise themselves by their bootstraps, and Big Ag wouldn’t want that. But even if the USDA and state ag agencies decided they really wanted to economically help their constituencies, I venture it would take a lot of outreach to convince farmers to participate. Given the current regulation-happy approach, farmers are doing everything they can to stay off the radar screen, for fear of being registered, or even noticed.

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Speaking of regulators, thanks to Amanda Rose for her offer last week to host a book reading/slumber party at her place in California in early October in honor of my upcoming book about raw milk. And to Lykke and Concerned Person for offering support.

We should have some early copies of the book available. I’d like to second Amanda’s encouragement to the regulator types to partake. Despite all my tough talk, I don’t bite. And the book portrays some as real people with real concerns. Besides I can’t wait to see regulators in pajamas.