Whatever Happened to Integration??

A number of journalism organizations are protesting a provision in the pending 2008 farm bill that includes an unusual secrecy provision for information in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

The NAIS is a database that tracks livestock from birth to market to help protect consumers from unsafe food and prevent disease outbreaks. The voluntary system makes it easier for the Feds to track a sick animal from farm to farm and from farm to market. The version of the bill sitting in the Senate could make it a criminal offense to publish information like the location of a feed lot, even if it were already in the public domain.

Of course, the Feds worry that farmers won't sign up for the program if they think their names might be splashed all over the media someday.

Here is the NAIS press office's Web site, which might be a good place to turn to in order to out why the Feds think the information should remain private.

Those groups fighting the legislation include the Society of Environmental Journalists [PDF], the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the National Press Foundation, and UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.


We have Black and Hispanic Police Associations
We have Black and Hispanic legislatures
We have Black schools.. and the list goes on and on.

It is as if they all have different problems.. aren't they human, don't they need work, sometimes their spouses give them problems, their children misbehave, don't they need a place to live, food on the table, clothes on their backs... like us folks do? Anything else can be worked out so why segregate themselves from the rest of us and wonder why they are treated so differently.

Maybe Mr. Edwards is right, we are a nation divided, but who is doing the dividing? The politicians seem to like it that way, but the people don't, so why not try some real integration and tell the politicians to take a flying leap.