From Jo Nova: Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape
[Note: I visited with the Thompsons at their farm during my visit to Narrogin. While time did not permit me to do the full scale story that Jo Nova does below, I’ll point out that I grew up in farm country of the Midwest, I milked cows when I was 11. I also cleaned toilets at the county fair at 14 (a job nobody else would do but it paid $100 for the week, a fortune for me then). I know what smells and how. If you want to smell a poorly waste managed feedlot, try driving on I-5 near Coalinga, and get a whiff of the Harris Ranch feedlot.
While I’m on the subject of issues in Australia having to do with environmental red tape, I’d like to remind everyone of this story from Australia’s terrible wildfires: “We’ve lost two people in my family because you dickheads won’t cut trees down…” – Anthony]
Matt and Janet Thompson are at the end of the rope
Did you know in Australia it’s possible to ruin a business if you don’t like the way it smells? This is a heartbreaking story — that a government could effectively ruin a family by slowly strangling them in red tape, and that they would have apparently no protection from the courts or the ombudsman. It eats away at our sense of justice. Can we speak freely? Are we all treated equally under the law, or are some laws only enforced according to a capricious whim?
This is the price we pay for vague laws where business people can run ventures, do everything to the letter of the law, with best-practice procedures, winning customers and contracts, yet go broke despite all that because of onerous, impossible-to-meet conditions, that are unmeasurable, and change suddenly, with the added bonus of inordinately long delays. At the moment, Janet and Matts farm, Narrogin Beef Producers, lies empty, unstocked, while debts accrue by the minute.
This is also a story of sovereign risk. Investors in Australian industry beware.
Unused equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars lies idle.
How can any business survive the need to get two-yearly licenses which take more than 12 months to arrange; where after four years of planning and preparation, capacity can be suddenly halved without warning; where an appeals process can take 18 months and when the original capacity is finally restored, not only are many new stipulations added, but the expiry date is not extended. After 30 months of a grinding process, the farmer is only left with 6 months before the amended license expires and no way to take out loans based on such an uncertain future.
If the government were a private business paid to arrange licenses, and expected to be evidence based and to respond in a reasonable time, then they would have no customers. Indeed, they could be sued.
Matt and Janet were told their license would be a formality, and they took out loans and contracts for water and grain in advance. Their input costs last year added up to around $10 million dollars. When the capacity was halved there was no way under the laws of biology and commerce that they could bring in the cash flow to meet those costs. When they appealed, there was no timeframe, no indication it would take 18 months to be resolved, so they took out loans, bore the costs, the interest, and paid for water they did not use, and grain no cow would eat. Their money was effectively squandered by the unpredictable rulings of the state government.
Bear in mind, the Thompsons have broken no laws. Most of this case boils down to a small number of complaints about odour. I would not wish foul smells on anyone, but the evidence there is suggests the problem is minor, and the level of complaints has no relation to the number of stock on the Thompson’s farm in any case. There is the troubling possibility that if someone took a dislike to another party, or had another vested interest in property nearby, or in a competing business, theoretically they could solicit complaints and exaggerate. How would we know? It’s hard to photograph a smell. It’s an avenue ripe for exploitation. Lets keep things in perspective, Janet and Matt live at their farm, closer than anyone else to any odours and emissions, and their farm is next to a piggery (ferrgoodnesssake) which has been there for more than 20 years.
Read the whole story at Jo Nova: Tyranny: How to destroy a business with environmental red tape
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As they say, “Green is the new Red”.
I am glad to see this over here.
The two terrible parts are that they approved this farm, the people built it up and now they are playing games with permits.
The farm can’t stay in business if they rescind a permit after it was been granted.
We are seeing more Marxist control endeavors from politicians that want to throw their weight around.
In my farm neighborhood, 100,000 cattle feed lots are common. This is small.
Social engineering is the new doo gooders pastime.
I have seen the same system used by the government with using “statutes of limitations”. By the time you figure the game plan from the delays…toooooo late.
@Henry:
“doo gooders”
Ha!
But we need more government involvement for things like this because there’s a big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico!
(Doesn’t make sense to me, either, but isn’t that the latest justification for ever-increasing government regulations?)
Drill baby drill.
Appeals court denies government’s bid to keep offshore drilling moratorium
Obama’s cronies are 3 losses in a row to create an illegal drilling moratorium.
Here is an example oof a court looking out for commercial interests. Australia needs to allow courts do move quickly.
Even the worst totalitarian regimes in history never treated their own productive people this way.
What is the price of beef in Oz?
Is it going up?
How fast?
Do the voters care?
“Henry chance says:
July 8, 2010 at 4:13 pm
We are seeing more Marxist control endeavors from politicians that want to throw their weight around.”
I am not a Marxist, never will be close to one, but let’s be clear that Marx and Marxism is in favour of high levels of industrial production. What we are seeing in the environmental movement is something beyond ridiculous. It’s a totalitarian ethos which seeks to completely subjugate and oppress all human natural functions in favour of unnaturally sitting around and dying of idleness in order to bring about some sort of natural eco-utopia. It’s a a stupid religion to keep the elites in every stronger positions of power because they have lost vision of the future and don’t give a shit about the rest of us anymore.
The United States is not that far behind. We have been protected by the Constitution which enforces the idea of rule of law. Once the Constitution is gone it becomes rule of Judge meaning however the judge feels today is what the law is. A few courts already rule this way and most of the time are reversed on appeal but if the Constitution is made a worthless paper as the progressives would like it, we are gone as well.
If you don’t mind me saying, it comes across that the ‘piggery’ is the likely cause of the complaints: Beef vs pork, and beef wins hands down all the time — in the marketplace.
As far as odors go, pig scat is way more odoriferous that cow pies, any day.
It would be interesting, to say the least, to see who buys the failed venture, lock, stock and odour. (been there, seen that)
regards
“Can we speak freely? Are we all treated equally under the law, or are some laws only enforced according to a capricious whim?”
Uhmmm… no and no.
Are some laws only enforced according to capricious whim? As we are witness today, our US immigration laws are not being enforced AND Our Dear Leader is spending precious taxpayer millions to file and pursue a federal law suit to prevent the State of Arizona from enforcing the federal immigration laws. It really doesn’t get much more capricious that that!
As for speaking freely, we have the skeptics black lists, IRS audits of outspoken opponents to Obamanation, and the newly acknowledged “Perfect Citizen” web monitoring system to provide the answer to that.
The State Control beast and its marxist supporters are gathering power and strength in both Oz and US. They can only succeed if people of good conscience fail to reject their twisted philopsophies, both with honest words and direct actions. The much maligned Tea Party (in the US) is but one grass roots expression of US citizens emphatically rejecting State Control of our lives.
We have an excellent opportunity to ‘retire’ a bunch of socialist US politicians, on election day Nov 2, 2010, and put the bloody socialists on the defensive. I urge each of you to seek out candidates of integrity that you want to support and then commit your time and money to support their election campaigns. We can progressively fire their socialist opponents and regain control of our respective countries, but only if we are firmly committed in both words and actions. Let truth and good humor be both our sword and shield. It will only make their deceits and venomous spite that much more apparent!
Kiss a Conservative…. Because it Feels Sooooooooooo Right!
My family built a family resort 20 years ago in northern Minnesota. The permit process was pretty atrocious, but with a little know how and sweet talk, it can be done. The biggest issue was where we wanted to put our swimming beach. The army corps and MN DNR were constantly arguing about whether the proposed site included wetland (which meant a big “NO” for the beach) or if it was, in fact dry lakebed due to the dry conditions seen from 1987-1990. Well, the DNR insisted it was just dry lakebed, but the Army Corps, geniuses that they are (NOLA anybody?), determined it was wetland by sticking their boots in the mud about 2 feet from the lakeshore.. and since it filled in with water, it was wetland. So finally my mom just had the guy come out and put the sand in and we made the beach. About 4 months later, 2 months after the resort opened for business, she got a notice that the Army Corps had finally approved the site for a beach. The Minnesota DNR can be pretty nasty sometimes (usually for good reasons.. like burning during a drought or dumping chemicals into lakes, etc.).. but they certainly know what they are talking about. The Army Corps seems to be authority first, knowledge later.
The Thompsons are a warning to productive people arriving in Australia to do business. I have been down a similar road.
The lesson is:
Australia is essentially a one party state.
The so-called elected representatives are appointed by the party and owe allegiance to the party. These representatives are generally trash from Arts/Law faculties with limited work experience.
The public servants who at one time made decisions, essentially from the bottom up. now avoid decisions in fear of political repercussions.
Essentially, Australia is on its way to a soviet style wasteland, governed by a remote and self-rewarding politburo that survives by digging up raw materials and flogging them.
These sorts of increasing fiefdom rules applied to the peasants of the land are what has led to revolution in the past. What has happened in Australia has happened in the US.
To wit: I live in a very rural part of NE Oregon. We used to grow and make what we needed, with some left over to export in exchange for what other nearby counties could grow or make that we could not. That meant small dairies. Small meat packers and markets. Garden to store veggies. Weavers and tailors. The people lived within their means and quite comfortably.
Then came regulations that when applied to small industries, made it impossible to turn a profit to live on. So these small industries closed and now we import what we need in order to export what we can. No one here who tries to make a living, lives comfortably. We are all slowly losing money.
Then along comes high gas prices. Now we can’t afford to buy what we import. And since our energy, whether it be wind or water, is also now imported, we are dependent on outsiders for our lights, just like the US is dependent on foreign oil.
So more and more people I know are both voting with their pocket books (and no longer for the current form of the Democratic Party), and arming themselves in case the government goes too far in this return to de facto over-ruler kings and queens with peasants living hand to mouth just so we can go to the castle and clean their commodes.
Being a past life long Democrat and quite the liberal thinker, I almost feel as if the Democratic Party and those we elected have committed treason.
Ah, the Harris Ranch feedlot. Earlier this century I commuted one way each week on I-5 between Silicon Valley and LA. The feedlot became a familiar, if often fragrant, landmark on those long monotonous drives.
Looks like they’ll soon be exporting to Australia…
The Property Rights Australia Youtube channel has been set up, and more stories are forthcoming. I beg people of all ages. From all countries. Watch them. Watch them again. Watch them as often as you have to, to help understand that our democracy is under serious threat from extreme green lobbyists, who are funded under the guise of the “do good” Green groups.
I have lived a great big life and have had the opportunity to meet people from countries like Bosnia, like Cambodia and others who risked their lives rather than live with oppression. And now I see our freedoms slipping away, because of “Noble Cause” tyrants.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PropertyRightsAustr
http://www.propertyrightsaustralia.org
http://agmates.ning.com/
Communism. This is all about monopolizing every industry, and make us all poor, so we’ll beg for health care, bread care, house care…. ie comply to become slaves.. It has nothing to do with protecting the environment. CO2 emission is a measure of living standard, poor people emit less. When these commies say “we want to reduce emissions”, they mean “we want to make you poor.”
I personally buy Australian or New Zealand meat. It tastes a lot better than corporate factory meat produced here in the states. Once all civilian(small) business are exterminated with ridiculous regulations, we’ll be left with unhealthy $hit tasting meat. Just like slaves; work your shift, eat the scraps than repeat.
Ed Caryl says:
July 8, 2010 at 4:42 pm
What is the price of beef in Oz?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Substantially higher than the US because we don’t have ridiculous subsidies on corn /shrug.
The Aussie dollar is creeping back up to US$0.90 so knock 10-15% off Aussie prices to get an idea of US$ equivalents. Most meats sell in Australia for Aus$10-20 per kilo ($Aus10 being the approximate range for chicken breasts* and mince etc, on upwards). I guess you could roughly divide that by 2 to get a US price per pound**.
* I am basing that on the Perth Woolworths price where chicken breasts are about Aus$10 per kilo in the deli section, for some reason you pay about Aus3-4 per kilo more for the pre-packed stuff in the chilled meat section.
** Yes, you guys are still using that crazy British system? I will keep niggling about that, cos that’s teh way I roll…
nevket240 says:
July 8, 2010 at 5:09 pm
It would be interesting, to say the least, to see who buys the failed venture, lock, stock and odour. (been there, seen that)
regards
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Thompsons had it on the market last year, but it is a bit hard to sell a farm without a licence to operate…
They should have a chat to our dishonorable ex Prime Minister, Keating … he knows how to make money out of a piggery and without any of that silly red tape:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/stories/s20229.htm
The look on that mans face is so sad. Marxism targets farmers. Could this be why they are suffering from their government?
Just nauseating. I wish these bureaucrats could be made to suffer equally for all the suffering they mindlessly mete out in their air-conditioned, sealed off offices.
Anthony,
I have been one of those fighting this battle for several years. The battle is disguised as a “food Safety” issue.
Since the ratification of the World Trade Organization in 1995 there has been a running fight between farmers around the world and the new food cartel inspired government regulations. Here in the USA we managed to kill NAIS (National Animal Identification) after a lengthy fight only to see it reorganize and sprout back up as “Animal Disease Traceability” This time the USDA got smart, they are having only a couple of “listening sessions” Farmers must pay $250 each for the three minutes they will be allowed to “express their concerns” – http://naissucks.com/wordpress/?p=492
Here is a history:
1.) According to one source 5 corporations control 80% of our food supply Actually from my research there are about ten transnational corporations that control most of the food supply in the world.
2) The intentional removal of farmers from the land started around world war II
US business and banking leaders formed a group to direct domestic policies. “.. the Committee for Economic Development, was officially established in 1942…. CED has influenced US domestic policies in much the same way that the CFR has influenced the nation’s foreign policies.” The CED had “…determined that the problem with American agriculture was that there were too many farmers. But the CED had a “solution”: millions of farmers would just have to be eliminated….
In its 1945 report “Agriculture in an Expanding Economy,” CED complained that “the excess of human resources engaged in agriculture is probably the most important single factor in the “farm problem’” and describes how agricultural production can be better organized to fit to business needs.[2] A report published in 1962 entitled “An Adaptive Program for Agriculture”[3] is even more blunt in its objectives, leading Time Magazine to remark that CED had a plan for fixing the identified problem: “The essential fact to be faced, argues CED, is that with present high levels farm productivity, more labor is involved in agriculture production that the market demands ” in short, there are too may farmers. To solve that problem, CED offers a program with three main prongs.””
Why would CED member corporations want to destroy farms? Easy – for corporations, unemployed farmers and farm workers provided an excess of cheap labor to choose from. Why would bankers want to destroy farms? Easy – all of the personal income tax the IRS collects goes into the bankers pockets as interest on government loans. It is easier to get those tax dollars from corporations BEFORE wages are paid than from independent entrepreneurs AFTER the money is in their hands. Bankers are also very eager to support expensive socialist bureaucracies because the government borrows nonexistent money from them and then pays them back with real wealth plus interest. Corporations want more regulations to stifle start up and smaller competitors.
So what happen to the well integrated society of the forties and fifties?
” CED’s plans resulted in widespread social upheaval throughout rural America, ripping apart the fabric of its society destroying its local economies. They also resulted in a massive migration to larger cities. The loss of a farm also means the loss of identity, and many farmers’ lives ended in suicide [6], not unlike farmers in India today who have been tricked into debt and desperation and can see no other way out.”
Source: http://www.opednews.com/articles/History-HACCP-and-the-Foo-by-Nicole-Johnson-090906-229.html
More recently the food cartel formed a group called the IPC or the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council – International Policy Council, for short. They were instrumental in placing food and agriculture on the international trading block. The VP of Cargill, Dan Amstutz, wrote the World Trade Organizations Agreement on Agriculture. After the WTO was ratified control of agriculture and food passed from local governments into the hands of international “committees”
The FDA has plainly stated its position on international Harmonization of Laws,. ”Failure to reach a consistent, harmonized set of laws, regulations and standards within the freetrade agreements and the World Trade Organization Agreements can result in considerable economic repercussions.” The FDA even names the International Organizations the FDA is now taking its orders from:
* Codex Alimentarius
* International Office of Epizootics
* International Plant Protection Convention
* World Health Organization
* Food and Agricultural Organization
* Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)
* Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues
* Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Microbiological Risk Assessments
* Pan American Health Organization
* Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
So how did the United Stated manage to give up its sovereignty on such important issues as food and medicine? The answer is we did not.
During the debate on approving the WTO Agreement, Congress was justifiably worried that the multinational pact was in conflict with U.S. Sovereignty. Arguments for ratification were vehemently endorsed by Clinton Administration officials who were eager to get the agreement passed Congress. Congressional fears were lulled by pointing out Congress is ultimately responsible for changing the laws of the United States; and second, the U.S. is entitled to withdraw from the WTO. Also a feature of the Uruguay Round agreements are described as follows:
“United States Law to Prevail in Conflict The URAA puts U.S. sovereignty and U.S. law under perfect protection. According to the Act, if there is a conflict between U.S. and any of the Uruguay Round agreements, U.S. law will take precedence regardless when U.S. law is enacted. § 3512 (a) states: “No provision of any of the Uruguay Round Agreements, nor the application of any such provision to any person or circumstance, that is inconsistent with any law of the United States shall have effect.” Specifically, implementing the WTO agreements shall not be construed to “amend or modify any law of the United States, including any law relating to
(i) the protection of human, animal, or plant life or health,
(ii) the protection of the environment, or
(iii) worker safety”, or to “limit any authority conferred under any law of the United States, including section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.” http://www.eastlaw.net/research/wto/wto2b.htm
I will stop there or I will end up writing a book
Google “Nicole Johnson” “Food Safety” or “John Munsell” HACCP for more information.