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
How about – backyard, hot, humid, little wind and dog poo from neighbors …
Where: Suburban America (neighborhood outside Dallas, TX)
.
Al Gore’s Holy Hologram says:
July 8, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Even the worst totalitarian regimes in history never treated their own productive people this way.
________________________________________
You forgot about Stalin’s deliberate starvation of Ukrainian farmers. “the breadbasket of Europe” still hasn’t recovered.
““The Collective Farm Policy was a terrible struggle, Ten million died. It was fearful. Four years it lasted. It was absolutely necessary.” Joseph Stalin http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/quotes.html
This stinks! I can’t smell the cattle, but something smells fishy. This smacks of corruption and attempted extortion, employ the right person as your legal advisor and they will fix it with the organisation they run. Don’t employ them and you are out of business.
I have only been in Aus for about 5 months now, and I have noted an incredible amount of government driven climate change guilt through advertising, and legislation.
As an Albertan and from a rural community, it breaks my heart to hear stories like this because the agricultural business is not an easy one at the best of times. And, if you think that a family managed farm is hard to do have as a neighbour well, wait until that farm goes under, and a factory farm goes in. THEY are much harder to deal with.
Until the Labour party is out of power, there is no way I will invest in Aus businesses. Mr. Rudd whom I relentlessly criticized (yes, I am a registered voter) was apparently the more reasonable one in the caucus. Apparently Ms. Gillard is farther left than he was.
All animals are equal, except that some are more equal than others.
I read this over at Jo Nova’s site, good to see it placed here too.
It’s a terrible situation the Thompson’s find themselves in, and the thing is, I’m not surprised. Australia is becoming a place where the enterprising cannot do business, only the politically favored can.
It’s not the Australia that I remember anymore. This eco fascism must stop. This out of control bureaucracy must be curbed.
I just hope this is the start of a push back. A reexamination of our draconian eco laws like Native Vegetation Legislation and land clearing laws, water allocations, etc and the biased and militant bureaucrats that now interpret and administer these laws in conjunction with activist green allies.
Time it was all brought undone and the power given back to the private sector and its hard working productive families.
Hey R. Ed Neck. lol. I am a fellow Canadian who found warm weather and a great lifestyle here. We just need to tweak the government a bit.
Click my link if you want to say howdy.
Pamela Gray says:
July 8, 2010 at 5:43 pm
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.
Pamela,
As painful as it is for me to say this: You get the government you deserve.
More and more people here in Washington –your northern neighbor– are finally getting a clue: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL).
Should they eat cake?
Is this farm a genuine victim of climate change?
Gail:
Write the book.
It may right the wrong.
While I understand and agree with the tenor of your statement regarding the Thompsons, there are incredibly worse examples of totalitarian government’s treatment of their citizens. As an example please consider the fate of the Kulaks under Stalin. Please see Stalin&Kulaks brief account
Al Gore’s Holy hologram – “Even the worst totalitarian regimes in history never treated their own productive people this way.”
Robert Mugabe and the farming hell-hole that is Zimbabwe comes immediately to mind. Check out Rhodesian farm productivity before Zimbabwe and now.
From the CIA World Factbook: “…The government’s land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products. The EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds…”
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html
899: WA has a long way to go before they “get it”. The usual rule of holes (if you’re in one, stop digging) has yet to be even understood by our rulers in Olympia.
This is happening in the US here and now. Ask any small business. We are being devastated with illogical government regulations. To top it off, the banks won’t lend because they are being over-regulated. America is trying to be so safe that we have now placed ourselves in very small a rubber room. No one in their right mind would risk becoming an entrepenuer in America right now, some lefty might bring a lawsuit or government regulation that would force them out. Can’t be too successful, doncha know. Greed is bad, except for union and government employees. People who are both are twice as sanctimoniously greedy.
Thumbnail says:
July 8, 2010 at 5:49 pm
The Property Rights Australia Youtube channel has been set up, and more stories are forthcoming….
http://agmates.ning.com/
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Thanks Thumbnail.
I love Agmates and the UK Warmwell site both are good for getting the real stories about what is happening to our food supply.
GM free Ireland and for the USA R-Calf are also good sites for information along with NoNAIS and NAISstinks
We live in an age of petty tyranny, where the authoritarian state is finding its feet and testing its powers to see how far it can go. This form of tyranny always starts off slowly and gradually, little steps at first so the population fails to notice and as the flow of little steps increases so does the confidence of the budding tyrannical state.
We in the west have made the mistake so often made before, we as a population have delegated executive powers to a particular group/class of people and left them to get on with it without check or intervention. This group is called the ‘political class’ and they have all the traits of a seperate and superior mindset, they have been left to govern and they cannot resist attracting more and more power to themselves.
This governing class becomes insular and cut off from the population and becomes hostile to their electorate who can evict them via elections, so the road to removing that power from us and the building of their own power becomes irrestistable. The number of petty restricting laws increases and when people obey and do not complain then more and more laws are made up. The effect of this build up of petty laws is to show the litle people who is boss and who is the serf, nothing the budding tyrannical state does during the time of the build of petty laws will overtly scare the population, the aim is to slowly smother them with with small steps toward slavery where many fail to notice until its too late.
As the state builds up its power and confidence the steps become bolder and the punishments for infractions of the increasing wall of petty laws becomes harsher, the budding bully state is hypnotising the population and imposing its mastery by stealth.
The myriad of laws are not meant ot protect us, they are meant to show us who is boss and the more the population gives in the more the state pushes, its called the legal ratchet and it works only one way.
We are all to blame for allowing this oh so obvious and preventable disaster to unfold, we gave our trust to a professional political insular group and enabled them to acrue greater and greater power without checking them, when will people learn that human nature is as predictable as it is obvious? Freedom is the most precious gift any of us possess, our wanton disregard for this gift has nearly landed us in the laps of the tyrannical state.
Aldi says:
July 8, 2010 at 5:51 pm
….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.
__________________________________________________________
Try finding a local who raises grassfed beef, much better tasting and better for you.
The USA has spend years and billions of dollars eradicating livestock disease. Because of WTO Agreement on Agriculture and “free trade agreements” the USDA has cut testing and wants to rely on tracing the disease back to the farmer after it hits you table. (note it is the FARMER not the mega-corporation responsible who is to be held liable. WTO open border policy has already resulted in eradicated diseases being imported across our borders.
Here is some info I put together a couple of years ago on US supermarket beef/food:
New York Times article “The Safety Gap” written by Gardiner Harris, 11/2/2008
“This year, 18.2 million shipments of food, devices, cosmetics and drugs are expected to enter more than 300 U.S. ports; the FDA. had 454 investigators in 2007 — one and a half per port — to scrutinize them..”
Not only does the USA import more beef than we export but we import from countries with disease. Because of “free trade” open borders the USA has imported BSE, tuberculosis, Blue tongue and “cattle tick fever. The USA exports top dollar premium beef and imports, ….well you figure a name for it
1000 lb carcass wt…………………..Imports of 2007……………………………… Exports
beef/veal…………………………………… 3,052,164……………………………….1,433,964
live cattle……………………………………. 2,494,965……………………………………..66,383
pork carcass…………………………………….968,438…………………………………3,141,181
Hog……………………………………………10,004,348……………………………………136,816
Lamb………………………………………………159,271………………………………………..1,288
mutton…………………………………………….43,376…………………………………………8,138
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/MeatTrade/LivestockMeatYearly.htm
Total American Beef…..live Cattle…………exports (Carcass wt. 1,000 pounds)
2004…………………………460,314………………..15,721
2008…………………………1,888,226……………107,492
Now for the fun Stats. make sure you are not eating
Beef and veal imports (Carcass wt. 1,000 pounds)
Country…………… 2004……………2008………..diseases
Uruguay ………402,898………..65,549………..2001 FMD outbreak
Brazil……………219,393…………… 212,907……………2005 FMD outbreak, Vesicular stomatitis, Bluetongue (now found in USA)
Lymphatic filariasis, Leishmaniasis, Onchocerciasis (River Blindness), Trypanosoma cruzi,
Argentina……116,606……………55,966……………2008 FMD outbreak
Nicaragua……..65,397……………99,384……………Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease),leptospirosis
Costa Rica……………23,632……………19,239…………… Naegleria fowler, Encephalitis, vesicular stomatitis viruses, Leptospirosis, Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease)
Mexico……………19,495……………43,783……………tuberculosis, brucellosis “cattle tick fever,” Trypanosoma cruz, Vesicular stomatitis
Canada……………1,062,420…………… 841,242…………… tuberculosis, BSE
Live cattle imports
Country………………2004……………….2008
Mexico………….1,370,476………….. 702,661
Canada…………………. 135……………1,581,303
I have all the references if any one wants them.
“….FDA detected food safety problems at more than 40% of the 2,002 plants inspected, yet half of those plants were inspected only once. The plants with food safety problems received only warning letters from FDA, and even those ended in 2005…
Salmonella Source Found
The Salmonella strain associated with the lastest foodborne illness outbreak has been found, in irrigation water as well as in a sample from some serrano peppers at a Mexican farm. The farm is located in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. “The agency seized no fresh produce, sought no injunctions and prosecuted no firms” http://www.americanvegetablegrower.com/veggie_bytes/page.php?page=crops_markets#fdafouled
Stanley Painter, Chairman of the National Food Inspection Unions, stated in his testimony at the congressional hearing on the Hallmark Dower Cows:
“..when we see violations of FSIS regulations and we are instructed not to write non-compliance reports… Sometimes even if we write non-compliance reports, some of the larger companies use their political muscle to get those overturned….Some of my members have been intimidated by agency management in the past when they came forward and tried to enforce agency regulations and policies….”
Cutback in Testing
The USDA has cut back on disease testing by up to 90%. and has shifted what testing is done to dead animals at slaughter instead of testing live animals at the farm. This allows a disease years to be passed from one farm to another before the animal is finally sent to slaughter.
The USDA is also closing down testing labs. “USDA is moving toward supporting fewer labs nationwide, with the remaining labs serving as regional labs and supporting larger geographic areas..” http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/agency/TAHC_Strategic_Plan_2009-2013.pdf
“Cattle crossing facilities on the U.S. side of the border are operated primarily by private firms… at Santa Teresa, NM, Chihuahuan [Mexican] cattle producers operate both sides of the cattle port-of-entry” http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/Agoutlook/june2001/AO282d.pdf
“Free trade makes it easier for Mexico to sell us cattle,” Mr. Suppan said. “Mexico does not have in place the infrastructure to eradicate tuberculosis.”…Bovine tuberculosis is fast becoming an important reason that carcasses are being condemned as unsafe in American beef packing plants. The number of carcasses found infected is 15 times higher than in 1986. Dr. Billy Johnson, said about 80 percent of the condemned carcasses were traced back to animals raised in Mexico.” http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D91431F935A25752C1A965958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all
The USA exports 700,000 tons of quality beef while importing 1,500,000 tons from countries with: Naegleria fowler, Encephalitis, vesicular stomatitis viruses, Leptospirosis, Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), and foot and mouth disease. The US imports 2.5 million live cattle from Canada with BSE (now found in USA) and from Mexico with tuberculosis (now found in USA), brucellosis (now found in USA) cattle tick fever, (now found in USA) Trypanosoma cruz,, (now found in USA), Bluetongue (now found in USA), and Vesicular stomatitis.
“..new disease challenges are emerging. Some are domestic diseases that are increasing in significance. Others are foreign diseases that may be imported as result of the exponential increases in international importations of animals and animal products. Our industries and our economy are threatened by diseases and pests that heretofore we only read about in disease text books…” http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/agency/TAHC_Strategic_Plan_2009-2013.pdf
Again I have only scratched the surface on the subject.
So what happens if they just ignore the government and operate without a permit?
I’d like to put in a plug for Jennifer Marohasy’s blog, which has been in hiatus since last Fall. Just as WUWT and CA are the very best websites for the science and politics of climate-related stuff, Jennifer’s blog was the very best for most other aspects of evidence-based environmental policy, especially for Australia. And it’s organized in such a way that you can call up all of the archived threads in a general category, like Australian bushfires. Speaking of the devil, here’s a link to that category.
http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/tag/bushfires/
If you want to learn a lot more about the Victorian bushfires of 2009, this the the place to visit. One of the regular commentators at Jennifer’s blog happens to be an outspoken expert on fire management.
Jennifer has a libertarian-leaning perspective, and that fact is reflected in the occasionally colorful language–even from yours truly–that has been allowed to punctuate her blog. One consequence of this editorial policy is that the Green Australian trolls have plenty of rope with which to hang themselves. If the Australian Greens who participate in Jennifer’s blog are representative of the larger Green Aussie demographic, they must be a truly nasty bunch.
One thing that I’ve wondered about: Is it possible that the American Greens are just as nasty, but haven’t come all of the way out of the closet yet?
The countryside smells? Who knew? Well this permit tyranny is probably all about that nasty methaney stuff moo cows produce innit?
Message from the eco-loon Australian government as national food production crashes because townie politicos haven’t got a freaking clue how freezer cabinets get stocked – let them eat (reposessed) grain silos…
April E. Coggins says:
July 8, 2010 at 9:16 pm
This is happening in the US here and now. Ask any small business. We are being devastated with illogical government regulations…..
________________________________________________________________
It is worldwide read the joint UN/WTO ” Draft Guide To Good Farming Practices” http://www.oie.int/eng/publicat/rt/2502/review25-2BR/25-berlingueri823-836.pdf
Your jaw will drop reading the insanities they want to foist on the poor farmer (think granny with her chickens, your daughter with her bunny or a third world African farmer as you read). Your farm ends up looking like a freaking prison complete with double fences, sign in/out sheets and dossiers on visitors! A friend actually had a USDA inspector snoop in his refrigerator and bath medicine cabinets, I kid you not!
Oh yes you might enjoy the blog by the author of First They Came for the Cows
First they came for the cows – blog http://henwhisperer.blogspot.com/
book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440454434?tag=postmenoppond-20&camp=213761&creative=393545&linkCode=bpl&creativeASIN=1440454434&adid=1ZQ9E9TQEF6A1BGM5ZCY&
a contrast:
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/happy_mann.jpg?w=640&h=516
&
http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/politics/thompsons/matt-janet-thompson-web.jpg
One happy. One sad. What’s wrong with these pictures? Upside down world.
RACookPE1978 says:
July 8, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Gail:
Write the book.
It may right the wrong.
____________________________
Sharon already has (with a little help from the rest of us) : First They Came For The Cows: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1440454434?tag=postmenoppond-20&camp=213761&creative=393545&linkCode=bpl&creativeASIN=1440454434&adid=1ZQ9E9TQEF6A1BGM5ZCY&
And also Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA’s War on a Family Farm by Linda Faillace http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dca-books-english-tree&field-keywords=mad+sheep&x=0&y=0
Cassandra King says:
July 8, 2010 at 9:46 pm
We live in an age of petty tyranny, where the authoritarian state is finding its feet and testing its powers to see how far it can go. This form of tyranny always starts off slowly and gradually, little steps at first so the population fails to notice and as the flow of little steps increases so does the confidence of the budding tyrannical state.[–snip rest for brevity–]
Well, you know? All of what you speak has everything to do with the way our governments have been ‘designed for us.’
I say ‘designed for us,’ because that is the essence of the matter.
For far too long, people have come to accept the notion that government must work a certain way, and it is that which we’ve come to accept as ‘inevitable.’
But WHY is it so?
WHY IS IT INEVITABLE?
Because it’s the ONLY thing we’ve been taught, and the only thing we’ve been allowed to comprehend, if only that the powers that be WILL NOT ALLOW anything else to happen.
Is there a better way? Of course! In the U.S. we have a constitution which supposedly limits the government’s power. But does it work? No.
It doesn’t work for this reason: It was INTENTIONALLY designed to allow government to get away with murder and not be held to account for that murder.
The better way is just this:
[1] Keep the constitution, but amend it to remove from the Congress and the President ALL power to make law, regardless.
[2] Disband the permanent Congress and have the states assign representatives for a one year term to represent the states, with no person allowed more than one term in a period of 30 years.
[3] ALL propositions for whatever law MUST be placed before the people in a general election
[4] ALL LAWS MUST contain a sunset clause of not more than (3) years
[5] ALL LAWS MUST have an 80% BOTH show and vote in order to pass. What that means is just this: If 80% of the voters show, but only 79% vote in the affirmative, the measure does not pass.
[6] Any proposition which does not pass may not again be put before the people in a period of not less than ten years.
[7] NO LAW, RULE, OR REGULATION may be enacted which infringes –in any way, manner, fashion, shape, or form– the natural rights of the people, and that includes the right to a credible self-defence.
[8] No corporations or other such entities, and no banking institution allowed to exist. Rather, only limited liability companies and credit unions will be allowed. This negates the whole matter of multinational ownerships and their covetous incestuousness.
[9] No declaration of war or other military action may pass but upon the approval of the people themselves, by a margin of not less than 90% of the registered voters.
What all of that accomplishes is: NOBODY in government will be bribed, because they won’t have the ability to make things happen, and those with the wherewithal won’t have the ability to influence the outcomes of matters.
Larry Fields says:
July 8, 2010 at 10:29 pm
… If the Australian Greens who participate in Jennifer’s blog are representative of the larger Green Aussie demographic, they must be a truly nasty bunch.
One thing that I’ve wondered about: Is it possible that the American Greens are just as nasty, but haven’t come all of the way out of the closet yet?
_______________________________________________________________________
Try the “greens/socialists/marxists in the Boston, MA area.
I was wearing a pro-gun/pro-Constitution type T-shirt and actually had a guy come up to me on the street and shout in my face “When we take over we are going to kill people like you” I had another tell me “I rather see horses extinct than owned by humans”
MA has strict gun control laws and “the foremost Marxist scholars in the world” Those strict gun laws and the “critical mass” of progressives in MA made them much bolder, so you see the “progressives” with the polite veneer pealed of and it isn’t pretty. This was 15 years ago and one of the reasons I left the state. I could not stomach the insanity any more.