In my 34 years of living on a farm, I’ve witnessed the struggles of American farmers. In 1970, the Federal Housing Authority offered farmers thousands of dollars with very low interest rates. In the 1980s, America watched farmers leaving their family farms with just suitcases in hand.

Today we are faced with a new struggle. The USDA wants to pass a law called the National Animal Identification System. This requires farmers to register and microchip all farm animals. It will also require the land and the farmer’s home to be registered and electronically connected to the master federal global positioning system. Farmers will have to pay for all this out of their own pockets. Countless amounts of paperwork will have to be filed with the NAIS if an animal leaves the farm for any reason. If farmers refuse to register by 2009, the farmer’s animals are taken away and destroyed. The farmer may have to do prison time or pay a large fine.

Big industry farms are excluded under this program. These farms produce the majority of the food you eat. This is where mad cow disease and the bird flu would do the most harm to the American public.

What happens to farmers today will soon happen to common Americans tomorrow. What happened to Live Free or Die? If terrorism or some pandemic is going to kill me, so be it. At least I’ll die with the freedom to pursue my own happiness.

Pauline Perron, Sumner