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Jolley: Federal Flyovers? The tin hat brigade was right
Chuck Jolley | Updated: June 9, 2012
When I first heard of surreptitious EPA flyovers of feed lots in Nebraska and Iowa, I laughed. "Ranks right up there with the black helicopter stories," I thought. Only people who wear tinfoil hats and cover their windows with Reynolds Wrap® (Trusted Since 1947) to keep the government from scanning their brains would buy into that nonsense.
May I borrow a roll of aluminum foil from someone? I would drop by my local Hy-Vee to purchase some but I'm afraid the feds might get their hands on the supermarket's scan data and find out what was included in my afternoon purchase of milk, beer and bread. Men in Black 4 might start with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones knocking on my front door.
"Mr. Jolley?" Smith asks. "We've just received some information that you bought a quantity of aluminum foil on June 4, 2012, and during a recent flyover, we were unable to see into your kitchen due to some odd reflective material covering your windows. Would you mind telling us what you did with the foil?" (SFX: Helicopter noise in the not distant enough background). Cut to quick shots of a troop of camouflaged and well armed soldiers moving stealthily through the woods in the back of my house, tight shot of large black sedan parked a few blocks away with man in dark suit talking into a shoulder mic, camera pulls back to reveal "Homeland Security" painted on car door.
A letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, cosigned by most of Nebraska's congressional delegation, demanding to know what the hell was going on, made me rethink my anti-tinfoil hat position for just a moment. Then, Heather Johnson, NPTelegraph.com, North Platte, Nebraska, wrote, "After recent scrutiny, the Environmental Protection Agency has revealed more details about its aerial surveillance of livestock feeding operations in Nebraska and Iowa."
Memo for tonight: Spend evening in my workshop making a sign that says, "Welcome, Will, I am unarmed" and wrapping motorcycle helmets in tin foil.
Johnson had learned about the flyovers from Kristen Hassebrook, director of natural resources and environmental affairs for the Nebraska Cattlemen, a beef industry group made up of cattle producers.
Hassebrook said, "It was by happenstance that we found out about them. They never told producers they were doing them, but when the EPA started showing up for inspections and had aerial photos of the producers' operations, people started wondering what was going on."
The EPA's response to the letter was breathtaking in its disingenuousness. The media office of EPA's Region 7, which serves Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, emailed a note to NPTelegraph.com saying aerial surveillance is nothing new, and shouldn't have been a surprise to feedlot operators.
The EPA response claimed flyovers are a longstanding practice done to verify compliance with environmental laws and impaired watersheds. The sole purpose, according to the EPA, is to help identify water pollution in areas of the utmost concern. A further claim: Congressional offices were briefed before any surveillance took place, as was the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.
Hassebrook insisted Nebraska Cattlemen was unaware of the practice and expressed a serious concern about privacy. "At any time they can request access to a property without notice. It's a frustration to producers who think they're complying with regulations, but yet, the government still doesn't trust them. The focus might be the cattle in the pens, but the question becomes how much personal privacy a livestock producer has to give up before the government is satisfied."
Defending the practice, EPA officials said the courts "have found similar types of flights to be legal and said they are done to protect people and the environment from violations of the Clean Water Act."
In other words, "We are here to protect you from yourselves, whether you need our protection or not. And it's none of your damn business how we do it."
Of course, satellites can do the same thing. Instead of EPA photos taken from a helicopter hovering at 2000 feet, NASA can show you shots taken from 250 miles up with enough clarity to count the size of any herd in any feed lot in America as well as tell you the make, color and year of the trucks in the parking lot. And that slightly overweight guy showing male pattern baldness getting into that brand new black F-25O with six bags of cypress mulch, a garden hoe and a loose screw driver (Philips head) rattling around in the back? That's Jack, the feed lot manager, social security number xxx.xx.xxxx -number redacted, home address and cell phone number are in our data banks and available upon FOIA'd request.
Face the sad facts, my friends. Any semblance of privacy from the government's prying eyes in the sky started to disappear over half a century ago when the first satellites with onboard cameras were launched. It was a slow but steady erosion until Homeland Security (Preserving Our Freedoms) kicked it into overdrive after it was founded by G.W. Bush, November 25, 2002. Don the hats, cover the windows and don't do ANYTHING outside that you don't want your neighbors to see.
Chuck Jolley is a free lance writer, based in Kansas City, who covers a wide range of ag industry topics for Vance Publishing.
Jolley: Federal Flyovers? The tin hat brigade was right
Chuck Jolley | Updated: June 9, 2012
When I first heard of surreptitious EPA flyovers of feed lots in Nebraska and Iowa, I laughed. "Ranks right up there with the black helicopter stories," I thought. Only people who wear tinfoil hats and cover their windows with Reynolds Wrap® (Trusted Since 1947) to keep the government from scanning their brains would buy into that nonsense.
May I borrow a roll of aluminum foil from someone? I would drop by my local Hy-Vee to purchase some but I'm afraid the feds might get their hands on the supermarket's scan data and find out what was included in my afternoon purchase of milk, beer and bread. Men in Black 4 might start with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones knocking on my front door.
"Mr. Jolley?" Smith asks. "We've just received some information that you bought a quantity of aluminum foil on June 4, 2012, and during a recent flyover, we were unable to see into your kitchen due to some odd reflective material covering your windows. Would you mind telling us what you did with the foil?" (SFX: Helicopter noise in the not distant enough background). Cut to quick shots of a troop of camouflaged and well armed soldiers moving stealthily through the woods in the back of my house, tight shot of large black sedan parked a few blocks away with man in dark suit talking into a shoulder mic, camera pulls back to reveal "Homeland Security" painted on car door.
A letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, cosigned by most of Nebraska's congressional delegation, demanding to know what the hell was going on, made me rethink my anti-tinfoil hat position for just a moment. Then, Heather Johnson, NPTelegraph.com, North Platte, Nebraska, wrote, "After recent scrutiny, the Environmental Protection Agency has revealed more details about its aerial surveillance of livestock feeding operations in Nebraska and Iowa."
Memo for tonight: Spend evening in my workshop making a sign that says, "Welcome, Will, I am unarmed" and wrapping motorcycle helmets in tin foil.
Johnson had learned about the flyovers from Kristen Hassebrook, director of natural resources and environmental affairs for the Nebraska Cattlemen, a beef industry group made up of cattle producers.
Hassebrook said, "It was by happenstance that we found out about them. They never told producers they were doing them, but when the EPA started showing up for inspections and had aerial photos of the producers' operations, people started wondering what was going on."
The EPA's response to the letter was breathtaking in its disingenuousness. The media office of EPA's Region 7, which serves Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, emailed a note to NPTelegraph.com saying aerial surveillance is nothing new, and shouldn't have been a surprise to feedlot operators.
The EPA response claimed flyovers are a longstanding practice done to verify compliance with environmental laws and impaired watersheds. The sole purpose, according to the EPA, is to help identify water pollution in areas of the utmost concern. A further claim: Congressional offices were briefed before any surveillance took place, as was the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.
Hassebrook insisted Nebraska Cattlemen was unaware of the practice and expressed a serious concern about privacy. "At any time they can request access to a property without notice. It's a frustration to producers who think they're complying with regulations, but yet, the government still doesn't trust them. The focus might be the cattle in the pens, but the question becomes how much personal privacy a livestock producer has to give up before the government is satisfied."
Defending the practice, EPA officials said the courts "have found similar types of flights to be legal and said they are done to protect people and the environment from violations of the Clean Water Act."
In other words, "We are here to protect you from yourselves, whether you need our protection or not. And it's none of your damn business how we do it."
Of course, satellites can do the same thing. Instead of EPA photos taken from a helicopter hovering at 2000 feet, NASA can show you shots taken from 250 miles up with enough clarity to count the size of any herd in any feed lot in America as well as tell you the make, color and year of the trucks in the parking lot. And that slightly overweight guy showing male pattern baldness getting into that brand new black F-25O with six bags of cypress mulch, a garden hoe and a loose screw driver (Philips head) rattling around in the back? That's Jack, the feed lot manager, social security number xxx.xx.xxxx -number redacted, home address and cell phone number are in our data banks and available upon FOIA'd request.
Face the sad facts, my friends. Any semblance of privacy from the government's prying eyes in the sky started to disappear over half a century ago when the first satellites with onboard cameras were launched. It was a slow but steady erosion until Homeland Security (Preserving Our Freedoms) kicked it into overdrive after it was founded by G.W. Bush, November 25, 2002. Don the hats, cover the windows and don't do ANYTHING outside that you don't want your neighbors to see.
Chuck Jolley is a free lance writer, based in Kansas City, who covers a wide range of ag industry topics for Vance Publishing.