No Mandatory Animal ID

Walter at NoNAIS.org brings us some interesting information about the need for NAIS. All along the government has proclaimed that Nais is necessary to control diseases like BSE. According to the US Food and Drug Administration;

Are the protective measures in place sufficient to ensure the safety of the human food supply in light of the June 2005 BSE positive cow?

Yes, the protective measures put into place in July 2004 by FDA ensure that cattle materials that carry the highest risk of transmitting the agent that causes BSE are excluded from human food, including dietary supplements, and cosmetics. These measures, along with similar measures established by USDA, provide a uniform national BSE policy and ensure the safety of human food.

Is the food in the U.S. likely to be a BSE risk to consumers?

FDA and other federal agencies have had preventive measures in place to reduce the U.S. consumer's risk of exposure to any BSE-contaminated meat and food products. Since 1989, USDA has prohibited the importation of live animals and animal products from BSE-positive countries. Subsequently, USDA expanded the ban to include both countries with BSE and countries at risk for BSE. Since 1997, FDA has prohibited the use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of ruminant feed. In 2004, FDA issued a rule prohibiting the use of certain cattle materials in human food and cosmetics, and USDA issued a rule prohibiting certain cattle materials from use as human food.

So, it seems that all measures are all ready in affect to protect the consumers from BSE. Why does the Government want the NAIS then? As a prelude to numbering all people in the US maybe. It's not as far fetched as you think.

An ID number never stopped a disease, it just gives the government more control over our lives.

Talk About Big Brother watching you- is anyone else upset about the NAIS?

I don't know, maybe its because I'm a little slow on the uptake, or maybe I don't follow national politics enough, but I just found out about the NAIS and I just can't even believe it! I called my daughter up as soon as I found out and she said she knew, she said they have been doing it in Europe already. For anyone out there who shares my ignorance, NAIS stands for the National Animal Identification System- a supposedly "voluntary" project aimed at "keeping our food supply safe" by tagging livestock with ID chips that can be tracked by satelite. I know this sounds like something out of a George Orwell novel, but the real plan is to make it mandatory by the year 2008.

The more people that open their eyes and find out about this the better. Glad to see more people being outraged by this. He even sees it's ultimate goal.

The really creapy thing about this is that they are also wanting to put ID chips in people, too.

Make more noise, let people know, we can change this.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure seems to motivate people.

State's livestock registration system on hold

State animal health commissioners, flooded with public comment, have opted to postpone indefinitely the start date of the livestock premises registration program.

The Texas Animal Health Commission chose to delay the proposed program, originally scheduled to become mandatory July 1, during a meeting Feb. 17 in Austin. Commissioners will take it up for consideration again during their next meeting, the date of which is pending based on finding a hotel with an adequately sized conference room, commission spokeswoman Carla Everett said.

This just shows that working together we can slow and stop this unjust law from taking affect. Good job Texans.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure motivates people to fight an unjust law.

Go check out NoNAIS.org for great talking points on NAIS. Call your local radio shows, senator, congressmen, anybody who cares or doesn't care and get this heard.

An ear tag never stop a disease, but working together we can stop the ear tag.

So, what can we expect after NAIS gets shoved down our throats? Count and number all the people in the United States.

One of the reasons for it laughable enough is for health information database. Yes, track humans for disease control. When will they ever figure out, an ID number never stopped a disease.

Hat tip to Northview Diary for this.

Digital Angel Livestock Tag Sales Climb

"As we get closer to full implementation of a National Identification Program in the United States, retailers, producers and cattlemen, in general are preparing for the evolution into RFID technology as a standard in the livestock tracking industry," President and Chief Executive Kevin N. McGrath said. "Both in the United States and internationally, the use of RFID in livestock tracking continues to grow."

Now I've heard the theory that the tag manufacturers are the ones driving this whole NAIS business since they will be able to sell more tags that the government is requiring cattle producers to buy. I don't buy it. They are not the ones driving the policy. The big meat packers are driving the policy, the tag makers are just taking advantage of the situation and make a ton of money selling tags that will now be mandatory.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it will line the tag manufacturers pockets with lots of money.

AUSTRALIANS ANGERED OVER IDENTIFICATION RULES

Australian beef producers have hit out at the imposition of a mandatory livestock identification system, which they say erodes the sector’s competitiveness. The producers are angry that they have a mandatory system when other leading beef producers are introducing voluntary systems.

The USDA keeps pointing to Australia as the system we should emulate when it comes to National Animal Identification System (NAIS) but the Australians don't appear to be very happy with their system. The articles main concern deals with the statement I've read from the USDA that states "there won't be a mandatory ID program by 2009, as previously announced."

I hate to tell the Australians, but that statement doesn't mean there won't be a mandatory system, it just means there won't be one in 2009. The USDA might wait until 2010 or jump up the time frame and make it 2008. Mandatory NAIS is way to important to the meat packers for the USDA to abandon the whole concept unless a lot of pressure from people is laid at their feet. Contact your Congressmen out the NAIS issue and let them know your concern. Maybe together we can get this stopped.

Remember, an ear tag never stopped a disease, it just makes the Australians mad at us.

Why does NAIS have to be mandatory? Why can't we have a market driven voluntary system? One of the main reasons given for the formation of NAIS is that export markets demand this. If this is the case why not let the market drive the solution?

If foreign countries demand this the meat exporters should pay more money for meat that is source verified via ID. Using beef as an example, this premium would theoretically then be passed down through the feeder to the cow-calf producer and would give the cow-calf man a monetary incentive to source ID their cattle. This would then be a market driven way for all in the supply chain to make a little extra money per animal. The present mandatory system as now envisioned will only cost more money for all but the meat exporters who gain from the system.

That's why the meat exporters/meat packers are so behind this mandatory system. It is only a win-win situation for them and the cow-calf man will be the ultimate loser since the majority of the cost of the system will be on them.

The other big reason for the Mandatory NAIS is for disease track back purpose. A market driven voluntary system will accomplish the same thing as the mandatory one, assuming there is as much demand for source verified animals as we are led to believe, since most animals will be involved because the producers will want the market premium.

A voluntary system will do the same thing as the mandatory one without penalizing producers of the animals. The US is known worldwide for the health of its animal herds so the chimera of disease prevention is just that, a myth to sell the idea to society at large. We need to call the USDA n this myth and demand a voluntary system through our Congressmen. Write, call, visit do whatever you can to bring this issue out into the light of day for everybody to examine.

A ID number never stopped a disease, it just gives the government control over your life and property.

My friend in New York has a great picture up of what exactly happens to the type of tags the USDA wants us to use in this NAIS scheme. I couldn't agree more, I see this all the time with my cattle.

She then continues in another post about the Tags and how they stay in and how badly they are needed.

And tagging doesn't carry a lot of weight anyhow. We have a pen with eleven yearlings in it. All were tagged with the same type of tagging system the government advocates. THREE still have their tags! THREE!

Mine aren't even bunk fed and we have the same problem. Missing and lost tags.

And then there is the fact that about twenty years ago an animal from here triggered a test at the state when we sent her to the auction. There was nothing wrong with her, they had just changed the test and it was so super sensitive that there were a lot of false positives. You know what? They were on our farm testing the whole herd the next day. No forty-eight hour trace back, more like eighteen! They don't need a new system to trace back cows. They just want more control over our personal property.

I couldn't agree more. Why is this necessary when there are perfectly adequate methods now for this. A couple of years ago I was getting a load of old cows ready to go to market. One of the things I do is brand inspect them to make sure they all belong to me before I ship them. I recognized them all so it was not a problem but I went the=rough the formalities anyway. Low and behold one of the cows did not have my brand on her. In fact, she had absolutely no brand on her at all. I knew the cow well, she had a real wild eye to her and had been giving me trouble for years so I knew she was mine but I had no brand to prove it.

After consulting with the brand inspectors about what to do I shipped her to market as a stray so that they could try to identify who she belonged to. Within 12 hours they had positively identified the cow as mine and sold her in my name. How did they manage this? Through the existing brucellosis tag, and ear mark. Easy and no fuss or muss. No complicated ear tag needed. The existing laws and procedure in the state handled it no problem. So why is NAIS needed?

I still say it's a scheme by the meat packers to blame their problems on the small producers pure and simple. Maybe it's a test run for ID'ing all humans in the US too. Who knows or cares. NAIS needs opposed and now. We need to derail this before it goes any further. Mandatory Animal ID is wrong. If a producer wants to voluntarily do it thinking he is going to make more money that should be his choice, not something he is forced into by the government.

Remember, an ID number never stopped a disease, it just allows more government intrusion in our lives.

The Real Deal: Tagging Terrorist Chickens

Agribusiness lobbied the USDA to create a system to protect them from legal liability if an epidemic does break out. More, NAIS would protect agribusiness market share, forestalling a public revulsion against their product by “confirming” that only a few animals were sick, rather than not thousands. NAIS enables huge agribusiness conglomerates that concentrate thousands of animals (and so concentrate the chance for spreading diseases) to point their finger at someone else.

Here’s the scenario:

# People in Sheboygan get sick from something they ate.

# It’s determined the meat came from a local fast food joint.

# That fast food joint gets its meat from ABC cow factory.

# ABC cow factory buys cows from XYZ feedlots.

# Those feedlots had cows numbered 1q10 through 1q500 in their possession and those cows came from 15 small farms in suburban Tempe.

# Goodbye 15 small farms in suburban Tempe.

# Hello scapegoat for fast food joint, slaughterhouse, and feedlots.

Somebody besides me gets it. NAIS is the USDA/meat packing companies way of doing away with the small farmer and rancher. I might be overstating it a little but that's the way I see it. The author of this opinion piece has insightful vision to see it too.

I do have a serious question though. How does a person get people to care about this issue and do something about it? A few voices yelling and screaming about the issue and people just label you as a crackpot. Whether I'm cracked or not I don't know but I won't silence myself. But how do i effectively communicate my message? I'll think of something and keep working on it.

Remember, an ID number never stopped a disease.

NCBA Cattle: U.S. Animal Movement Database Rolled Out

The National Animal Movement Database, which will allow U.S. Department of Agriculture health officials to trace an animal or group of animals back to their source quickly, was rolled out Thursday.

Charles Miller, chairman of the directing organization called the U.S. Animal Identification Organization, said the system seeks and stores only four pieces of data: the premises identification number, the individual animal or the group number, the date of the "event" necessitating the input of information into the Web-based system and the "event" code, which identifies whether the event is the birth, first sale, slaughter or a list of other possibilities.

Another step towards the enslavement of all animal producers to the USDA's whims. Write your Congressmen, state officials and local papers. More voices are needed hearing opposition to this.

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease, it just enslaves animal owners to the government.

Livestock ID system not working, says agent

The largest cattle agent at the biggest saleyards in Australia says the National Livestock Identification System equipment is not up to scratch and needs to be replaced.

It has been five months since Queensland's Roma saleyards spent $300,000 upgrading their facilities to cope with the new electronic ID system .

Elders agent Mick Connell says the equipment is not scanning tags properly and it is taking up to a third longer to process cattle.

The USDA keeps holding the Australia system up to us for NAIS. More and more I read and see on TV where the Australia system is broke and needs fixed. So, the USDA is going to saddle us with a broken system just to make the meat packers happy and enslave the farmers and ranchers. How lucky we all are.

Remember, an ID number never stopped a disease, it just cost us producers a lot of money.

Johanns says U-S close to completing system to track cattle

In this brief story Johanns says Animal ID is a "crucial tool in safeguarding animals from disease." Now I may be just a "dumb cowboy" but how does an id number or ear tag safeguard an animal from a disease? Quick answer, it doesn't. We really need to look further to see what might be driving this. NoNAIS.org has an idea though. Check it out.

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease, but it might help line a politicians pocket.

Walter over at NoNAIS asked me "Can you tell me more about how many big producers do you think are against NAIS?"

I don't know what I can tell you for sure. I only know of one producer, very large (10,000 head of mother cows), in the area that is for NAIS. Everybody else opposes it. A good organization that has producers of all shapes and sizes that has many questions about NAIS is R-CALF USA. Another organization in the State of Montana that opposes it is the Montana Cattleman's Association. How the producers in these organizations break out big and small I can't say for sure but knowing some of the bigger members, there are quite a few of the bigger operators that are opposed to NAIS. Their opposition usually breaks out the same as mine, where do I benefit? Prove it. Whether all this opposition in our state is going to get anything accomplished I don't know but I wanted to be a voice out there talking about it.

I personally don't see the pay-off to having an NAIS system in place. A large operation, like a small one, has to put pencil to paper and figure out if an expense is going to pay for itself. I might sell multiple semi loads of cattle a year but nobody out there is giving me a premium for ID animals over the money they are paying now so where is the advantage? How the expense of the NAIS is going to pay for itself is beyond me. The only people that truly want this system is the big meat packers.

The big meat packers are why NAIS is going to be a mandatory system and not a voluntary system. The USDA is in bed with the big meat packers and the packers don't want to have to only slaughter animals with ID's for foreign markets at one time and then have to slaughter animals with no ID for the domestic market. This would mess up the way they just throw it all together and call it quality beef. This has been the meat packers opposition to Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) also. Having to segregate what they slaughter would cost them money. Easier and cheaper for them to buy off the government and have the cost of a system on the little producers so they can avoid it entirely. So really this fight is the meat packers/USDA against everybody else who owns animals. Getting them to see and understand that is the problem.

The question I would have for producers of common cattle, sheep, goats, chickens or any other critter affected by this is what price premium are you getting for critters with id's in them? Not promises of premiums, actual premiums. I've seen very little of this and I don't expect to. That's why the smart operators are opposing this, there is no benefit.

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease or guaranteed a premium for your animals.

What next: animal mug shots?

"I tell people about this, and they think I've gone nuts."

She's talking about an extraordinary plan under way to register, and track, every livestock animal in the U.S. That's all the cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs, even llamas.

It's called the National Animal Identification System. It seeks to assign each animal a 15-digit ID number and physical tag such as a radio-frequency device. So far it's voluntary, but it's slated to be mandatory in 2009 for any animal that moves from one property to another (i.e. if they're sold, borrowed, displayed at a fair, or just wander around a lot.)

It's well-meaning. If we know where all the animals are at all times, then we can quickly quell outbreaks of disease, such as mad-cow or avian flu.

But there are more than 10 billion such animals in the U.S. We kill 9 billion chickens a year. Keeping track of them all, even if some are registered in groups, will require massive government record keeping.

Another problem: It's insane. Especially for people who own just a handful of animals.

"it's insane." I hardily agree. Most of the opposition I see to this comes from small producers but there are a lot of big producers out there, like me, who disagree with NAIS too. It's insane to number and count all the animals in the US. What's next RFID tag all the people to keep track of them?

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease. Proper health and nutrition by caring people, not factory farms, provide disease prevention.