No Mandatory Animal ID

According to Walter at noNAIS Rep Ron Paul has introduced an amendment to H.R.5384, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007, that would defund National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

AMENDMENT TO H.R., AS REPORTED
(AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATIONS, 2007)
OFFERED BY MR. PAUL OF TEXAS

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following new sections:

SEC. . None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to implement or administer the National Animal Identification System.

We must act immediately and call our Congressmen, the Capitol Switchboard can be reached at (202) 225-3121, and ask them to support Rep. Ron Paul's amendment to H.R. 5384. There is not time for letters or e-mail to make a difference, call now and maybe we can bury this unconstitutional invasion on our privacy and liberties.

Thanks

Some more interesting information on the "wonder tags," the RFID tags that the Government wants us to use on our cattle for the National Animal Identification System.

BeefTalk: Electronic identification - Two steps ahead, one back

Attempts to implement a national identification program for animal trace-back have been noticed. News about the outbreak of a disease with notable impact has increased the pro and con discussion, but the lasting outcome is far from defined.

The Dickinson Research Extension Center is involved in a project that is designed to monitor cattle in transit and locate cattle during shipment. This research involves evaluating the ability to read calves going on and off a truck using low-frequency RFID (radio frequency identification) tags.

So, what did their research show?

For the optimist, the trial was 94.4 percent successful. For the practical cattle producer, only four of the six runs actually resulted in a 94.4 percent or higher success rate. In reality, only 66.7 percent of the runs actually achieved a realistic outcome, while 33.3 percent failed. One tag failed twice, requiring three reads to achieve a 100 percent read for this set of data.

ONLY 66.7% ACHIEVED A REALISTIC OUTCOME. That's horrible. The Government wants us to rely on a technology that is only effective 2/3 of the time. Sorry Charlie, that's just not going to work. How much more work and labor is this system going to entail with these kind of numbers? I don't even want to think about it. Running the cattle and reading the tags time and time again because the system doesn't work right. You start running over 500 cows with these kinds of numbers and the chances of getting a good read on them are slim to none.

This whole NAIS system needs to be scaled back a whole lot. A herd ID system with permanent metal tags would be the easiest, low tech solution that could be made to work for all. I still wouldn't like it particularly, but it would work.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure entices the government to foist off a failed technology on us, the producers.

In an interview to Inside Washington Today, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, who will become the Chairman of the Committee if the Democrats recapture the House, had this to say about NAIS.

-- Animal identification (ID): "From the start we have worked for an exemption for farmers via the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. I have sponsored two bills – one to set up a mandatory animal ID system based on the FAIR system that the [Ag] Department actually financed. In that, there was a FOI exemption. I introduced another bill with just the FOI exemption. And I got Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) to cosponsor it with me. But Davis was basically reigned in by the House leadership because this is a way to stop it. If they don't allow the FOI exemption to pass, then they can use this as an excuse not to do it (mandatory animal ID)."

-- Are you saying the House GOP leadership does not want mandatory animal ID? "The Republican leadership does not want it. USDA has been in our way the whole time on this deal. I could tell you stories….

"These guys don't want mandatory animal ID because the cattlemen don't want it and the cattlemen have inordinate power in this administration. And they have basically brought this thing to a standstill.

"We are not going to get the Japanese market back, largely because we don't have animal ID. We are kidding ourselves. I understand the people who don't want to do this, but my bill said that the government is going to pay for this – for the first round of tags, we will pay for the readers, we will pay for the whole system so all the farmer and rancher has to do is put the tag on the animal.

"The cost of this is like $20 million. Canada did it for $6 million, and Australia did it for $4 million. Of course they have fewer animals.

"So far the Department has spent $600 million and they have nothing to show for it."

-- You obviously are frustrated when it comes to the animal ID issue? "If they had followed my initial bill in 2004, animal ID would have been implemented by now or much further advanced.

"My judgment is they have their heads in the sand on this issue, especially when every other cattle producing country has a plan in place already. For us to sit there and not have a system is ludicrous.

"It is not a matter that they can't pass this (FOI exemption). It is my judgment that they don't want to pass it.

"And there is no leadership out of USDA on this. They have been all over the map on this topic. It is the biggest bunch of disinformation I have seen put out since the oil companies have been going after ethanol.

"USDA has people in their own Department who are frustrated. They are not providing the leadership. I have had these discussions with [USDA Secretary Mike] Johanns and he has kind of gone back and forth on it. In the end, the best thing I have been able to get out of him is that he admits that eventually this will become mandatory. But he won't say any timeframe. But the meat industry (AMI, packers, etc.,) is all for this mandatory animal ID system.

"Ironically what is likely going to make this happen is Wal-Mart and McDonald's because they are about to say 'Iif you don't have animal ID, we are not going to buy your meat.'"

Typical politics, he claims the Republicans don't want it and are blocking it. Most Republicans on the Committee are for it so I don't know what he is talking about. I love the part about how the Government is going to buy the first round of tags and all the readers. What good is that going to do me, I will need thousands of dollars of tags a year so the first round is not real helpful and money is not the reason i oppose this. the loss of personal freedom and liberty and the mandate that I have to do it are most of the reasons. The extra work to tag all my calves, which I don't do now, is the other part. The amount of work it will pile on me is tremendous.

The Last part of this though is what people need to think about.

-- If the Democrats regain control of the House, would that accelerate the timeline for mandatory animal ID? "Absolutely. That bill would be out of my committee in short effort. And I think I have support in the whole House, and I think in the Senate, to move this."

The NAIS bill would advance in short order should Democrats take the House. If that doesn't scare freedom minded Americans, I don't know what will.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure shows the true colors of freedom loving people.

NAIS to deal with BSE not A-OK

Shortly after another "mad cow" was discovered in Alabama, there was a rash of articles in the press citing the event as convincing evidence that the USDA's National Animal Identification System should move forward as quickly as possible. Nowhere did any of the articles mention that the NAIS will do nothing to prevent, control or even slow the disease. (emphasis added)

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, widely known as "mad cow disease," is a chronic, degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of cattle. BSE takes years to develop in cattle, not days or weeks. Moreover, the disease is not contagious. The USDA says: "It's important to note that [BSE and related diseases] are not communicable diseases – they do not spread easily like viruses."

If this disease, promoted as justification for the NAIS program, is not contagious, why, then, is it necessary for the USDA to construct this massive program to register every premises that houses any farm animal, tag each animal with an electronic monitoring chip, and track every off-premises movement of every animal through a centralized database?

This is the same question I have been asking. Why do we need this massive invasion of our privacy for a non-communicable disease that isn't a problem, by the USDA's own admission, in the US? I think this answer's it.

The corporate giants who dominate the major trade associations, pay expensive lobbyists and fill the campaign coffers of politicians are the real instigators of the NAIS. These are the only people who will benefit from this program by streamlining their vertical integration of the marketplace. In the end, it is the consumer who will pay the increased costs at the supermarket.

Same thing I have been saying, the big meat packers are going to be the big winners here. They are using the money from their bank accounts to buy the USDA officials and politicians they need to get this instigated for their benefit and to the detriment of consumers and producers.

Where might this lead in the long run?

There is another, more serious negative effect. If the NAIS can be constructed to trace the origin of animal diseases that may threaten human life, why not use the system to trace human diseases that most certainly threaten human life? Why not require an electronic chip to be placed in every AIDS victim, or every flu victim, or every released felon? A system that can trace the movements of every animal in the nation could surely just as easily trace the movement of every person in the nation.

Don't laugh or think for a moment that there are not those who believe this kind of system would be a major improvement over the disorderly "freedom" that Americans enjoy. Political uproar would block the program in an instant were it being openly developed for people. But once the program is developed for animals, the next step is a very small step, indeed.

Again, the same thing I have said here before. It's just a small step to integrate this same system in the human population and control and monitor them the same way. Maybe this whole NAIS is a test run of the databases to perfect them for use in monitoring more mobile humans. Didn't think of that, did you? I know call me a conspiracy theorist. I'm just throwing out ideas, if they scare you that's your problem.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it could lead to tagging and controlling all of us.

The National Cattlemen's Beef association (NCBA) has been all hot and bothered over the whole NAIS for some time now. They have thought all along this is the next best thing to sliced bread for the cattle industry. Then I read this story.

Despite McDonald's Corporation, the largest U.S. beef buyer, calling for a national animal traceback system, beef industry leaders oppose any mandatory measure.

Mike John, National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) president, agrees a traceback system is needed, but remains opposed to a mandatory program.

When has the NCBA been opposed to a mandatory system? Never up until now. Why have they changed their minds on this? Maybe they are starting to hear opposition from enough members to see the light and figure out that the cattle producers are opposed to this mandatory system and something else needs looked at.

I have advocated a voluntary, market driven system for a while now. If consumers want meat traceability, they should pay for it . Then the meat packers will pay more to the producers for it and the market will drive producers that want to make more profit to find a way to voluntarily make a traceback situation work. Look what Mike Johns is saying now all of a sudden.

Because of current private industry solutions that meet the requirements traceability is looking for, John said any traceback system should be voluntary. If anything, the market should drive involvement in this traceback system.

"If producers invest in the system because there is a return to them, they will purchase the tags, they will pay the fees associated with participating with private industry programs," John said.

Epiphany!! A market driven system. [sarcasm]Damn I wish I would have thought of that months ago, NAIS.html">which I did, and been talking about it instead of just whining about the mandatory system.[/sarcasm]

Mike Johns is finally wising up and at least talking like he represents the cattle industry. I will be curious to see where this goes, if anywhere. When the largest cattle producers organization starts talking this way, Congress might begin to listen. Our pressure on people in charge of implementing NAIS must be doing some good, keep it up.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it did change the way the NCBA is approaching this monumental shift in the way the business operates.