No Mandatory Animal ID

Ranchers prepare for a revolution

Over 100 ranchers, farmers, horse lovers and property owners gathered last week at the Pipe Creek Community Center, each seeking translation for a wafting murmur that reeks of the ultimate big brother intrusion. Most left the Thursday-night town hall meeting prepared for what some may consider a revolution.

The issue at hand that had the crowd up in arms is a government plan labeled the National Animal Identification System (NAIS - pronounced [nase]). Reportedly buried in 2004 farm bill HB1361 after being lobbied by industrial-agricultural companies, NAIS was allegedly conceived for the purpose of safeguarding the country's meat supply by controlling the outbreak of communicable, deadly disease. What the public fears, however, is the apparent grander scheme.

"The time has come to pay closer attention to how the government is ruling our lives," Rancher Karen Brown said. "The USDA continues to misrepresent this as a volunteer program. In Texas, the penalty is up to $1,000 a day and may include jail time for failure to comply. A system that carries penalties is not a voluntary system."

Still fighting the authorities in Texas. Good job, keep up the good work.

Posted by Sarpy Sam in Action Efforts at 06:31 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

USDA's Knight promises to make animal ID more appealing to producers

Bruce Knight, who moved up from Chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service to become USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs in August, is promising to make the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) more appealing to the nation's livestock producers. And Knight told Brownfield he's closely scrutinized the NAIS since he took the under secretary position.

"I've been taking a hard look at the program, basically took it all the way down to the frame and rebuilding, trying to make it simpler, make it more evident of what it's all about, trying to dispel some of the misinformation and rumor and innuendo that's been associated with it," Knight said. "I think the most important thing for everybody to recognize is this is a voluntary program."

Make it more appealing. I know how to do that, do away with it. Real simple.

Posted by Sarpy Sam in Government Propaganda at 04:31 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

USAHA recommends mandatory ID for cattle breeding herd

The National Assembly of the U.S. Animal Health Association (USAHA) this week approved a resolution recommending national animal identification become mandatory for the U.S. cattle breeding herd. The USAHA's Livestock Identification Committee approved a similar resolution as well. That's according to Dr. Sam Holland, state veterinarian for South Dakota, who attended the Association’s annual meeting in Minneapolis.

All fine and dandy for them, are they the ones going to be paying for the ID program? No. If they were having to pay for it they would be viewing this a little differently.

Posted by Sarpy Sam in Government Propaganda at 04:16 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I've talked about how an ID system should be voluntary and if it was economically viable should not even be required by the government. The free market will provide it. Starting to see it a little now. This article uses the voluntary use of ID tags as an opening to explain how the NAIS system will be great, but I think we need to focus on the fact that voluntarily, due to market pressure, an ID system is being used without the government requiring it of all of us.

Japan reopened its market in July, with the new rules in place.

"It creates an opportunity for ranchers or producers that can verify the age of the calves they are selling," said Todd Clemons, president of Okeechobee Livestock Market in Okeechobee. Local ranchers get a premium of about $20 per animal.

Since April, the Okeechobee Livestock Market has sold 25,000 cattle through online auctions; 80 percent of those were calves with tags that make it possible to verify their age and birthplace.

The calves are shipped to feedlots in states such as Texas, and some are eventually sold to Japan and other export markets.

This is like it should be. The free market working. The rest of the article is a big propaganda piece on why NAIS would be so good for all of us since it would pinpoint "food borne illness." I guess they mean stuff like e-coli in spinach and lettuce. Excuse me, that's right, that will be covered by the FUCK IT program instead of NAIS. That's not an animal so NAIS doesn't apply.

Give it time and maybe voluntarily most animals will have ID. I will point out that the buyer of my calves told me he works with 3 different major packing plants and not one of them wants cattle with ID tags or any kind of source or age verification. They are not concerned about it. In fact if cattle with ID tags show up they charge a $40 per head fee to read the tags prior to slaughter. So the cost of this is on the person bringing the cattle in, not on the packer.

Let's work towards a voluntary system. It's only right.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but the ear tag sure brings out those who want to control every ones life.

Cross posted to Thoughts From the Middle of Nowhere.

Posted by Sarpy Sam in Government Propaganda, Opinion Piece, Personal at 04:09 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)