Animal ID program remains voluntary for now
Facing wide opposition, Congress recently announced that the National Animal Identification System will be left voluntary at the present time.
“It will help the trust issues that some farmers and ranchers have raised about the national animal identification system,” Bruce Knight, undersecretary for marketing and regulation, is quoted as saying when making the announcement. “I’m certainly hoping to move beyond some of the very emotional debates on animal ID.”
Knight said that perhaps the debate against the system has only been an impediment to the process.
The program would require every location housing a single chicken, duck, turkey, cow, pig, goat, horse, or any other animal to be registered in a government database, where it’s assigned a number and GPS coordinates. Animal movements would be monitored on a national level with radio-frequency ear tags, retinal scans of eyes or DNA testing. The tracking system would pinpoint an animal’s movements within 48 hours after a disease was discovered.
Interesting article but I note a few things I would like to point out.
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, is the driving force behind NAIS and believes NAIS should be mandatory with every animal in the United States. Over the next 2 1/2 years the USDA had hoped to get 100 percent of premises registered.
Back to Colin Peterson. I didn't realize he was the whole driving force behind
NAIS. I don know he still wants to make it mandatory. I've read quite a few places on the web where Peterson is a Conservative Democrat. I don't think it is a conservative sentiment to take away peoples freedom like he wants to with
NAIS but what does this dumb cowboy know.
Alan Cassell, a member of the Knox County Cattleman’s Association and Black Angus farmer, said he thinks that animal identification is a good idea in the long run once the issue of cost is resolved. Originally, the idea was that the state would absorb part of the cost, although officials have changed some of their views about this.
The USDA now hopes to have all animals registered by January 2008, and to have full implementation of the system by January 2009. When asked whether he was pleased with the decision of Congress to bump the implementation goal to 2009, Cassell said, “Stretching it out over a length of time holds no bearing over the issue that it has to be done sometime.”
Cassell believes that, for most people who keep good records and manage their livestock well, it will require minimal outlay to make the transition from current records to the new identification system.
I think Cassell needs to get his head out of his ass and smell the cow shit. I damn well manage my livestock well but it would cost me a significant amount of money to move to an
NAIS program, not a "minimal outlay" like he says. I would be curious to know what planet he lives on that he calls greater than $10,000 a "minimal outlay."
The last interesting item.
The identification program will not address imported meat products that enter the food supply chain.
So Australia, Canada, Brazil, Mexico or any other country can ship meat here and they don't have to meet the requirements of
NAIS. So lets ask the question of what happens to these foreign products when they get here. For the most part they get mixed in with US beef by the packer so it becomes indistinguishable from an American product. Then lets say there is some contaminate found in it down the road further in the chain say at the restraunt level. Then what happens.
They trace the meat back to the plant then
NAIS kicks in and they target all these American producers as the problem for the contamination and liquidate their herds for them. The authorities never once consider that it might be the foreign products that were introduced by the packer, since they can't be tracked, or the packer itself as the problem. They will just use
NAIS to persecute American meat producers.
{sarcasm}Yep,
NAIS is really going to help the US meat producers{/sarcasm}, help them right out of business thanks to our own government. {sarcasm}We really need it all right,{/sarcasm} if we want all our food to come from foreign countries.
An ear tag never stopped a disease, but the ear tag could destroy American agriculture. Is that what you want to happen?
