No Mandatory Animal ID

NPPC firmly behind mandatory animal ID

Incoming House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson told farm broadcasters at their national convention again on Friday he backs mandatory national animal identification, because USDA is "screwing up" in implementing a voluntary system. Just two days earlier, U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns said he thought mandatory national animal ID would result in "open revolt" among cattle producers.

But that clearly wouldn't be the case among pork producers. National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Joy Philippi told Brownfield Thursday the pork industry has always thought mandatory animal ID is the best approach, and still does.

The Large pork producers are ready to sacrifice themselves on the alter of big government. I feel sorry for them. Benjamin Franklin said "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." The Pork Producers fall into this saying and they will be the big losers in the end.

Then there is the cattle producers. Johanns says there will "open revolt" if mandatory NAIS is foisted on them. Hey, Johanns has finally got the hint, cattle producers don't want this.

The problem is Collin Peterson. He wants Mandatory NAIS at all costs. With him being chairman on the House Ag Committee we that are fighting NAIS are going to have to double our efforts to stop this from happening. Write, call your congressmen. Let them know our opposition to this program. working together, hopefully we can stop this even if the pork industry wants it. They will thank us in the long run when we stop it.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure fooled the pork producers into thinking it can.

Stockmen don’t cotton to livestock registration

The government’s drive to register places that house livestock to guard against disease and bioterrorism is meeting resistance from stockmen.

The Department of Agriculture is pushing everyone from farmers to veterinarians to register. Officials say the information would help them slow or halt the spread of mad cow disease, avian flu or another killer infection.

It’s the first step toward individual animal identification and tracking, which the government says will speed a response to disease or bioterrorism targeting food supplies.

More Ranchers just like me opposed to NAIS and for the same reasons.

For Rob Alexander, a cow-calf rancher in Elbert County, the program could be just another drain on his already wafer-thin profit margin.

“I have to buy this new tool to put a tag in the ear, and then I have to buy new software to scan the tags,” he said. “Will it make my life more complicated? Yes. Am I excited about that? No. To the producer who’s on the short end of the stick, this smells like a rat, because most of the burden is going to be on us.”

Yes, cattle ranching is a business for a lot of us and this mandate is a little too much for us. There is no guarantee it will give us any extra profit, in fact the packer my calves go to charges the producer to read the tags, so why should we do it.

With the change in Congress it is more important than ever to let our voices be heard in opposition to NAIS. Write, call, we can stop NAIS.

With yesterday's election I thought I should review where NAIS is going to stand with the Democrats in charge of Congress.

To start with I will point out Sen. Talent of Missouri was defeated. He was the Senator that introduced a bill to mandate that NAIS.html">NAIS be voluntary. Without him in office who knows where this will go and who will take up the fight for him. I have no idea how his opponent stood on the issue and it will be interesting to see.

Of more concern to NAIS is the House being in Democratic hands and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) will now be the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Rep. Peterson is the driving force behind NAIS and believes that NAIS should be mandatory with every animal in the US tracked from birth to death under all circumstances.

So, now the American people have what they want. Democrats in charge and they believe in controlling us and our animals. The fight to control NAIS just got more important for all of us that care for freedom. The party in control doesn't care for freedom and wants to control animal movement through the US. Write your Congress Critters and your new Congress Critters. Let them know your opposition to NAIS and how it will hurt American agriculture. We can still win if we don't lose heart. It will be much harder but lets try.

If you have paid any attention to me at all, you know I don't support the governments NAIS efforts. We don't need the government mandating yet another expensive program that us producers can't afford to implement for them.

Yesterday I worked my replacement heifers, heifer calves that I am keeping to make cows out of, and as part of the process I had a veterinarian on hand to bangs (Brucellosis) vaccinate them. Now Bangs vaccination requires a vet to do it. He tattoos the animals ear with his tattoo identifying he done it and then puts a metal tag in their ear with a unique identification number along with giving them their vaccination of course.

I asked the vet why the unique id number on the bangs tag couldn't be used as part of the NAIS system. It is a unique number that is sent into the government identifying an animal to a person and I have personally seen it used to track a critter as mine in less than 24 hours. He informed me that technically it should work just as well if not better than the proposed NAIS if the government just handled the paperwork right. According to him to many states do not file the paperwork right, a lot of it finds file 13, so that it is not useful for tracking purposes.

So, instead of throwing a lot of money away devising a new system, why can't we throw some of it at the existing Bangs system to fix the paperwork problems on the government level to track breeding age cows through the US? One of the main reasons behind NAIS is BSE. Since this disease is not transfered from cow to cow and only occurs in older cattle, usually breeding stock, wouldn't it make since to fix the broken system instead of reinventing the wheel?

Typical government inefficiency. Don't fix the broken, just make a new bureaucracy.

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us. P. J. O'Rourke

USDA's Knight moving forward quickly on NAIS outreach

Last week, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight told Brownfield he'd already taken a close look at USDA's National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and planned to make it more appealing to individual producers. And on Tuesday, Knight met in Kansas City with state NAIS coordinators, representatives from the offices of state veterinarians and officials with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to roll out an initiative designed to boost producer participation in the NAIS.

Knight told Brownfield today the first fruits of that effort will be coming soon. "We're walking through new pamphlets, a new web site talking about the issues that we've got," Knight said. "We've got a user's guide we're going to be releasing in the next few weeks to more accurately explain many of the recent decisions on animal ID," he added. "This is our first test-run on the re-vamp and on the changes to NAIS."

Full fledged push by the USDA on NAIS. Why is the USDA doing this? The only way to sell something unpalatable is a full fledged propaganda effort and that is what Knight is up to. Instead of using the web, which the opponents of NAIS are using so effectively, they want to do face to face. More money to implement a plan nobody wants.

I find it interesting the article states the program isn't supposed to be implemented in 2010, time line change, and that 100% voluntary participation now seems to be optional which is new. Sounds like propaganda to me. I would never believe a bureaucrats unsubstantiated word for something like this. Snow job in the works.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but the drive for the ear tag causes the government propaganda machine to go into full gear.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I have a question as usual. What is the stated purpose behind the NAIS program being pushed by the USDA? You've got it, to protect our food supply.

According to those pushing it, NAIS will lead to a safer food supply and give us the ability to track down food borne illness to the source. This, according to advocates, will protect the health of American Citizens and protect American farmers and ranchers markets overseas from disruption.

So, let's look at the latest food borne illness in the US and how it could have been made less virulent with the proper use of NAIS. The latest food borne illness in the US was an outbreak of E.coli. E. coli comes from beef so obviously NAIS would track the beef to the source. So lets look at the news story.

More E. coli infected spinach found in US outbreak

More bags of spinach tainted with toxic E. coli bacteria have been found and could help investigators track down an outbreak that may have killed three people, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

SPINACH!!!??? The E. coli outbreak is in spinach? How do we protect ourselves using NAIS when the food borne illness is in spinach? I guess we will have to start a new program called National Spinach Identification Program. Each and every leaf of spinach will have to have it's own unique 15 digit identification number. This number will have to be recorded for each movement of the leaf from field to, processor, supplier, trucking company, grocery store, to the consumer, who of courses needs to give their name, address, American ID code, and personal signature acknowledging acceptance of the identified spinach and absolving the large corporations of any responsibility in any liability associated with the product. Yea, that's the way the government should handle it to protect us all.

Sounds pretty silly doesn't it. Tracking a leaf of spinach from field to consumer but that's what they want to do with animals. Why animals and not all food products? Or is the NAIS program just a precursor to labeling all food?

That's it, they will expand the NAIS system to include all food products including Spinach. Let's call it the Federal Uniform Calories Key Identification Tracking (FUCK IT). It will go right along with the Real ID program to track everything and everyone.

I, of course, exaggerate here but wanted to point out the fact that the NAIS program would not have helped with the latest food borne illness and would not significantly affect any future ones either. NAIS is not about protecting the food supply but protecting the large corporations from liability for their slaughter practices and to protect the Packers market.

An Identification number never stopped a disease, it just gives the government an excuse to help the Meat Packers.

Animal ID opponents gaining steam

Another rebellion is brewing across the hinterland. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has targeted ranchers, farmers, horse owners, homesteaders, organic gardeners and chicken-owning grandmas for participation in a new National Animal Identification System. The targets are unhappy and are organizing to see that the USDA cannot force participation in this new high-tech government program.

Sen. Jim Talent and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, both from Missouri, have introduced legislation in both chambers that will prohibit the USDA from imposing a "mandatory" animal identification program on livestock owners. The bills will also prohibit the use of federal funds to support any state program that mandates participation.

The USDA and the promoters of the NAIS are furious. The American Farm Bureau Federation, in particular, has been a strong supporter of the program. But many individual Farm Bureau members, and some county and state organizations, oppose a mandatory program and are supporting the Talent-Emerson bills. There has been more than casual talk about widespread defections from the Farm Bureau because of the national association's support for the program.

The National Cattle and Beef Association is also concerned about losing members because of the association's outspoken support for NAIS. NCBA's response to the introduction of the Talent-Emerson bills was considerably less caustic than was the American Farm Bureau Federation's. NCBA's recent increase in membership fees and the emergence of the competitive R-CALF organization were already causing concern about member loyalty for the NCBA leadership. According to a congressional staffer (who must remain anonymous in order to keep his job), the NCBA folks are softening their position on NAIS.

The grass-roots community is ramping up its opposition to the NAIS and generating support for the Talent-Emerson bills.

Yes, the people can make a difference. It seems to be unusual in this day and age but it happens. Keep writing the Senators and Congressmen and state officials. Let them know how unhappy you are about this. Quit those organizations that support it and join organizations that oppose it. Our message is starting to get through. Keep the pressure up.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it does organize people to oppose it.

Lawmakers seek to keep animal ID voluntary

Measures have been introduced in both the House and Senate to prohibit the USDA from developing a mandatory National Animal ID System.

Senator Jim Talent and Representative Jo Ann Emerson, each a Missouri Republican, introduced the measures in their respective chambers to make the system strictly voluntary.

The bill would prohibit the USDA from mandating livestock owner participation in an animal ID system, according to a news release from Senator Talent's office.

It would also address privacy concerns. Under the proposal, confidential records submitted to USDA by livestock owners would not be subject to any request under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, they could only be shared with other departments under specific circumstances.

This is promising. The whole NAIS thing is happening in the corridors of the USDA without legislative oversight. This is a start of getting the appropriate oversight involved to control the USDA and their over reaching plan to track every critter in the US from birth to death. Call and/or write your Congressman and Senators to get on board and support these bills.

I think Leo McDonnell, Past President of R-CALF USA, needs to get his story straight. At a recent get together in Mississippi he told the gathered crowd;

“R-CALF USA does not support the proposed Animal ID system,” he said. “It is hypocrisy to put such a costly and burdensome regulation on the U.S. industry while we lower our import standards to countries that could expose us to higher disease risk.”

Now I've always been disappointed with R-CALF for there lackluster attitude towards NAIS. I thought maybe Leo's statement was a shift from their position to a stronger negative position of this issue. I was wrong. Here we find R-CALF's position on NAIS.

R-CALF USA is committed to working with Congress and the Administration on animal identification to ensure:

The industry is fully informed of the expected costs and benefits of any proposed system;

Producer input is taken into account and weighed fully before any mandatory system is created;

If a single tracking database is created and submissions of producer data are mandated, the system is exclusively managed by the federal government in coordination with state and tribal animal health authorities; and

Any national identification system builds upon the success of existing animal identification systems, and there should be strong support for such systems and pilot projects that comply with national standards and protect producer data.

(emphasis added are mine)

What Leo said, and the above position don't jive. He needs to get his story straight. R-CALF's position is to work with the USDA to ensure before the mandatory system is in place that producers are aware of the costs and can publicly gripe about it. They also want the government to handle all the data, where it can be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests by anybody, and that existing methods of identification be taken into account. How in the hell does this position match the statement "R-CALF USA does not support the proposed Animal ID system?"

IT DOESN'T!!!!!

Like I said, R-Calf needs to take a strong position of opposition on this matter and they are dropping the ball. Too bad, they could have really increased their membership with a firm stance on this one. There is a lot of opposition to this out there to capitalize on. R-CALF should be taking advantage of it.

Leo, maybe you need to review the position on NAIS you proposed, you are being a typical politician and talking out of both sides of your mouth.

It's always interesting to hear what Secretary of Agriculture Johanns has to say about NAIS. But I found an interesting story about the questions he is not answering about NAIS. I thought I would share these facts.

For example, Johanns repeatedly dodged questions about whether USDA's intent was to make and maintain NAIS as a voluntary or mandatory program. He stressed it's a voluntary program today and believes a voluntary program is preferable.

You will note that the draft plan has it as mandatory and he appears to be dodging the question on whether it will be or not. He keeps saying that he would "prefer" it to be voluntary , but no assurances are coming from him.

Johanns also demurs from questions aimed at assessing what level of voluntary participation is required for effective animal-health trace-back.

This is when it would become mandatory, if there is not enough voluntary participation. At what level will this happen? He won't commit.

Similarly, Johanns will not provide an answer about the system's cost, other than alluding to the $83 million USDA has already poured into it. One reason may be no such estimate exists, despite repeated requests from the industry for a cost-benefit analysis.

In a separate one-on-one interview, Chief Veterinary Officer, John Clifford, was more specific, implying producers will be responsible for purchasing and applying NAIS tags. He pointed out no state is currently charging producers to register their premises with NAIS, which is a prerequisite to obtaining official NAIS tags.

He doesn't want to talk about what it will cost the industry and producers. Some of his underlings are, but not Johanns He just keeps spouting how much the USDA has spent. So, since the USDA has spent money on it we are going to be forced to do it? Sounds like Johanns plan.

Other key questions still unanswered:
Who guarantees confidentiality? For obvious reasons, producers are unlikely to provide any NAIS data if they believe it could be accessed by anyone other than state and federal animal-health officials. Johanns said, "I agree with livestock producers who believe information about your livestock is your business, period."

Again, in a separate interview, Clifford was more specific. He explains USDA has protected producer info from prying eyes and the Freedom of Information Act via the Privacy Act. However, state animal-health officials and others continue to emphasize the need for legislation at both levels aimed at protecting NAIS data specifically.

What about working group recommendations? Each livestock species devised its own working group to make NAIS recommendations to the Secretary of Ag. Those from the Cattle Industry Working Group were submitted months ago and have yet to receive approval or denial from USDA. That means anything beyond premises registration remains speculation. In turn, that means few producers are likely to begin tagging cattle with NAIS tags until species-specific recommendations are adopted.

Is it all for all and one for all? Cattle and swine are more advanced in NAIS development than any of the others. Some other species are just getting started, while others continue to dig their feet in against elements of the program. It's difficult to imagine cattle producers embracing a program like NAIS if other species are allowed to sit on the sidelines.

Do you know what you're talking about? The cooperative effort between the livestock industry and the state and federal animal-health officials charged with protecting those industries emphasized the need for a national system for animal health purposes. Yet Johanns continues to harp on his belief the market will drive NAIS adoption, that there are already economic incentives in the domestic and international markets to provide ID.

All kinds of questions left unanswered by Johanns. Why is that? Scared because he doesn't want the industry figuring out what that this is against there interests? That's what I think, he doesn't want to be caught in a lie but can't tell the truth. Pretty uncomfortable position.

This final one really takes the cake. It has nothing to do with Johanns comments.

Perhaps the most positive outcome of the meeting was a public display of the livestock industry's ongoing resolve to develop and implement a national animal ID system for the purpose of protecting the nation's livestock. In an informal survey of the 600 meeting participants, 78% believe such a system is so imperative to protecting the livestock industry that it should be made mandatory.

In the opinion of the author of the piece, it is a positive outcome that some 78% of people at the conference think it should be mandatory. That is not the feeling out in the country. But what do you expect the outcome of the survey to be at a conference designed to promote NAIS. People that don't believe in it were not going to attend, only the full fledged supporters were there.

Keep those letters and phone calls going. Let your elected Representatives know how dangerous this is and how it needs derailed. Working together this can be stopped.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure has Johanns avoiding the hard questions.

Farmers: Make animal ID voluntary

Even those who have different ideas on what provisions a new farm bill should contain were unified about one issue Monday at a House Agriculture Committee field hearing in Springfield.

Nobody wants to see mandatory animal identification --not the witnesses invited to testify about the 2007 Farm Bill and not the folks taking time off from their farms to attend the session in the E-Plex at the Missouri Entertainment and Events Center.

Farmers are unified on this issue, No Mandatory Animal ID. I am so glad to see this movement taking off across the US. More people are awake than I hoped would be. We need to keep beating the drum. Contact your Congressmen, Senators, Governors, and anybody that will listen. Keep Animal ID voluntary.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it appears to motivate the body politic.