I normally don't link to opinion pieces but this one gets an exception.
The mark of the beast
The piece is about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and the problems with it.
Everyone wants a safe, abundant and affordable food supply, which America has enjoyed for years – without a National Animal Identification System. Why is it necessary now? The increased terrorist threat certainly justifies tightening up security in the food chain. But the NAIS does little or nothing to tighten security, while imposing ridiculous burdens upon the small producer.
The NAIS was initiated by the National Institute of Animal Agriculture, a non-government organization consisting of the leaders of agribusiness. The program they designed tends to shift the burden, cost and ultimate responsibility for food safety from the agribusiness giants to the small producer.
The NAIS requires the small producer to not only bear the cost of the program, but also to be the ultimate scapegoat in the event that an agribusiness supplier's product is found to be faulty, for whatever reason. Should little Johnny get sick after eating a hamburger made with beef supplied by BigAgri Packing Company, BigAgri simply points the finger to the producer, or producers, whose cows were in the batch from which Johnny's hamburger was made. Agribusiness shifts its responsibility for buying only healthy product to the farmer, who must guarantee his animals to be healthy.
The NAIS is an industry-designed program which will drive small producers out of business, reduce competition and ultimately put both supply and price in the hands of industry giants – unless opponents of this program get organized.
I agree with all of this. It's a program designed to put the burden of the whole system on the producers and not the big companies. The National Cattleman's Beef Association (NCBA) and the USDA support this system and as I've reported and showed before the big meat packers control these two entities to do what they want, which is NAIS.
I have yet to meet a rancher that supports this and one of my neighbors is a big supporter of NCBA so you think he would, well guess what, he doesn't. People need to wake up on this one and start hitting their congressman and state representatives. This will hurt all Americans in the long run and not help anybody but the big business drive the small producers out.
