No Mandatory Animal ID

Is National ID Really Dead?

Premise identification and animal identification have been hot topics in the agriculture community for years now. With recent announcements from USDA regarding the fate of the NAIS and premise ID, as well as articles questioning the current status of the program, I feel it is important to remind Hoosier producers of Indiana’s current position on premise and animal ID.

The premise ID program in Indiana is not “dead.” Although USDA does not require producers to enroll in the program, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health decided that with the risks of foreign animal diseases, and bio-terrorism, the premise ID mandate was needed in our state. According to Indiana state law, as of Sept. 1, 2006, any location involved with the purchase, sale or exhibition of livestock must possess a premise ID number. Some exhibitions, including the Hoosier Beef Congress, are requiring all exhibitors provide their number to register.

I've been concerned with the USDA backing off the mandatory aspects of NAIS, the states would be forced to pick up mandatory NAIS by the Federal Government. Hell, it doesn't even take the feds to pressure them as you see. Indiana is going ahead with Mandatory premise registration without the USDA pushing them. What's next, mandatory id?

Anyone who cares about freedom needs to be aware of these state efforts and fight them. Fight the good fight, write those state officials and let them know you think mandatory NAIS is wrong and not to push it. Our voices are the tools to fight this.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, people just think the ear tag does.

MEAT INDUSTRY: Vet calls animal ID proposals overkill

The North Dakota Board of Animal Health veterinarian is developing a proposal for a "hybrid" animal trace-back system that relies more on existing systems - cattle branding and paper trails on livestock transactions - and not switching immediately to expensive individual electronic tracking for all animals.

The federal government is in the process of implementing a National Animal Identification System. The system is voluntary but could become mandatory. It would be based on a national registration of farms and feedlots, coupled with electronic tags for each animal.

What a novel concept, use the existing brand system instead of the complicated NAIS for animal trackback.

"We have a system that actually works quite well because it is associated with title and real dollars," he says.

Wow, a system that actually works. The only problem? Some Government bureaucrat might have to get off his fat ass and look at the records instead of just calling it up on a computer. [sarcasm]Them government employees are so abused, aren't they. Expect them to do some work, poor babies.[/sarcasm]

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but government employees sure want it to make their life easier at tremendous cost to producers.

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.

USDA Outlines Plan, Benchmarks for National Animal ID Implementation

A new proposal from USDA outlines timelines and benchmarks for the establishment of the National Animal Identification System, along with a plan for the initial integration of private and state animal tracking databases with NAIS. Over the next two and a half years USDA wants 100% of premises registered and new animals identified and 60% of animals less than a year old to have complete movement data.

This may look like a story about the USDA's plan for NAIS. I don't think it is though. It is more of a threat to those of us opposing this that if the goals of the plan aren't met it will become mandatory.

Johanns says the benchmarks are important to determine "when or if we need to do a mandatory approach," he explains. "As we hit those benchmarks, we'll see how we're doing."

The secretary continued to stress the need for industry support for a national system. If only 50% is participating, it won't get the job done, he says.

If USDA finds the voluntary approach isn't working, Johanns explains it has the authority to change the system into a mandatory one without Congress writing new legislation.

What are the goals that have to met to make sure it's not mandatory? 100% participation in the plan. Hell, even if you make it mandatory you will not have 100% participation. Take something as simple as a drivers license, people drive without them all the time and take the chance of getting caught. NAIS will be the same way even if mandatory. So simply, this is Johanns threatening those of us opposing Mandatory NAIS. Is the threat going to work? I will still keep making noise against it so it won't stop me, how about you?

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but the government sure wants to convince us otherwise.

One of the whole reasons behind the push for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) by the USDA is animal diseases such as bird flu. Yesterday I mentioned the fact that the USDA is proposing to let Chicken from China into the US where, in case you've missed it, bird flu is rampant.

So the USDA wants to count and number all critters in the US to prevent disease, which by the way I will point out an ear tag never stopped a disease, but is willing to allow imports from a country that has the same disease to continue with no problems. Does this make sense to anyone else out there?

I'll tell you it's all about the money, the big meat packers tell the USDA what they want and guess what, they get it. The American consumer gets cheap meat, probable unsafe from foreign sources that don't meet US standards, the meat packers get lots of money and the American producer gets the shaft. What a deal. For safe affordable meat the American consumer needs to wake up and smell the tulips and fight these proposals from the USDA. Otherwise the ability of this country to feed itself will disappear forever.

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.