No Mandatory Animal ID

USDA's Johanns Urges Broad Support Of Animal ID System

Speaking at the National Institute of Animal Agriculture's Animal Identification/Information Exposition 2006 in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns encouraged participants to continue working toward full participation in a national, voluntary system of animal identification.

"Don't let naysayers dampen your enthusiasm," Johanns said in a speech to the group. Other countries have animal-identification systems, and they are using the fact that their livestock are traceable as a marketing tool, Johanns said. The U.S. also should have a system for tracing livestock to stay competitive.

The USDA just keeps pushing this issue. The claim is still that it will be voulantary which I completely agree with. Johanns has also said that if 100% voluntary participation isn't reached it will be mandatory. Keep your eyes on this. Never let up the vigilance.

Can I ask a reasonable question? What is stopping there from being a tracing system now? If it will make us so much more competitive why does the USDA or the Government need to get involved? If this were going to help say Tyson sell more beef overseas or in the US why don't they just require it. All Tyson would have to do is say they will no longer slaughter beef that doesn't have a trace back to birth involved with it. Then, if there is such a demand for it they can just sit back and rake in the money, pure and simple. No government involvement, no mandating it under penalty of law. Just a producers decision whether they want to participate or not and letting the market decide. SIMPLE.

There has to be much more involved in this since the meat packers aren't just doing this. You want to know what it is? There isn't the demand out there and there is no profit in it for them to source ID their meat. So if there is no profit in it for them, why should I do it at a loss just to please them. Show me the money and I will show you the tag.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure has the USDA hopping through the meat packers hoops pushing it.

I think Mike John, President of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), really needs to get a clue about what cattle producers want.

Livestock National ID Sign-ups S-l-u-g-g-i-s-h

The president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association says in states where premises identification is not mandatory, enrollment has been painfully slow in establishing what will eventually become a national age, process and source verification system.

This, despite the fact many producers may already have the information needed for animal certification. "A very small percentage of producers have actually received a premises number," says 2006 NCBA President Mike John. "I don't know why that is. Every state has access to a Web-based premises allocation system. If people are worried about the government having access to that information, it already does."

If Premise Identification enrollment has been slow, maybe there is a reason for it. Like people think it's an unreasonable Government intrusion into their business. Of course in states where it's mandatory it's going well according to Mike John. Yea, you take a large stick and beat producers over the head and tell them they have to enroll in this "voluntary" program administered by the Meat Packers, through the US Animal Identification Organization, or they will be fined and wonder why enrollment is going well.

Mike John just doesn't get that he is a shill for the Meat Packers and is not working for the best interests of the Cattle Industry. I plan on being in the cattle business and I will wait until the USDA/NCBA/Meat Packers (they are all one outfit) forces me to get mine through law and do it under coercion. It's wrong and everybody knows it but whether we can turn this train or not is still in question.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it sure doesn't stop the government and their shills from pushing unwise policy down cattle producers throats.

Government's idea of 'tracking' animals

Reaction to the National Animal Identification System is shining a light on a growing problem that independent producers believe is threatening the entire livestock industry. Vertical marketing practices in the meat processing industry, combined with the industry's access to and influence on the Department of Agriculture and Congress, has the small producer against the ropes. The NAIS may be the final blow that puts independent ranchers and small farmers down for the count.

There is nothing particularly new here about National Animal Identification System (NAIS), just the same information hopefully reaching more and more people to help fight this plan. Just more information how NAIS is driven by the meat packers to further consolidate the market, and how they are using their money to influence the USDA and Congress to do their bidding.

There is strong belief among producers that the NAIS has little to do with food safety and much more to do with providing data for agribusiness. One farmer says "... agribusiness giants will then have access to all of the information on the [NAIS] database. They will have knowledge about all sources and supplies of commodity animals. They will use such information to improve their ongoing practice of captive supply and market price manipulation."

He is convinced that "The USDA has become the conscript of agribusiness. All key positions at the USDA are now held by former agribusiness people or their minions."

Funny, I've been saying the same thing all along. The Meat packers have bought and payed for the USDA and expect it to do their bidding to the detriment of the farmers, ranchers, and consumers of the USA. Either somebody is listening to me, I'm listening to someone else, or thew facts are so obvious that everybody in the industry knows this to be true. I personally think it's the last on, it's painfully obvious what's going on, getting things changed is the next problem to solve.

Sonce the problem of the big Agribusiness companies taking control of the USDA first surfaced in 1993 with Mike Espy this isn't a problem that can only be laid at the feet of King George Bush. Bill Clinton was also involved in letting the big meat packers have their way in the USDA and hurting all of us. The solution is going to take an awful big broom at the USDA, along with the political will to use it, to clean out all the influence the Agribusiness companies have and to turn the agency around to helping America's agriculture, not just helping the meat packers to the detriment of us all.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but it might lead to an awakening of the public to corporate control of our Government.

Where does the problem lie with opening up the markets across the sea to US Beef? With the Cattleman not ID tagging their animals or the big meat packers who keep shipping meat overseas that doesn't meet the standards for importation into other countries?

HK suspends beef imports from U.S. processing plant

Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) announced on Saturday that it would suspend immediately beef imports from Swift Beef Company, a processing plant in Colorado of the United States.

The decision was made following the discovery of beef imports with bones from that plant during last night's inspections by FEHD' s Airport Food Inspection Office, a department spokesman said.

"Beef imports from the United States was resumed on Dec. 29 last year. According to an agreed protocol, only boneless beef from cattle less than 30 months of age, with high risk materials such as brain and spinal cord removed during slaughtering, could be imported from designated plants approved by the United States.

"We will contact the relevant authorities for more information concerning the beef imports in question," he said.

We lose Japan as a market because a meat packer shipped banned items and now another market is at risk for the same reason. The USDA/meat packers need to fix their problem before it drives the whole cattle business under water.

So, how would the ear tag the USDA/meat packers want to mandate I use to help keep foreign markets open, prevent the meat packer from stupidly shipping meat with bone pieces in it to a foreign country that doesn't allow it? You got it, it doesn't. The meat packers need to step up sanitation and inspections in their plants if they want to maintain foreign markets, not drive the producers in this country out of business with this NAIS scheme.

Look to your own house first before you come into mine to fix your problem. I can't fix things you break.

An ear tag never stopped a disease, but the USDA/meat packers sure like to use it as an excuse for their problems.

Walter over at NoNAIS asked me "Can you tell me more about how many big producers do you think are against NAIS?"

I don't know what I can tell you for sure. I only know of one producer, very large (10,000 head of mother cows), in the area that is for NAIS. Everybody else opposes it. A good organization that has producers of all shapes and sizes that has many questions about NAIS is R-CALF USA. Another organization in the State of Montana that opposes it is the Montana Cattleman's Association. How the producers in these organizations break out big and small I can't say for sure but knowing some of the bigger members, there are quite a few of the bigger operators that are opposed to NAIS. Their opposition usually breaks out the same as mine, where do I benefit? Prove it. Whether all this opposition in our state is going to get anything accomplished I don't know but I wanted to be a voice out there talking about it.

I personally don't see the pay-off to having an NAIS system in place. A large operation, like a small one, has to put pencil to paper and figure out if an expense is going to pay for itself. I might sell multiple semi loads of cattle a year but nobody out there is giving me a premium for ID animals over the money they are paying now so where is the advantage? How the expense of the NAIS is going to pay for itself is beyond me. The only people that truly want this system is the big meat packers.

The big meat packers are why NAIS is going to be a mandatory system and not a voluntary system. The USDA is in bed with the big meat packers and the packers don't want to have to only slaughter animals with ID's for foreign markets at one time and then have to slaughter animals with no ID for the domestic market. This would mess up the way they just throw it all together and call it quality beef. This has been the meat packers opposition to Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) also. Having to segregate what they slaughter would cost them money. Easier and cheaper for them to buy off the government and have the cost of a system on the little producers so they can avoid it entirely. So really this fight is the meat packers/USDA against everybody else who owns animals. Getting them to see and understand that is the problem.

The question I would have for producers of common cattle, sheep, goats, chickens or any other critter affected by this is what price premium are you getting for critters with id's in them? Not promises of premiums, actual premiums. I've seen very little of this and I don't expect to. That's why the smart operators are opposing this, there is no benefit.

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease or guaranteed a premium for your animals.

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.

A private group has been formed to oversee the National Animal Identification System. The United States Animal Identification Organization held their first meeting via teleconference this week, where the board's first three members were elected.

One leader of the organization is NCBA member Rick Stott of Boise, Idaho. He says the group is a non-profit, independent organization with just one purpose: to provide an industry controlled entity to manage the National Animal Identification movement database.

With the way I see NCBA/meat packers manipulating the whole NAIS I don't feel at all good about this "Private group" being formed. I am sure it's packed with people who are towing the line to the meatpackers/NCBA/USDA line of bull we are being fed. Just another group to keep an eye on.

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.

Herd Identification System (HIS).

[sarcasm]Interesting[/sarcasm] commentary from Mike John of the National Cattleman's Beef Association (NCBA), (the right arm of the meat packers) on the HIS.

As chairman, I have spent many hours working with my fellow commission members to move us toward a voluntary, producer-led solution to this issue.

Voluntary? How can a program that is mandated by the federal government be considered voluntary? Producer-led? The NCBA is led by the Meat packers, not producers so how can a program led by the NCBA be producer-led? Must be some good drugs around to make these statements.

He says critics like me are spreading lies about the system. I've never said a word above and beyond the ear tags don't stay in and I don't see that it is necessary to do, but lets approach his points.

NCBA’s just doing this to make money.

NCBA is not in this to make money, I agree. The NCBA is in on this because the meat packers want a system they can get information from to discriminate against producers of cattle that they deem to be sub quality or from producers that give them trouble. There is all ready anecdotal information (I can't find Internet links for it, sorry) that meat packers in Australia are doing just this so it's not a stretch to think the meat packers will do it here. Since the NCBA is controlled by the meat packers the NCBA is doing it.

USDA is handing this issue off to the NCBA.

USDA, NCBA, it doesn't matter, both organizations are controlled by the meat packers.

Cattlemen will be better served by a government system.

Hell, the last thing I want to see is the Government involved in this thing. One look at Hurricane Katrina ought to prove that to anybody.

If NCBA’s plan moves forward, it will have too much industry control.

NCBA does not plan to operate or control the national animal movement database once it is operational. Instead, we plan to turn it over to a non-profit, multi-species consortium that is independent of NCBA.

Prove it!!! I bet this organization they plan could be called the Independent Council of the Meat Packers, exactly who they are designing the system for.

Vendors will make all the money from this system.

It's a government mandated system, people who sell ear tags and tagging systems will make money. Who cares, if it wasn't a mandated system I wouldn't care.

We don’t really need animal ID.

If anyone still believes this, they simply are not paying attention to the industry. If you don’t believe that source verification is important, ask McDonald’s why they are paying a premium for it. If you don’t believe animal ID is important to our international trading partners, just look at the struggle we have endured to get market access back after being derailed by a single case of BSE. While we do not feel that animal ID should be mandated by the government, we believe the marketplace is already handing down an economic mandate that will provide cattlemen opportunities. To reap these benefits, cattlemen need a solution right now, not in three to five years.

As I've stated, I don't agree with this. I don't see where the HIS is necessary. My brand has worked good for years and the state of Montana can track cattle to me via the present brand in less than 24 hours. That's the goal of the system, so why do we need this expensive system using ear tags that isn't going to work properly, right now tests have it reading accurately less than 90% of the time, when the brand has worked good for centuries?

R-calf is starting to take a stance on this to get it out of the NCBA's hands. I applaud this and support them. If we have to do this, get it out of the NCBA's hands. Who's to administer it that producers can trust I can't say but I don't want to see the Government or NCBA involved.

I do have on question I would like to throw to the NCBA now. Why do you as an organization oppose Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) but support HIS? You support HIS because it lets the government/meat packers know where the cattle are coming from but oppose COOL which would let consumers know where their meat is coming from. Explain the difference to me? They look like the same thing in the long run.

Why the difference? I can answer this. The meat packers like to mix US ground beef with foreign sources of meat and they don't want to have to stop doing this and pawning the whole product off on consumers as US beef and COOL would stop them from doing this while HIS doesn't. NCBA=Meat packers. I told you.