No Mandatory Animal ID

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.

Walter at NoNAIS.org brings us some interesting information about the need for NAIS. All along the government has proclaimed that Nais is necessary to control diseases like BSE. According to the US Food and Drug Administration;

Are the protective measures in place sufficient to ensure the safety of the human food supply in light of the June 2005 BSE positive cow?

Yes, the protective measures put into place in July 2004 by FDA ensure that cattle materials that carry the highest risk of transmitting the agent that causes BSE are excluded from human food, including dietary supplements, and cosmetics. These measures, along with similar measures established by USDA, provide a uniform national BSE policy and ensure the safety of human food.

Is the food in the U.S. likely to be a BSE risk to consumers?

FDA and other federal agencies have had preventive measures in place to reduce the U.S. consumer's risk of exposure to any BSE-contaminated meat and food products. Since 1989, USDA has prohibited the importation of live animals and animal products from BSE-positive countries. Subsequently, USDA expanded the ban to include both countries with BSE and countries at risk for BSE. Since 1997, FDA has prohibited the use of most mammalian protein in the manufacture of ruminant feed. In 2004, FDA issued a rule prohibiting the use of certain cattle materials in human food and cosmetics, and USDA issued a rule prohibiting certain cattle materials from use as human food.

So, it seems that all measures are all ready in affect to protect the consumers from BSE. Why does the Government want the NAIS then? As a prelude to numbering all people in the US maybe. It's not as far fetched as you think.

An ID number never stopped a disease, it just gives the government more control over our lives.

The Real Deal: Tagging Terrorist Chickens

Agribusiness lobbied the USDA to create a system to protect them from legal liability if an epidemic does break out. More, NAIS would protect agribusiness market share, forestalling a public revulsion against their product by “confirming” that only a few animals were sick, rather than not thousands. NAIS enables huge agribusiness conglomerates that concentrate thousands of animals (and so concentrate the chance for spreading diseases) to point their finger at someone else.

Here’s the scenario:

# People in Sheboygan get sick from something they ate.

# It’s determined the meat came from a local fast food joint.

# That fast food joint gets its meat from ABC cow factory.

# ABC cow factory buys cows from XYZ feedlots.

# Those feedlots had cows numbered 1q10 through 1q500 in their possession and those cows came from 15 small farms in suburban Tempe.

# Goodbye 15 small farms in suburban Tempe.

# Hello scapegoat for fast food joint, slaughterhouse, and feedlots.

Somebody besides me gets it. NAIS is the USDA/meat packing companies way of doing away with the small farmer and rancher. I might be overstating it a little but that's the way I see it. The author of this opinion piece has insightful vision to see it too.

I do have a serious question though. How does a person get people to care about this issue and do something about it? A few voices yelling and screaming about the issue and people just label you as a crackpot. Whether I'm cracked or not I don't know but I won't silence myself. But how do i effectively communicate my message? I'll think of something and keep working on it.

Remember, an ID number never stopped a disease.

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.

What next: animal mug shots?

"I tell people about this, and they think I've gone nuts."

She's talking about an extraordinary plan under way to register, and track, every livestock animal in the U.S. That's all the cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, pigs, even llamas.

It's called the National Animal Identification System. It seeks to assign each animal a 15-digit ID number and physical tag such as a radio-frequency device. So far it's voluntary, but it's slated to be mandatory in 2009 for any animal that moves from one property to another (i.e. if they're sold, borrowed, displayed at a fair, or just wander around a lot.)

It's well-meaning. If we know where all the animals are at all times, then we can quickly quell outbreaks of disease, such as mad-cow or avian flu.

But there are more than 10 billion such animals in the U.S. We kill 9 billion chickens a year. Keeping track of them all, even if some are registered in groups, will require massive government record keeping.

Another problem: It's insane. Especially for people who own just a handful of animals.

"it's insane." I hardily agree. Most of the opposition I see to this comes from small producers but there are a lot of big producers out there, like me, who disagree with NAIS too. It's insane to number and count all the animals in the US. What's next RFID tag all the people to keep track of them?

Remember, an ear tag, ID number, or premise ID, never stopped a disease. Proper health and nutrition by caring people, not factory farms, provide disease prevention.

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.