Feds won't make livestock-identification plan mandatory
Surprising exactly no one, a federal plan to track all U.S. livestock with ID tags remains controversial with farmers. Surprising some, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has given up on making it mandatory. Intended to trace disease and to combat -- wait for it -- agroterrorism, the National Animal Identification System is "admittedly a very emotional issue," says USDA undersecretary Bruce Knight, who has traveled the country to meet with skeptics. Since its rollout last year, NAIS has registered nearly a quarter of the nation's roughly 1.4 million farming "premises"; the next step for farms is to buy electronic tags for their animals at $2 to $3 a pop. Concerns range from religious (think tech-wary Amish) to economic to general mistrust of The Man: "The only reason for [NAIS] is to serve the economic interests of large meatpackers and people who are going to sell the technology," said Mary-Louise Zanoni, a small-farm advocate in New York. Said the agroterrorists: Mwah-ha-ha-ha.
straight to the source: The New York Times, Theo Emery, 13 Dec 2006
get the backstory, in Grist: Old Big Brother Had a Farm
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Comments
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esbee Posted 6:46 pm
08 Oct 2009
Under NAIS I must---
1. register my premises with the government, even though this step clouds title to private property simply by the language used. A 15 digit gps/bar code thingy number goes with the property forever, even if at a later date, there are no animals are on it.
2. All my critters must be microchipped. Besides the costs of chips, vet calls, scanners and computer programs will be needed (more $) Factory farms do NOT have to do this, they get one lot number per group of animals. Any animal in that group could be diseased and who would know.
3. I will report All births, deaths and movements reported into a database within 24 hours or face huge fines. This costs time and money and databases are often hacked into. Again factory farms have few reporting events, already what they do as part of business.
4. If animal disease is suspected in an area, the USDA can depopulate a 6 mile radius (140 sq. miles of dead healthy animals that never came in contact with the supposed sick animal). Testing for disease not necessary.
Don't you feel safer about what you eat because I told the govt everywhere I rode my horse, gave up my property rights and spent thousands of dollars in microchipping, report fees and technical equipment?
Since the people have been resisting NAIS the USDA offered "listening sessions" across the US this summer....they listened with their fingers in their ears. Over 90% oppose NAIS and have no need for it. It is like my havingin an illness but forcing YOU to take/pay for the meds...does neither of us any good.
Call those elected offal and tell them your horse, chicken, goat, pig votes. NAIS is not needed nor wanted. see nonais.org and the USDA/NAIS listening sessions to see why!
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