Video: Animal Identification System Worries Some Farmers
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking farmers that participate in meat and dairy production voluntarily plant an identification chip in their livestock.
The chip would allow animals to be traced back to owners for a marketing and regulatory program.
While it is voluntary, some farmers fear that it will not be too soon off to have mandatory registration of their animals.
Opponents of the plan say an electronic chip implanted in animals such as cattle, sheep and poultry would be expensive.
An informational meeting was held Saturday on the program at Hammond Central.
State Senator Darrel Aubertine was in attendance.
He opposes the plan saying the program is meant for larger industrial farms, but small farms should not be included in the program.
Watch Jessica Cain’s report:
Comments
12 Responses to “Video: Animal Identification System Worries Some Farmers”
Got something to say?
Our only rule for commenting is that personal attacks are not allowed. You may post anonymously, but you will receive less leeway with strong comments than if you sign your name and provide a proper e-mail address. Comments are approved by a site administrator before they're published, so it may take some time for your comment to appear. We reserve the right to delete any or all comments, before or after publication. PLEASE NOTE: The name you put in the Name field is what will be seen on the website.The 5 Day Forecast
World & National Video
Archives
WWNYTV Links
i am in several clubs,and enjoy showing poultry and raisen them,if this is made mandatory myself and alot others will be forsed out of something we love to do,with a cost of everything else on the rise,myself and others could not be able to keep are hobbies,patrick burns’ hammond,
I emailed the TV station about this very story quite a while ago and was completely ignored. The checks and balances we have in the system work great in this country and our farmers don’t need the additional burden of microchipping their stock and reporting livestock movement to USDA. The reporting of livestock movement would have to be done within 24 hours. The super sized farms might be in favor of this as it has the possibility of forcing the smaller farmers out of business…reducing competition. I hope our general public will become more aware of this and speak up.
Here is a link to the USDA NAIS home page:
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/
NAIS means UNSAFE FOOD:
Internationally NAIS traceability REPLACES TESTING FOR DISEASE in imported foods. USDA inspection of imported food has dropped from an 8% sampling rate to 0.6%. Most imported food is not inspected at all. Because of International Rules Canada sued when the USA tried to ban cattle imports.
The USDA has cut back on testing within the USA because if you do not test you do not find disease and the USA can continue to export. That is why a slaughterhouse had to sue the USDA so they could do 100% BSE testing.
Does NAIS work? The evidence so far shows it does not. In the UK it was found that beef from Brazil came from Foot & Mouth Disease quarantine areas even though their NAIS-style tagging showed it to be from areas free of FMD. Canada shipped a BSE cow. And Mexico has shipped large numbers of tuberculosis diseased cattle.
According to International Rules if disease is found exports are stopped for three months if all the animals are killed near the diseased animal. If a vaccine is used instead of killing then exports are stopped for 12 months. That explains what happened in the UK.
The World Trade Organization: . The Agreement…AIMS TO ENSURE THAT GOVERNMENTS DO NOT USE QUARANTINE AND FOOD SAFETY REQUIREMENTS as Unjustified trade barriers… It provides Member countries with a right to implement traceability {NAIS} as an SPS measure.” [this means NAIS is allowed instead of testing]
http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/anrep_e/world_trade_report05_e.pdf -
http://www.fil-idf.org/Content/Default.asp?pageID=566
Planned eradication procedure http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/Y0660E/Y0660E00.HTM
History of UK 2001 foot & mouth disease http://www.warmwell.com/footmoutheye.html
It is not only farmers and ranchers who should be concerned about this program, but all citizens.
1) The USDA has spent over $130 million on NAIS, without doing a cost/benefit analysis and without taking into consideration the existing state programs that currently provide similar functions.
2) If NAIS benefits the meat packing industry by increasing exports through marketing should the meat packing industry pay for NAIS - or should the taxpayer? The USDA chose the taxpayer.
3) NAIS is not about food safety. Think of all the food recalls that are traced back to the processing of the meat. Food safety would benefit by more inspections.
Over half of the cattle with tuberculosis were tracked back to imported cattle. Food safety (and animal health) would benefit by more port inspections, quarantines. and import restrictions.
In the USDA’s latest business plan, horses (along with beef and dairy cattle) are included on the top tier for enrollment into NAIS. Why focus on horses if NAIS is going to increase food safety?
4) In most states the first phase of NAIS (premise id) participation is voluntary. The more “voluntary” premise ids, the more taxpayer money the states get from the USDA.
In Colorado, 4-H children are not allowed to participate in the state or county fairs unless their parents/sponsors “volunteer”.
In North Carolina, drought-stricken farmers could not participate in the state-sponsored hay program unless they “volunteered”.
In New York, Idaho, and Massachusetts, data mining is used to “volunteer” enrollments without the participants’ knowledge.
In Michigan a cattle rancher could not get his herd tested without “volunteering” for NAIS. He refused; the legal system forced him into compliance.
Government regulators have redefined voluntary to mean coerce. Greed has replaced science. Is this what we want for our country?
The news video only touches lightly on the real drawbacks to Animal ID (NAIS). NAIS includes ALL livestock species including non food animals such as horses and llamas. It will be required of ALL livestock owners, even those who just have a pet goat. It will be required for the Amish and Mennonites even though it violates their First Amendment rights. It will be required for private property owners even though it violates their Fourth Amendment rights. There is no benefit to small farmers, even though they will bear the brunt of the cost. (Factory farms can use a single lot number for hundreds of animals that move as a group, but small farms that don’t work that way would need individual ID.) The recommended microchip for implanting into a horse has been associated with tumors and other physical problems. The same chip can be reprogrammed and is not a secure ID device. USDA claims this program is “voluntary” (after initially saying it would be mandatory by Jan 09), but they have Cooperative Agreements with every state with the intent of having it made mandatory at the state level. Some states have used data mining and others are rolling over participants in other disease programs into NAIS without the consent of the “stakeholder” - which is how USDA refers to livestock owners..
NAIS is full of problems, but USDA is pushing ahead with it because of international trade agreements that consider health concerns in imported animals to be an unfair trade barrier. So the USDA wants this in place to give a warm, fuzzy feeling to the public that they are doing something to protect the food supply. And it has the added “benefit” of driving small farms out of business and giving Big Ag complete control of the market. Anyone who eats should be wary about this plan.
This year, NY is putting NAIS premises ID on all small poultry keepers in local clubs when they get pullorum testing for their birds in preparation for their show season.
They have been doing the same thing to horse owners with coggins tests.
That is NOT voluntary when people’s information is uploaded into the NAIS database WITHOUT their permission!!
USE CAUTION with this new USDA program. “NAIS”
BEWARE and read the USDA Business Plan, User Guidelines, Disease, USDA Disease Traceability and NY’s Cooperative Agreement with USDA.
BE CAREFUL, as this is an incomplete, flawed “plan”.
AGAIN, you must read the documents before registering YOUR property.
Do you normally sign incomplete contracts or documents?
WERE you told that it was about “FOOD SAFETY”? User Guide; pg 2 “not about food safety”
WERE you told that it would “PREVENT DISEASE”? USDA opened border Nov 17, 2007.
WERE you told it is “VOLUNTARY”? Many have been entered into the program without notification.
You may want to check with your state and see if you are in the system and request to “opt out”.
WHAT is the “BIG DEAL”? You must read the documents and follow the “MONEY”.
Your farmers want: SAFE FOOD, SAFE FEED, MORE INSPECTIONS, BORDER CONTROL, DISEASE PREVENTION, FAIR MARKET ACCESS.
CALL your state legislators and ask them to read the PLAN. ASK congress to read the plan.
WE already have an affordable tracking system and IT WORKS.
AND may I suggest: “BUY LOCAL”
All of this i preicted int a book caled, “THE MARK OF THE BEAST’ Read and heed.
Disease control is the red herring, not the real reason for NAIS. The only real reason for NAIS is for the big corporate farms to overcome objections by foreign countries to American meat. Since most small farms and backyard hobbyists are not going to sell internationally this will simply burden them with excessive paperwork, and much higher per animal cost than the corporate farms and open the small farmer to harassment by state health departments. This will force most small farmers out of business, and will not increase the US food security. (No farms - no food.) Most 3rd world countries can’t feed themselves and the US is rapidly getting there. We import much of what we eat.
Everyone that sells a product should be accountable for that product.
It is not only farmers and ranchers who should be concerned about this
program, but all citizens.
1) The USDA has spent over $130 million on NAIS, without doing a
cost/benefit analysis and without taking into consideration the
existing state programs that currently provide similar functions.
2) If NAIS benefits the meat packing industry by increasing exports
through marketing should the meat packing industry pay for NAIS - or
should the taxpayer? The USDA chose the taxpayer.
3) NAIS is not about food safety. Think of all the food recalls that
are traced back to the processing of the meat. Food safety would
benefit by more inspections.
Over half of the cattle with tuberculosis were tracked back to
imported cattle. Food safety (and animal health) would benefit by more
port inspections, quarantines. and import restrictions.
In the USDA’s latest business plan, horses (along with beef and dairy
cattle) are included on the top tier for enrollment into NAIS. Why
focus on horses if NAIS is going to increase food safety?
4) In most states the first phase of NAIS (premise id) participation
is voluntary. The more “voluntary” premise ids, the more taxpayer
money the states get from the USDA.
In Colorado, 4-H children are not allowed to participate in the state
or county fairs unless their parents/sponsors “volunteer”.
In North Carolina, drought-stricken farmers could not participate in
the state-sponsored hay program unless they “volunteered”.
In New York, Idaho, and Massachusetts, data mining is used to
“volunteer” enrollments without the participants’ knowledge.
In Michigan a cattle rancher could not get his herd tested without
“volunteering” for NAIS. He refused; the legal system forced him into
compliance.
Government regulators have redefined voluntary to mean coerce. Greed
has replaced science. Is this what we want for our country?
“Everyone that sells a product should be accountable for that product.”
NAIS will adversely affect people that aren’t selling anything, and it will affect the farmer that sold a healthy animal that became ill after it was sold.
OTOH, NAIS will do nothing to stop slaughterhouse contamination and illegal activities like using downer cattle.. NAIS is NOT a food safety program - even USDA admits that. NAIS is a feel good program to take the place of actually inspecting imported livestock. USDA knows they will allow a sick animal into this country and they want NAIS for damage control. NAIS is reactive, not proactive and will make it easier for the USDA to depopulate (ie. slaughter) livestock after they allow a sick animal to enter the country. After England slaughtered millions of healthy animals because of FMD fears, the environment was totally contaminated and over 60 farmers committed suicide. USDA will do the same thing here - plans are in place and practice runs have been done. By turning private property into a “premise” they will not need permission or a warrant to enter and inspect, test or slaughter. Say good bye to the Fourth Amendment.
Say hello to UN and WTO control.