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In the past few months, debate over the National Animal
Identification System (proposed by USDA to become mandatory by
2009) has heated up, especially after the National Institute for
Animal Agriculture’s ID Info Expo in Kansas City, Missouri in
late August. The many complexities and side issues in this
gigantic undertaking by USDA (to change the very fabric of
animal ownership in this country) is finally gaining the
attention of many animal owners and livestock producers who were
not aware of (or only vaguely aware of) what is at stake, and
protests are growing.
Some of the species working groups have already presented
recommendations to USDA (even though many of their constituents
were not fully aware of what was going on while the industry
groups were discussing issues and making recommendations) and
some are just now starting to debate the various ways their
industry or species could conform and fit in with the NAIS. As
one person recently stated, the specific working groups have
been doing what they can to make the “inevitable” program more
palatable to their members (cattle, goat, horse, and sheep
owners, etc.). “It has never occurred to them, apparently, that
the NAIS program is fundamentally wrong and could be stopped if
they put as much effort into stopping it as they have in writing
their recommendations.”
A FLAWED PLAN; IT CAN’T CONTROL DISEASE
OR PROTECT US
Even though the stated purpose of the NAIS plan is to protect
our country’s animal agriculture from spread of diseases (a
laudable goal), the way the plan goes about it, and spin-off
side issues, are leaving a lot of people scratching their heads
as to what is really going on. Many people feel USDA is
approaching it the wrong way, and for the wrong reasons. Even as
USDA and others are pushing hard for full participation in the
NAIS (wanting to ID each of our nation’s 9 billion farm
animals), border vigilance and disease testing programs are
being relaxed. Since our greatest risk for foreign animal
diseases and human health concerns comes from imported meat and
animals, our import controls and monitoring should be diligent,
rather than decreased.
USDA is still refusing to implement country of origin labeling
of meat. |
