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National Animal Identification System
WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION
INFORMATION ALERT
March 20, 2006
I am forwarding to you an article I wrote for the upcoming Wise
Traditions Journal (Winter 2005/Spring 2006) on the National Animal
Identication System (NAIS). There has been an extraordinary amount of
interest in this USDA instituted program. So, I thought it prudent to
provide a heads up before the Journal was sent to you(currently being
printed in a new format with a flat binding). The Foundation is working
closely with member Judith McGeary in Texas and Mary Zanoni (Farm for
Life) in New York as well as others on this very critical issue. At
the end of the article is a list of resources for voicing your opinion
on NAIS.
The National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
by Bill Sanda, Executive Director
The development of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created enormous
controversy across the country over the past year. Some see such a system
as a means to track and identify outbreaks in livestock of various diseases
such as brucellosis, E. coli variants, salmonella and mad cow disease
in a quick and efficient manner, while others see this as an
encroachment on their civil liberties and privacy as well as an attempt
to seal
the fate of small- to moderate-sized farms and ranches.
Corporate Support
NAIS has been gaining support in agribusiness as a method for sourcing
the origins of mad cow disease or possible terrorist biological attacks
on U.S. livestock. Opponents point out the plan was drawn up by
corporations like Monsanto, the National Pork Producers, National Cattlemens
Beef Association, and Cargill Meat. It would require all owners of even
a single farm animal to register their home with a national tracking
system, including global positioning coordinates (for satellite tracking)
and implant or tag every animal with a radio frequency device (RFID).
Large-scale livestock producers say NAIS would help them control
outbreaks of disease by allowing individual animals to be tracked to
their
origins. Small-scale farmers say the registration fees, RFID expenses
and
administrative bureaucracy of the system would drive them out of
business.
According to the timelines presented in USDA's NAIS website
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml,
the program is to be implemented in full by January 2009 with premise
registration and animal identification mandatory by January 2008. However,
according to NAIS head Neil Hammerschmidt, the implementation dates
may be delayed.
What is NAIS?
The National Animal Identification System, which the USDA is currently
in the process of implementing, is intended to identify animals and
poultry and record their movements over the course of their lifespans,
as
well as track them as they come into contact with, or commingle with,
animals other than herd mates from their premises of origin. According
to the USDA, the ultimate goal of the program is to create a uniform
national animal tracking system that will help maintain the health of
U.S.
herds and flocks. By January 2009, when the program is intended to be
fully implemented and become fully mandatory, the USDA expects that
NAIS will be able to identify all premises and animals that have had
direct contact with a foreign animal disease or a domestic disease of
concern within 48 hours of discovery.
Currently, working groups comprised of industry and government
representatives are developing plans for cattle, pigs, sheep, goats,
horses, poultry, bison, deer, elk, llamas and alpacas. Many of these
animals can already be identified through some sort of identification
system, but these systems are not consistent across the country, according
to the USDA.
NAIS began to take shape in April, 2002 when the National Institute
for
Animal Agriculture (NIAA) established a task force to create an animal
identification plan. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) and over 30 livestock organizations participated in this task
force. The final report was presented at the United States Animal Health
Association's (USAHA) annual meeting in October, 2002, where the work
plan was accepted through a unanimous resolution. APHIS then established
the National Identification Development Team (NIDT), a joint state,
federal and industry group to further advance this effort. Throughout
2003, the NIDT, consisting of approximately 100 animal and livestock
industry professionals representing more than 70 associations, organizations,
and government agencies, expanded upon the work plan to produce the
initial draft of the U.S. Animal Identification Plan (USAIP). Although
early versions of the USAIP focused on food animals only, other livestock
species (such as alpacas, llamas, and horses) were incorporated into
the plan. In April 2004, the USDA announced the framework for
implementing the NAIS.
Implementation
The first step in implementing the NAIS is identifying and registering
premises that house animals. Such premises would include locations
where livestock and poultry are managed, marketed or exhibited. States
implemented the capability to register premises according to the national
standards last year. APHIS is currently training state officials on
how
to use a standardized premises registration system. USDA is also
evaluating alternative registration systems that states or others have
developed and want to use, to ensure these systems meet the national
standards. In addition, USDA is working with states and industry to
"educate" the public about the NAIS.
As premises are registered, another component of the NAIS-animal
identification-will be integrated into the system. Unique animal
identification numbers (AINs) will be issued to individually identified
premises. In the case of animals that move in groups through the production
chain-such as pigs and poultry-the group will be identified through
a group/lot identification number (Group/Lot IDs). USDA is developing
the standards for collecting and reporting information, but industry
will determine which type of identification method works best for each
species. These methods could include radio frequency identification
tags, retinal scans, DNA or others. As long as the necessary data are
sent to USDA's information repositories in a standardized form, it will
be accepted.
As premises are registered and animals or groups of animals are
identified based on the standard protocols, USDA will begin collecting
information about animal movements from one premise to another. With
an animal tracking system in place, USDA says they will be able to perform
rapid tracebacks in case of an animal disease outbreak. As envisioned,
only federal, state, and tribal animal health authorities would have
direct access to the national premises and animal identification information
repositories.
Interestingly, the National Cattlemens Beef Association attempted to
have the "national database" privatized and put under their
control. Tam
Moore of Capital Press, January 27, 2006, reported that the USDA has
dropped a 6-month-old plan for contracting with a privatized central
database to launch the cattle segment of ID. Agriculture Secretary Mike
Johanns had announced the single privatized concept back in July 2005.
The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF), United Stockgrowers
of America and other ID critics questioned USDA's intention to concentrate
the data with a system the National Cattlemen's Beef Association organized,
then spun off as a free-standing nonprofit organization, the U.S. Animal
Identification Organization. Instead of a single, private database,
USDA, state and tribal animal health agencies will use multiple databases,
relying on those who contract with the USDA to furnish livestock tracking
information.
Much of the responsibility for delivering the program remains at the
state level. Stages of development will allow states to more readily
establish their local action items, according to the USDA. To determine
what your state is doing with regards to NAIS, please go to
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/spotlights/spotlights_more.shtml.
Confidentiality
The NAIS is supposed to contain only information that animal health
officials need to track suspect animals and identify any other animals
that may have been exposed to a disease. Animal identification and
tracking systems maintained by the states or regional alliances will
be an integral part of the overall NAIS information infrastructure.
The state
and regional systems will be able to collect and maintain more
information than is required for the NAIS, yet only the required data
need to be available for the national animal records repository. According
to the USDA, to help assure participants that the information will be
used
only for animal health purposes, the information will be confidential
and
USDA and its state partners are to work to protect data
confidentiality.
Key NAIS Milestones
• APRIL, 2005: The USDA issued its Draft Strategic Plan &
Draft
Program Standards for public comment, which ended in July of 2005.
• JULY, 2005: All states capable of premises registration.
• JULY, 2005: Animal Identification Number system operational.
The following dates may be delayed according to the USDA. Updates have
yet to be issued.
• JULY, 2006 : The target date for the USDA to issue a proposed
rule
setting forth the requirements for NAIS premises registration, animal
identification, and animal tracking. There will be a limited public
comment period after publication of the rule (WAPF will issue an Action
Alert when the comment period occurs).
• APRIL, 2007: Premises registration and animal identification
"alerts."
• FALL, 2007: USDA will publish a final rule to establish the
requirements of the mandatory NAIS.
• JANUARY, 2008: Premises registration and animal identification
become
mandatory.
• JANUARY, 2009: Animal tracking becomes mandatory, including
enforcement of the reporting of all animal movements.
For more information about the NAIS, contact:
Neil Hammerschmidt
USDA, APHIS, Veterinary Services
4700 River Road, Unit 43
Riverdale, MD 20737-1231
Telephone (301) 734-5571
Website:
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml
So, Why Would You Oppose NAIS?
Perhaps the most eloquent opponent of NAIS is Mary Zanoni, PhD, JD,
executive director of Farm for LifeTM and a New York lawyer. I have
consolidated her opposition statements so you can get a sense of what
folks find intrusive, disturbing and negative about NAIS.
* In general, opponents of NAIS say that the program will drive small
producers out of the market, will make people abandon raising animals
for their own food, will invade Americans' personal privacy to a degree
never before tolerated, will violate the religious freedom of Americans
whose beliefs make it impossible for them to comply, and will erase
the
last vestiges of animal welfare from the production of animal foods.
* Every person who owns even one horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep, or
virtually any livestock animal, will be forced to register his or her
home, including owner's name, address and telephone number, and then
be keyed to global positioning system (GPS) coordinates for satellite
monitoring in a giant federal database under a 7-digit "premises
ID number."
* Every animal will be assigned a 15-digit ID number, also to be kept
in a giant federal database. The form of ID will most likely be a tag
or microchip containing a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID),
designed to be read from a distance. The plan may also include
collecting the DNA and/or a retinal scan of every animal
* The owner will be required to report the birthdate of an animal,
the
application of every animal's ID tag, every time an animal leaves or
enters the property, every time an animal loses a tag, every time a
tag
is replaced, the slaughter or death of an animal, or whether any animal
is missing. Such events must be reported within 24 hours.
* Third parties, such as veterinarians, will be required to report
"sightings" of animals. In other words, if you call a vet
to your property
to treat your horse, cow or any other animal, and the vet finds any
animal without the mandatory 15-digit computer-readable ID, the vet
may be required to report you. If you do not comply, the USDA will exercise
"enforcement" against you. The USDA has not yet specified
the nature of "enforcement," but presumably it will include
imposing fines and/or seizing your animals. The plan permits no exceptions-under
the USDA plan, you will be forced to register and report even if you
raise animals only for your own food or keep horses for draft or for
transportation.
* Eradication of Small Farms-people with just a few meat animals or
40-cow dairies are already living on the edge financially. The USDA
plan
will force many of them to give up farming.
* Loss of the True Security of Organic and Local Foods-The NAIS is
touted by the USDA and agricorporations as a way to make our food supply
"secure" against diseases or terrorism. However, most people
instinctively understand the fact that real food security comes from
raising food yourself or buying from a local farmer you actually know.
The USDA plan will only kill off more local sources of production and
further
promote the giant industrial methods which cause many food safety and
disease problems.
* Extreme Damage to Personal Privacy-legally, livestock animals are
a
form of personal property. It is unprecedented for the United States
government to conduct large-scale computer-aided surveillance of its
citizens simply because they own a common type of property. (The only
exceptions are registration of motor vehicles and guns, due to their
clear
inherent dangers, but they are registered at the state level, not by
the federal government.) The NAIS would actually subject the owner of
a
chicken to far more surveillance than the owner of a gun.
* Insult to Animal Welfare-the NAIS is the ultimate objectification
of
higher, sensitive living creatures, treating individual animals as
though they were cans of peas with a bar code. Many people who raise
their own animals or buy from small, local producers do so because they
are very troubled by industrial-scale production of chickens, cattle
and
pigs. These people will be forced to either sacrifice their personal
privacy to government surveillance, or to stop raising their own food
by
humane standards.
* Burden on Religious Freedom-many adherents of plain (and other)
faiths raise their own food animals and use animals in farming and
transportation because their beliefs require them to live this way.
Such people obviously cannot comply with the USDA's computerized,
technology-dependent system. The NAIS will force these people to violate
their religious beliefs. (The Amish are very much against this program).
NAIS AND YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
FIRST AMENDMENT: The first amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees
Americans the right to the free exercise of religion. Many Christians
and person of other religious beliefs cannot comply with the NAIS because
it violates the free exercise of their religious beliefs. For example,
the Old Order Amish believe they are prohibited from registering their
farms or animals in the proposed program due to scriptural prohibitions.
Other simply hold that NAIS violates their personal beliefs-you do not
need to belong to an established religion to exercise your first amendment
rights.
FOURTH AMENDMENT: The fourth amendment guarantees the right to privacy
and security against unreasonable searches and seizures. The
requirement of households and small farms that own animals to register
the premises so that the Department can subject these premises to satellite
surveillance is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.
FIFTH AMENDMENT: The fifth amendment guarantees protection against
the loss of life, liberty or private property without due process of
law.
The NAIS allows the Department of Agriculture to seize privately owned
animals without due process.
FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT: No State shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of US citizens nor deprive
them
of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Much of the
"authority" for NAIS will come through legislation on the
state level.
Whether or not the USDA delays the implementation of a national,
mandatory system, many states are actively implementing their own mandatory
premise and animal identification systems. Wisconsin and North Carolina
have passed legislation for mandatory premises registration and Indiana
has adopted regulations for mandatory premise registration beginning
in September. Legislation is pending in Texas. To check on what is happening
in your state, visit http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.
php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=67782444&u=625050.
Clothed in the garb of public safety, NAIS is shaping up to be a very
dangerous fox in the backyard henhouse.
Battleground Texas
Texas is shaping up to be the first battleground state for NAIS. In
Wisconsin and North Carolina, NAIS legislation passed without any public
scrutiny.
However, in Texas, in response to proposed regulations from the Texas
Animal Health Commission to require every person who owns even one
livestock animal to register their premises with the state, Texas farmers,
ranchers, companion-animal owners, and consumers rallied in opposition.
They sent in almost 700 letters during the Commission's 45-day comment
period, and over 200 people showed up to the Commission's public meeting
on February 16.
Although the public pressure convinced the Commission to table the
regulations until their next meeting in May, the real work has just
begun.
We still have to gain support in the legislature, or the Commission
will move forward with the regulations.
A group of Texans are in the process of establishing a new non-profit
to lobbing oorganization on behalf of small farmers in Texas. The first
target will be the Texas Legislature but the organizations plans to
operate on a national level to put a stop to NAIS.
The Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is serving as an
information clearinghouse at this point, so please check their website
for progress on the new entity and information on how you can help:
http://www.tofga.org/ or email txnonais@att.net
Resources for Opposing NAIS
* FARM for LIFE TM is a public-interest organization dedicated to
supporting the rights of small and subsistence farmers and consumers
of
organic, natural, and local foods. FARM for LIFE's first project is
to
stop the USDA plan for mandatory animal ID. The organization will publish
a newsletter three times a year (first publication scheduled for
November 1, 2005), to inform citizens of developments concerning animal
ID and other issues vital to the small farming and natural/organic food
communities. Newsletter subscribers will also be sent information at
appropriate times on how to contact lawmakers and the USDA to oppose
animal ID. In addition, FARM for LIFE will coordinate with other existing
interest groups to mount an effective campaign against animal ID. Please
help stop animal ID and support FARM for LIFE by subscribing to the
newsletter: $25 individual subscription (1 year), $40 institutional
subscription (1 year). Please help with an additional donation in any
amount. Make your check payable to "Farm for Life" and mail
to: Farm for Life, PO Box 501, Canton, New York 13617. For further information
email:
.
* Articles by Mary Zanoni, Ph.D. (Cornell), J.D. (Yale), Executive
Director of Farm for LifeTM: "Why You Should Oppose the USDA's
Mandatory Property and Animal Surveillance Program"
(http://www.bantamclub.com/hobby/
Why%20You%20Should%20Oppose.pdf)
and "Comments on NAIS Draft Program Standards and Draft Strategic
Plan" (http://www.organicconsumers.org/ofgu/ID060202.cfm).
* Stop Animal ID.org: Online grassroots organization created to stop
NAIS; their website includes information on what you can do to oppose
NAIS (http://www.stopanimalid.org/).
* Organic Consumers Association (OCA):
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ofgu/ID060202.cfm.
* No NAIS.org: Walter Jeffries, Sugar Mountain Farm, Vermont
(http://nonais.org/).
* National Property Owners Association:
http://nationalpropertyowners.org/.
* American Poultry Association: Preserve Your Rights as a Poultry
Fancier (http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/savehobby.htm).
* Free Tennessee:
http://www.freetennessee.org/NAIS_proposal_overview.html.
* The Petition Site.com: Anti-NAIS petition
(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/369063795?ltl=1135563679).
* The "National Animal Identification System": A new threat
to rural
freedom? in http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/1_2006.htm.
* National Animal ID Run Amok in
http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/1_2006.htm.
* The Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association:
http://www.tofga.org/ or email
.
As more information on the progress of NAIS becomes available, we will
keep you informed through the Weston A. Price Foundation e-mail Action
Alerts.
Likewise, if you have any information about what is going on in your
state, please let us know at
.
The Parable of the Mouse, the Chicken,
the Pig and the Cow
Food for Thought for Supporters of the National Animal Identification
System
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and
his
wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" the mouse
wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There
is
a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr.
Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no
consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap
in the
house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse,
but
there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my
prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in
the
house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no
skin off
my nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face
the farmer's mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard
throughout the house-like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she
did not see the venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap.
The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital,
and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever
with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard
for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to
sit
with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for
her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat
for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great
sadness.
So, the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think
it doesn't concern you, remember-when one of us is threatened, we are
all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must
keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage
and support one another.
Laws that make the small farmer vulnerable can also be used against
large farmers. . . in fact, it just might be the smallest of farms that
survive!
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