Why You Should Oppose the USDA's Mandatory Property and Animal

[BR_Parkway]

Surveillance Program

(from an email, I've deleted the PHd's contact info)

Poultry fanciers and keepers of small flocks are facing a grave threat
from a proposed government intrusion into their innocent choice of pastimes and way of life.

For several years, the USDA has been working with the largest-scale
animal industry organizations (for example, the National Pork Producers, Monsanto Company, and Cargill Meat) to develop a mandatory "National Animal Identification System" ("NAIS").

However, most small scale livestock producers, people who raise animals for their own food, and people who keep horses or livestock as companion animals do not know about the USDA's plans.

The NAIS 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.

The Problem

On April 25, 2005, the USDA released "Draft Program Standards" ("St.")
and a "Draft Strategic Plan" ("Plan") concerning the ! NAIS. If you think the description below sounds too bizarre to be true, please go to http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml, read the Standards and Plan, and check the citations.

By January 1, 2008, the NAIS will be mandatory. (Plan, pp. 2, 10, 17.)
Every person who owns even one horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep, pigeon, or virtually any livestock animal, will be forced to register their home, including owner's name, address, and telephone number, and keyed to Global Positioning System coordinates for satellite monitoring, in a giant federal database under a 7-digit "premises ID number." (St., pp. 3-4, 10-12; Plan,p. 5.)

Every animal will have to 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, designed to be read from a distance. (Plan, p. 10; St., pp. 6, 12, 20, 27-28.)

The plan may also include collecting the DNA of every animal and/or a retinal scan of every animal. (Plan, p.13.)

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 if any animal is missing. Such events must be reported within 24 hours. (St., pp. 12-13, 17-21.)

Third parties, such as veterinarians, will be required to report
"sightings" of animals. (St., p. 25.) 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. (St., p. 7; Plan, p. 17.) The USDA has not yet specified the nature of "enforcement," but presumably it will include imposing fines and/or seizing your animals.

There are 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.

The Negative Effects

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 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.

[Extend a Hand]

1. creepy!

This is really creepy. I really don't like govt. control of the food supply.

Edited to add: This scares me more than anything I've read in a long time.

[brokensymmetry]

14. Link fixed.

http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml

Disturbing story.

[kestrel91316]

2. How are we vets supposed to know if your animals have chips or not?

I suspect most of us would just decline to scan everybody's animals for chips and participate in enforcement unless required specifically to do so. You know - turn a blind eye. We know stupid law when we see it. And unless there is an imminent disease threat, we can be counted on to NOT be busybodies.

[BR_Parkway]

4. Don't know what those ramifications are. Aren't you somehow tied in

with dispensing drugs? You will cooperate or the Feds will take it away type system?

[kestrel91316]

9. DEA doesn't have anything to do with USDA - they could make some

sort of change in regulations with USDA that would affect our federal ACCREDITATION (by which we can write health certificates for transport of animals) but how the heck would they know if we were looking the other way, unless they gave every single vet in the country a "tail" to monitor them 24/7?

[naturalselection]

3. Great!

Now those of us that raise a few chickens for eggs/meat can flood the USDA office with phone calls to find my chicken so I can figure out which f*in dog took it! If they are planning on putting tracking chips in my chickens.

:sarcasm:

If they want to be so up into my chickens, maybe they can come over and clean out the coop too, since they will know where it is at.

[MissB]

5. Eggzactly.

:applause:

[MadHound]

6. OK, I can see where this invades the privacy of farmers

I've always been dead set against RFID chipping of anything animal, human or inanimate object.

However how is this going to drive personal and family farmers out of business? The costs of the tags aren't onerous, they retail for between ten and fifty cents apiece, depending on the size of livestock. Even if you're running fifty head of cattle, that only adds up to $25.00 in extra costs, certainly not enough to break the backs of family farmers, especially since they can pass that cost on to the consumer.

I also see the need for this. Too many small farmers keep poor records, and RFID chips do allow the USDA(the folks in charge of keeping our food supply safe)to determine if a particular cow comes from a lot that has contracted Mad Cow, or if the chickens were exposed to West Nile or Asian Bird Flu. It is record keeping, something that is in all to short a supply out on the farm.

The privacy issue is of concern, but then again it isn't like they are actually chipping YOU. Yes, yes, it is creep, and going further down the slippery slope, but all in all, I don't think that this is such a big deal. Hell, if you've got a cell phone that you have turned on, you are broadcasting to the world what your location is and where you're going.

I'm sorry friend, but I think that you are making a mountain out of a molehill on this one. The costs aren't going to drive the family farmer under, and chipping livestock actually makes some good sense in this day and age of diseases that have a long lag time. If you're really concerned about perserving the family farm and our food supply, I would suggest that you start fighting GM foods. That is what is the 800 pound gorilla that will wipe out small, especially organic farmers. You want to get worked up about something, then put your energy there. But this issue is small peanuts, and can actually do some good.

By the by, your link doesn't work.

[pitohui]

11. it ain't the 50 cent, it's the $50

i don't care abt a cheap chip, i care i gots to pay somebody to put in the damn chip

for a 90 cent chicken i got to pay a vet what is probably more than the lifetime value of the eggs she'll produce

are you catching on yet?

ppl in rural areas are poor, dam poor, they can't comply w. this, you see all those big rich ppl in mansions keeping chickens as pets, i don't think so

[MadHound]

12. Where are you getting the $50.00 figure?

As I said earlier, your link is broken, and thus we are only left with the parts that you copied to here. Nowhere do I see anything about fifty dollar fees. If this is true, then I agree with you. But from what I've seen of the article, this is simply another RFID tag, an already common occurence down on the farm. And no vet is required to apply these tags, just a tag gun and a supply of tags.

Even in the case of smaller livestock, poultry and such, if you have to inject the RFID chip into the animal, it shouldn't be a terribly complicated deal, and again not one that would require a vet. Farmers have been able to inject their livestock forever, it is simply a matter of practice.

Now if there is something about a $50.00/animal fee that will be charged, I would like to see it. Your link is broken(a 404 error), so could you please provide a better link? Thanks.

[LeftyMom]

7. This would be a good idea for mad cow surveilance

I don't see what the benefit would be with other animals though.

[troubleinwinter]

8. "Monsanto"

I can swear a pretty good blue streak, but I don't have enough words to express what I think of Monsanto and their ilk.

Farmers in Iraq (where barley was first used as a domestic crop thousands of years ago, and who saved their seed) are no longer permitted to keep seed crops from year to year. They must PURCHASE NEW seed from American corporations every year.

Monsanto planted genetically modified corn crops in U.S., and SUED neighboring farmers whose crops became cross pollinated by them, for patent infringement(!) putting local farmers out of business.

I cannot say more. I must go into the next room... I feel a major serious blue streak coming on.

[pitohui]

10. oh we know abt it all right

we just can't be heard over the shrill cries & lies of the "avian flu" crowd


the usda already has a very aggressive ability to control disease & to de-populate animals in times of disease, ppl have no idea

don't make us chip every damn chicken, don't make criminals of every one of us who wants a natural-born egg

i wrote to my senators in august abt this issue, alas, i live in louisiana, & we have bigger issues now than illegal unchipped chickens

i don't know what is going to happen

i appreciate what the usda does & they do an impressive job of protecting our poultry from diseases but cripes there's a fucking limit to "mission creep"

[Walt Starr]

13. Link doesn't work

Until I see this on an actual government site, I cannot and will not believe it.

[HereSince1628]

15. The era of big government intrusion is over!

Yeah, right.