Email, June 2006

The National Animal Identification System

For those that don't know, Mary Zanoni is a lawyer involved in agriculture with a PhD from Cornell and a JD from Yale. She is Executive Director of Farm for Life and can be contacted here: Mary Zanoni, P.O. Box 501, Canton, New York 13617 315-386-3199 mlz@slic.com

Our Answer to the USDA'S New NAIS Guide

by Mary Zanoni

On June 2, 2006, the USDA released a new document entitled "The National Animal Identification System: A Guide for Small-Scale or Non-Commercial Producers".

Now that the concerns of farmers, ranchers and animal owners are finally getting some attention from the USDA, the USDA is trying to undercut opposition by releasing this feel-good, double-talking, misleading document. Here are major points about the Guide that animal owners and farmers must be wary of.

1. Do not rely on NAIS "Working Groups" to represent your concerns. The USDA is desperately trying to get citizens opposed to NAIS to talk to these working groups. Why? BECAUSE CONGRESS IS THREATENING TO COMPLETELY DE-FUND NAIS AND USDA DESPERATELY WANTS TO STOP CITIZENS FROM CONTACTING CONGRESS - SEE CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATOR BELOW.

Do not bother with these Species Working Groups - They are the same people who sold you out by agreeing to NAIS all along.

2. USDA's claim in the GUIDE that NAIS is "voluntary" is just as untruthful as the same claim in the Implementation Plan. Remember, the NAIS Implementation Plan released on April 6, 2006 says that USDA will make NAIS mandatory if they do not get "FULL COMPLIANCE" in the "voluntary" program. It is truly sad to see a government agency proceeding on the assumption that Americans can be fooled by such an obvious ploy. Even now, the USDA is building a giant, federal database with premises information submitted by the states, and states have taken much of that information without informing the animal owners.

3. USDA for the first time admits that all animal owners will be charged a fee every time they have to report to the Animal Tracking Databases. The Guide states: "Because the animal tracking database infrastructure is still being developed, and it is to be privately held, it is difficult to discuss costs for this part of NAIS with any accuracy. But, because these will be privately held databases, we anticipate that producers will have various options and that competition among databases will help keep costs down." (Guide, p. 9; emphasis added.)

There it is, folks - you can expect that those "private" members of the "public/private partnership" who will have a chokehold on the Animal Tracking Databases will be charging you whatever the traffic will bear, every time you buy, sell, tag, retag, slaughter, etc. etc. every single animal. Oh, and that "competition among databases" that the USDA vaguely hopes might "keep costs down"?

Well, one of the first private databases is being constructed by Microsoft, to whom we owe the wonderfully competitive market for computer operating systems and applications software.

IF THE USDA IS ALLOWED TO CREATE NAIS, IT WILL BE A BOTTOMLESS PIT DOWN WHICH THE FEDS, THE STATES, AND EVERY FARMER AND ANIMAL OWNER IN AMERICA WILL BE FOREVER THROWING CASH

Here's how to really send a message to the USDA:

The U.S. Senate is presently considering funding for the USDA for next year.

CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATOR with a simple and clear message:

"TOTALLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY DE-FUND USDA's NAIS (the NATIONAL ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM) NOW!"

Find your senator at www.senate.gov