NAIS

[Teresa]

By John Lowman
The Facts   

Published March 10, 2008

Danny Mann doesn't want livestock microchipping and land registration to become law, but proponents believe tracking will lead to a safer food supply and easier tracking in case of a disease outbreak.

The Sweeny resident and part-time rancher is concerned the National Animal Identification System will become mandatory, forcing ranchers and land owners to sign up with a government agency. The initial cost of less than $10 per animal isn't a concern, but keeping records on livestock, hiring someone to help with tagging and being required to register land are, Mann said.

"What it boils down to is the program will require everyone who owns livestock to register their premises into a database," Mann said. "Very little has been reported about this system. The government is trying to get this passed before they have all the details on it, then have a discussion. That's not the way things are supposed to happen in this country."

Unlike microchips placed beneath the skin of cats and dogs, current plans for livestock microchipping use tags similar to those which have been in use for decades to show cattle are vaccinated against tuberculosis or brucelosis, Texas State Veterinarian Dr. Bob Hillman said.

Livestock chips contain a 15-digit electronic number identifying the place from which an animal comes, and that's a common-sense step in disease prevention, Hillman said. That — and not tracking who owns what property — is the main goal of the National identification system, Brazoria County Agricultural Extension Agent Corrie Bowen said.

The voluntary premises identification plan has been in place for several years with no changes and nothing new pending, Bowen said.

"I have not gotten any new updates on it," he said. "I registered before I came to Brazoria County, and it's still voluntary. It has been for three or four years. When or if it will be mandatory, I don't know."

Group opposes funding

The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance opposes livestock microchipping and premise registration, calling it "expensive, unnecessary and intrusive" government regulation, spokeswoman Judith McGary said.

Although no legislation is immediately pending, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said a national registry should be in the works by 2009, according to information on the alliance's Web site. In December, Congress provided $9.75 million for such a system, less than a third of the $33 million initially requested.

"No proponents of NAIS have shown how this will help with disease control," McGary said. "It's very expensive in both time and money, the two things people have in short supply."

The next step in the program is more federal funding and possible introduction in the 2009 Texas legislative session. Farm and Ranch Freedom will work to defeat any federal funding and will try to have a bill introduced at the state level to stop the program in Texas, McGary said.

But there is no imminent plan for the program to become a requirement, even though Hillman said he believes it should be. Prevention of outbreaks of animal-borne maladies like mad cow disease and even bird flu is important, he said.

Premise identification has nothing to do with a person's location, but helps track animals should any diseases be found, Hillman said.

"Premise ID tells the location where livestock are kept," he said. "It's not something applied to a physical location. It's a number that refers to a database location which makes disease traceability possible. We need disease traceability desperately in Texas and across the country."

The next step

Using electronic tracking is the next logical step to ear tagging, Hillman said. When someone tags cattle for tuberculosis or brucelosis, they're already entered into a database which eventually can track where an animal is from. Doing so manually takes more time and manpower, so electronic chips are an upgrade, he said.

Premise identification is mandatory in Wisconsin and Indiana, where there's "a serious TB problem," Hillman said.

Keeping tabs on animals is aimed at human health, said Carla Everett, a Texas Animal Health Commission information officer. Cattle might move through six to eight herds in their lives, she said.

"With animals moving in and out, you have to figure out where they've been to track a disease," Everett said. "If you don't know where an animal has been, it's difficult to know what other animals might be affected. We already keep records through livestock sales, but it's like using a Big Chief notebook and hearsay. If there's a problem, we'd have a lot of additional testing. People have a mailbox, they have an address. Tagging is nothing more than getting a number to a piece of property."

But Mann isn't convinced and is working to help defeat the measure before it gets to Texas.

"We want to help stop funding at the federal level and to prevent it from becoming mandatory in Texas," he said. "We'll contact feed stores and maybe some lumber yards and see about getting petitions there. We want the people to be aware of it. Not many ranchers know a lot about it."

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GET IN TOUCH

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance:

(866) 687-6452 www.farmandranchfreedom.org

Texas Animal Health Commission:

[pam]

That's what I'm talkin about We got to stop this! We are all gonna be sorry if we don't

[Teresa]

These are the criminals that came up with NAIS.
Ks Farm Bureau has been working on it in this group since the 90's.

http://www.animalagriculture.org/

[Teresa]

I think that we pretty much agree that this is bad but I don't think we have any idea how devastating it will be if this goes though.

Here is a couple links to LOTS more information and some real eye openers. 

http://www.naissucks.com/

http://nonais.org/index.php/2008/02/23/long-distance-rfid-reading/

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/take-action

[Tobina+1]

Wow, I've been sick since Wednesday, and I guess I should have checked this site sooner!
Yes, I work for a privately owned Animal ID and Traceability company, so I will try and put a little education out here without getting too passionate (which I tend to do).
The biggest problem about this subject is mis-education and knee-jerk, anit-government reactions.
FIRST; there are actually 2 separate programs that have entertwined in people's minds here.  NAIS (National Animal Identification System) and COOL (Country of Origin Labeling).  Think of it like this; NAIS is designed to track disease on a live animal basis.  COOL is designed to track food products throughout the plant to retail chain.  They are both government programs designed to help keep the American Public safe.  In my mind; the 2 programs should essentially compliment each other well.  But the funny thing is that people who are against NAIS (R-Calf) are for COOL.  And vice versa.  And "everybody" is against the government.

NAIS:  Voluntary system.  Live animal tracking for disease purposes.  Companies like the one I work for have been approved for database storage (private storage; government does not have control).  Data that would go into the database:  15-digit EID number, PremisesID of the ranch, date the animal left the ranch.  EID tag does not have to be applied until the animal leaves the ranch and goes into commerce.  The ranch does not need any software or hardware; there are ways this data can be turned in without any additional costs to the producer.  The idea is that this data is stored in these private databases until an animal disease outbreak.  If an animal has a disease (like Foot and Mouth Disease), the EID would be scanned and turned in to all the private databases for them to query the data (JUST that data; not any other data on any other animals).  All the locations where that animal has been (and the dates), as well as the "cohorts" (animals it was in contact with at that same time) are pulled from the database.  This data essentially creates a traceable map of where the animal has been and where any quarantines may need to take place.  This helps protect other locations, in fact, so that the government doesn't just go out and start killing, burning, and burying piles of animals like they did in the UK during their FMD outbreak.  NAIS ends when the animal is slaughtered.

COOL:  Set to become mandatory Sep 30, 2008 (if the farm bill gets signed).  Requires that all food products state on the package what countries the ingredients come from (take a look at your candy bar; they've already started doing that).  This is the part where McDonalds will have to tell their consumers where the meat comes from that are in their burgers.  In the meat industry, it also includes where the animal was located throughout the life of the animal.  For example, a label of hamburger might say:  Born in Mexico, Fed in US, Slaughtered in Canada.  This will allow the public to choose where they want to get their meat from.  If they only want to buy US beef, then they look for a label that says "Born, Fed, and Slaughtered in US".  Or if they want to know where that McDonald's burger comes from, it will say "From products born, fed, and slaughtered in the US, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and Brazil". 

Premises ID:  Basically, your farm's social security number.  Tied to your 911 address of the main location.  When filling out the application, you need to put the 911 address and/or the Lat/Long information.  It does not ask for acres, number of head of cattle/hogs/sheep/goats.  It's just a pinpoint location on a map.  Right now, there is no "lookup" system for that number, either. 

EID tags:  Passive electronic tags.  DOES NOT STORE DATA ON THE TAG.  15-digit number is pre-programmed at the manufacturer.  No battery.  To activate the tag, you must have a RFID reader that emits signals and bounces the 15-digit number back to the reader (within 30 inches).  Data is only stored in a computer where the number is sent.

[pam]

Personally I'm against both NAIS and COOL. Too much government intrusion. It's the first step down a slippery slope, which is how the government works, eases things up on you so your comfort level gets raised a bit at a time. No thanks

[Teresa]

karmablvr... I'm standing in the same line as you are girl...

Anytime.. and I mean ANYTIME government is involved.. you can bet your life that there is MUCH more involved than the "welfare of the people". They don't give a tinkers damn about the people..or our constitution.

*quote.. They are both government programs designed to help keep the American Public safe. unguote*

Keep the public safe??  .....You have got to be kidding me. The only way we can be safe is to keep government out of our affairs.
The thing they care about it CONTROL.. and POWER... and MONEY..

No thanks... Call me anti government or what ever you want to label me as.. I could care less.
I will never follow the herd when the government supposedly is the leader!  NEVER!
And I think the majority of the people who still think for themselves have just about had their fill of the corrupt, illegal doings of our "government."
They can still try to feed people shit and tell them it's sugar.. but I'm not buying it!

[pam]

When the government tries to tell me it's for my own good is when I really start to get paranoid! lol  And this is some really shitty tastin sugar they are tryin to sneak in here.

[Tobina+1]

Whoa, I can tell this is a really sticky topic and I can very much respect everyone's opinions.  I'm not trying to force my opinion on anyone by any means or call any names.  Nor does my company have an opinion.  We provide the services to comply with NAIS and COOL if any of our customers want to.  We have customers who are like Teresa and strongly disagree with the programs, and other customers who have taken steps to be in compliance right away.  And I enjoy working with every one of them!  
Otherwise, we provide traceability services for customers to help them keep better records on their animals.  Before NAIS and COOL issues, the company I work for was started to help customers utilize electronic ID tags to keep better production records.  Research found that if a producer could identify the bottom 10% of the herd and cull those cows, even if they only replace those cows with average cows, it will still increase their production by 30%.  Being able to readily identify those cows on a computer screen when they come through the chute and make that management decision is key.  Also, tracing those animals through the entire production chain is very important for some alliances who strive to provide a certain quality of meat to their customers.  The company I work for helps do that.
We have also started working with other food industries, such as citrus, fruits, and veggies.  Tracing which fields, trucks, and facilities that veggies go through, for example spinach, could drastically reduce the incident of recalls... and even human deaths.  It also gives the company an audit trail back through the process to find out why, where, and how contamination occurred; and how to prevent it in the future.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions... as you know from other posts, I have very strong ones myself.    I just think that we should also respect other's opinions and encourage them to make an informed decision by doing their own research and fact-finding.  

[frawin]

Tobina, very well said. If we didn't have government in our lives crime, tainted  food and many other problems would exist in massive proportions. Most especially the food industry would be totally unsafe for people to eat. Without the USDA requiring Liscensed Veterinarian educated Plant/Meat inspectors people would be getting diseased, tainted and unsafe meats everyday. Prior to the government regulating the meat industry Packing Plants were totally unsanitary. Unfortunately industries of all kinds in the US cut corners regarding safety, sanitation and pricing until the government stepped in and started regulating each industry. I know that many people feel that we are over regulating in the US but unfortunately we are better off with the regulations we have than if we had none at all.
Frank