As long as we’re discussing our fear-based culture, I should mention the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
A dairy farmer wrote recently to gently remind me I hadn’t written much of late about NAIS, and to urge me to do so because it’s back in the news. I was so preoccupied over the last ten months or so with writing and researching my book about the politics of raw milk (due to be published next fall) that I have neglected to provide updates on NAIS. Over that time period, we’ve had an election and a new administration take office.
So when I went to update myself on what’s happening, I found that, despite all the political shuffling, the government and agriculture trade group rhetoric on NAIS hasn’t changed a bit. The most notable additional development may be a worldwide effort to broaden animal tracking to include “traceability” of all food ingredients back to their producers.
On the NAIS front, the latest wrinkle is a series of U.S. Department of Agriculture “listening sessions” around the country about NAIS. In announcing the sessions, the secretary of agriculture was quoted as suggesting NAIS is inevitable: “USDA needs to hear directly from our stakeholders as we work together to create an animal disease traceability program we can all support,” Tom Vilsack.
Ready to fan the fear flames are organizations like the American Veterinary Medical Association. One of its top officials told a Congressional committee, “The U.S. cannot afford to wait for a crisis to make a mandatory animal identification system a reality.”
Amidst all the rhetoric, the most revealing facts about NAIS may be that the USDA has been attempting to sign up farms and other production facilities for five years now, and over that time span, has succeeded only in attracting about one-third of all facilities. For all the chicken-little rhetoric, farmers seem to appreciate better than the general population that NAIS is just another outgrowth of our culture of fear.
Since the program has been billed as “voluntary,” the one thing that can doom the entire effort is lack of effective farm participation. (There are many opponents who argue that NAIS becomes less and less “voluntary” as times goes on, and states push ever harder to help USDA achieve its signup goals…which makes the relatively small percentage of registrations all the more remarkable.)
In addition,the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is fighting the USDA in federal court, but it will likely be many months, and possibly years, until its case is resolved.
It’s important to understand that NAIS and similar animal tracking programs in other countries aren’t isolated phenomena. They are part of a larger worldwide effort to trace ALL foods, including fruits and veggies, back to their producers. As part of that effort, technology companies with all kinds of new bar codes and other tracking devices are springing up, with backing from government agencies around the world.
It may be too late to keep all these new bureaucratic efforts from establishing deep roots. But defeating NAIS would send a strong message that small farms in particular don’t need more layers of bureaucracy to encourage them to produce safe foods.
USDA is still stuck in the "Get Big or Get Out" rut, but Smithfield flu is putting a thorn in their saddle. Let’s hope that development gets more light too.
Animals do not need to be hooked up to satellites and attached to a premise. They should be hooked up to their stewards, who can move them whenever needed. The brand and tattoo process works when it’s used.
Based on what I’ve read, I don’t think they’ll ever have 100% participation. We’re looking into exception legislation for next session. Let the toxins be tracked, and leave us out of it.
-Blair
MyCentralJersey.com
Got Milk? Some Think You Should
Rugters Professor,others like the idea
An antiraw milk farmer testifies before Ag Committee stating that if some one got sick consuming raw milk it would hurt the dairy INDUSTRY.
It would therefore seem that this conventional farmer believes that he and his ilk never harmed the REAL milk producers and their consumers.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090514/OPINION06/905140359/1069/newsfront/Got+raw+milk?+Some+think+you+should
we need several more years at least. we’ve been building for several years already…
hoping we have the time needed.
we will fight nais as hard as we can. we only hope we won’t be the only ones doing so.
Get your animals and land when you can. Since it takes quite a while to create an agrarian lifestyle and there are many unanticipated expenses and problems to solve, get started as soon as you can. The subtle and not so subtle ramifications of Peak Oil are altering the terrain we have lived in for decades and we can no longer count on growth to *raise all ships* out of their difficulties. The sooner we all become WAY less dependent on financial institutions and transportation to meet our real security needs – Food, Fodder (for our animals), Fuel, Fiber, Pharmacy and Shelter – the better off we will be. Having land that is productive gives you many options that suburbanites and city-dwellers must forego.
Spend some time in Illinois soon.
I still have a lot to learn about many farm animals, I’m comfortable with horses, chickens and rabbits. Have very minimal knowledge of bovines, pigs & sheep, etc.
Hugh, perhaps bartering/trading may come back into style.