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"Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak."
It was a great idea, but the USDA did not educate the public enough on its benefits and allowed chicken littles to spread way too many myths about the program.
Unlike UK and Australia which have similiar programs and have managed to stave off some serious livestock out breaks of disease, when it happens here, th small farmer will pay the greatest price.
Well, I know people in Australia, and they have provided vast amounts of verifiable information about how disastrous the similar program there has been.
I am delighted, if it is indeed fact, that NAIS is dead. It was a bad idea sold with scare tactics (sadly for them, I actually researched some of the scare tactics used initially and it became VERY clear that this had little to nothing to do with disease outbreaks).
I disagreed with the scare tactics used by some who opposed it, as well, but actual research (and a little reading of the Constitution of the United States thrown in, as well) made it very clear that this was NOT what it was being sold as and that they were willing to lie to make it happen, never a good sign in a governmental agency. They ran into the fact that we're not all as stupid as they think we are, plus, they were pretty inept at their lies, is what happened.
That whole, "This is mandatory - oops, no, sorry, you hate that, we'll make it NOT mandatory (but we'll hold money over the states' heads in order to get THEM to pass rules that, effectively, make it mandatory)" thing left a really really really bad taste in my mouth and is going to make it harder for them to get even a good program passed because they trampled their own credibility in the mud.
Interestingly, marmac, there are a LOT of people who make their living raising livestock who opposed NAIS from the very beginning.
Then, too, there's the Australian beef producers who have had to deal with the Australian equivalent. You could go talk to them about how "wonderful" it is.
Yep and I am in the Scrapie Eradication Program of which NAIS was based on. No financial harships dealing with that program, in fact it has been very informative and easy to comply with, just as NAIS was, which I was part of as well.
But then again, people are agruing with what they PERCIEVE the program will be like, and I am telling you what it is like as an ACTIVE participant in the two programs. And yes, big difference between those that do and those that dabble.
Unfortunately I see big farmers today realizing we need small farms to provide food...organic and other niche markets, and even grow into their own big farms in a few generations. Unfortunately it is the small farmers that do not realize we need big farms just as much as we need small farms.
Collin Peterson (D-MN) is chairman of the House Ag Committee and has the respect and support of both Democrats and Republicans.
He was in favor of it, but stated if it was not mandatory, it would never work.
He also used the word--when --, he stated we will wish we had it when the next outbreak happens and we are the laughing stock as we take so long to trace the origin.
Eventually, it will be enforced, if not by the government, then by the marketplace.
Same thing happened with pigs. At one time nearly every Minnesota farmer had about 20-30 sows and the sale of feeder pigs brought in good income.
In the 1980's feeder pig markets were held in different towns near me and Monday-Saturday I could bring feeder pigs to whichever had their sale that day. Some days of the week I had multiple choices ----all within 25 miles.
When there was mild cases of disease, the final buyer ( places that finish out the hogs to butcher weight) decided they would only buy feeder pigs from---single source--farms. That meant a hog farm had to be able to supply a full load of same aged,same sized feeder pigs.
All the feeder pig markets closed, the hog farmers who were dual purpose ( hogs/dairy or hogs/beef) in central Minnesota went out of the hog business.
All the people posting who are so glad it died, never had to make their living off livestock and only did it as a hobby.
Broken Tap is riight.
When the next disease outbreak happens, we will once again act like a third world country in or long pursuit to track down the origin.
As market prices tumble and exports dry up.
I actually think that is what hobby farmers want. To see people who do make their living on livestock fail and go broke.
Thanks for belittling my serious farm/ranch operation, marmac, or my equine operation boarding 75 horses plus many more transients through the year.
YOU DO NOT SPEAK for ME in the pro livestock business, by any means.
NAIS was a government make-work program, at best.
Details, such as any movement of livestock from the home ranch needing to be reported, were burdensome ... if not outright ridiculous. We could not legally take our horses off our property under the provisions of the program, even for local county rides or recreation, or past our property line into the many hundreds of sections of open lands around our place ... private and public. We couldn't even legally transport a horse to a vet in the next county without reporting the movement, let alone across state lines into Colorado to CSU's clinic.
I have a neighbor who is on the pro-rodeo circuit. She would have had to report every movement of her horses anytime she headed out on the road.
The burden and the penalties proposed were far out of any meaningful benefit to the public or the livestock producers.
I'm not asserting that a livestock tracking program for disease control tracking wouldn't be beneficial for the cattle and hog markets, but the NAIS program as proposed was so blown out of proportion as to be an futile exercise in management and control. The fed's don't need to use a howitzer to swat a mosquito, but that seems to be their approach to every "problem" they forsee.
OH, by the way ... there's nothing that prevents the producers from keeping good records now. Many do, for various reasons, already.
If you don't believe that the Fed approach to "food safety" in the USA right now is to destroy the industry, then you haven't been involved with compliance for FSIS, HAACP, and all the latest inspections and processing regulations which have little demonstrable benefit except full employment for the feds ... as well as substantial labor hours and expense by private industry to comply. The consumer will pay for this approach very dearly as US plants are shut down and our food sources are off-shored. Happening right now ... for example, the Butterball plant in Longmont, CO ... shut down by it's operators due to excessive expenses and labor costs of compliance. The facility and turkey production has now been sent to Mexico ... where the standards are much lower than here in the USA for feed, confinement, animal welfare, and processing safety requirements. The "joke" is going to be on the USA consumer when contaminated foods reach us and we have no place to turn to track down the source of contamination ....
Last edited by sunsprit; 02-05-2010 at 05:55 PM..
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