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Are you familiar with NAIS (National Animal Identification System)? If you oppose NAIS, if you care about the right to buy food locally if you choose, (and you should), if you care about the continuing existence of the small farmer, then educate yourself on this issue, and go here and vote (this is also a good place to start getting information on it):
and write your legislators, state and local. (It's
currently "voluntary" at the federal level, after the USDA tried to make it mandatory but was foiled by the resistance to it and Congress telling them it had to be voluntary, but the USDA is putting pressure on the states, in some cases successfully, to enact regulations that would in effect make it mandatory at the state level.)
Nobody (local or countries that buy from us) should have confidence in a market when we can't back trace the origin of outbreaks like mad cow disease.
NAIS will not have the effect you think. The factory farms do not have to tag every animal whereas small holders (backyard type) do have to tag each animal.
It will NOT trace the origin of mad cow like you think.
The factory farms get a single tag for the lot full of animals.
The backyard farmer, like me, with 15 chickens will have to pay about $20 per chicken and get each one tagged.
Anyone that has dealings with livestock knows this is silly. Sheep farmers like myself have a better understanding of NAIS because it was modeled after the Scrapie Program, a disease in sheep that is similar to Mad Cow Disease. WE have been dealing with the Scrapie Program for 10 years or more and I can assure you the cost of implementation is nothing. They even pay for the stamps to send your documentation in.
If NAIS had been in place in 2001 when England had its Mad Cow Disease outbreak, 1000's upon 1000's of animals would have been spared a needless and wasteful death. To that end small scale farmers would not have been hurt by the quaratine of animals and the loss of markets. Simply put the scare tactics and lies of the opposition of NAIS is so egregious that there is not room to type how silly they are being over a program that could do so much good. I am in full compliance with NAIS, MEID and have a Scrapie Certified flock of sheep, so I say this by KNOWING what the program is and what it truly costs. So far not one cent.
As for tagging every animal, I never understood the opposition's complaint against the corporate farm non-tagging issue. It is true that when a farm is filled with animals, only the barn is assigned a number for all the animals in it. Doesn't this make sense if all the animals in that barn are going to the same slughterhouse? For a small scale farmer who may decide to sell one sheep to this neighbor, a cow to another, and yet give 4 goats to his friend in New Hampshire...doesn't tagging each animal make sense? That is the goal of NAIS...to be able to track diseased animals!
Does it work...yep. My flock got a trace-back to another Scrapie infected flock so one sheep had to be destroyed. It was not Scrapie-Infected luckily but it could have been. But the point is, the system worked. In fact the Scrapie Program has worked out extremely well and Scrapie is almost erradicated from the US Sheep population because of it.
Incidentally we have done NAIS like stuff for years. Every cow we have ever owned is tagged with the farm name and phone number in case it was ever infected with something. As a responsible farmer that relies on consumer trust and sells food to the public, I think its my responsibility to raise stock ethically and responsibly. NAIS should have been implemented 30 years ago. Period.
Nobody (local or countries that buy from us) should have confidence in a market when we can't back trace the origin of outbreaks like mad cow disease.
When NAIS was first proposed, they used mad cow as the fear tactic to push it. So, being the kind of person I am, I did a little research - I wanted to make an informed decision, not a kneejerk one either way.
I wanted to find out how many deaths due to "mad cow" transmitted through eating contaminated meat occurred annually. I ignored the clearly biased sites in either direction (and there are a LOT of them!). I went by the figures provided by the CDC and other similar organizations in other countries, and the figures all matched.
The number I came up with for deaths from mad cow transmitted via contaminated meats was 150. Not 150 annually - 150 in the 20-odd years since it had been discovered. All the hysteria over mad cow and the high risk of getting it, came down to 150 deaths in over 20 years.
You can't tell me that the USDA didn't know this when they were using that as a means to scare us into accepting this violation. Also, if you read about NAIS, you will find that the big operations will not have to tag every animal - they can tag entire groups, that have been made up of cattle frrom here, there, and everywhere to get a "matching" group, rather than each individual animal. The only ones who will have to tag each individual animal are the small producers, and the individuals who raise their own meat at home. Small farmers will be put out of business due to the expense, and thus we will have to buy meat that was shipped in from somewhere else that was tagged in groups rather than buying directly from the producer so that WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THE MEAT CAME FROM.
So, your fears are being played on, and this won't accomplish the goal that your fears tell you needs to be accomplished.
It is, however, being pushed by the big producers who won't have to abide by the stricter regulations that the smaller producers will. Guess why?
Last edited by TexasHorseLady; 12-31-2008 at 07:01 AM..
Reason: typo
It is not whether an isolated case destroys my confidence or my neighbor's confidence.
An isolated case can destroy the confidence of countries that import meat from us causing them to suspend buying.
This causes every producer to take a "hit" in prices---------whether it is a small producer selling 2 head at the local sales barn or the big producer selling 5 "pot loads".
Okay, so why are horses included in NAIS? Why all the other animals? Why does someone who has one chicken that is for their personal use have to register their premises?
Just another attempt by the agri-giants and their bought and paid for supporters in the USDA to get more control over our food supply. We've already been able to trace animals that have come down with mad cow and such to their origins. Flimsy excuse and cover story for the real agenda.
And the federal government has no authority to implement this program anyways.
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