I normally avoid words such as "idiots" except when talking about gun grabbers and the far left. However, I just cannot imagine what kind of idiots come up with this NAIS stuff, but they too are idiots, and ill-intentioned ones as far as I am concerned.
The program standards are here.
If it turns out that any nationally elected official has been involved in this, I would be most surprised. This reeks as far as I am concerned, and I cannot imagine any politician publicly putting up his hands for this except for maybe the most progressive of the Progressive Caucus.
The best bit for me is where they list all of the animal codings:
Clams = CLM, crawfish = CRA, catfish = CTF, mussels = MSL, oysters = OYS, salmon = SAL, striped bass = SBA, shrimp = SHR, scallops = SLP, tilapia = TIL, trout = TRO, bovine (bison and cattle) = BOV, camelid (alpaca and llama) = CAM, caprine (goats) = CAP, deer = DEE, elk = ELK, equine (horses1) = EQU, ovine (sheep) = OVI, porcine (swine) = POR, chickens = CHI, ducks = DUC, geese = GEE, guineas = GUI, pigeon = PGN, pheasants = PHE, quail = QUA, turkeys = TUR. (Table 10, page 15 of the program standard. And then there is a much larger breakdown of breeds within categories in the technical standards supplement on pages 14-17.)
And of course, they want lots of laws to prevent citizens from removing, changing, or counterfeiting a tag. (And I am sure that they will be as rationally applied as, say, our wetlands legislation is so famously applied.) You can find the prohibitions on page 7 of the draft program standards; they include (of course) criminalizing removal of a functional tag from a live animal.
Another interesting sentence when discussing the characteristics of the tag (found on page 28 of the draft standard): "Printed information on the tag will require a U.S. logo and the AIN" (AIN being the Animal Identification Number), and a couple of items down in the table: "The US Shield shall have a minimum width of 0.2 inches (5 mm)." I think that they meant USDA where they have US here, but, then again, maybe they really do want a "US Shield" put on these animals.
Take a look at the CFR wording I have up here:
http://nationalpropertyowners.org/CFRInfo.html
It really sounds like the GRANTOR, which are the NGOs, take ownership of everything the monies from the grants touch.
Is that why the language keeps using terms such as 'the national herd'?
Is this eminent domain on steroids?
http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/bills.text/109/s1534.pdf
S. 1534: Safe and Secure Food Act of 2005
Official Title: A bill to reduce the risk to the food supply from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.
Status:
Introduced (By Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL])
This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced Senate bills go first to Senate committees that consider whether the bill should be presented to the Senate as a whole. The majority of bills never make it out of committee.
Introduced: Jul 28, 2005
Last Action: Jul 28, 2005: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
FOOD SECURITY.
(1) developing a security plan that addresses the specific and vulnerabilities of the establishment (your farm)
(2) developing an emergency response plan for the establishment (Farm)
(3) securing establishment boundaries (Gate it Danno, don't let anyone on your property including those predators, human and animal)
(4) providing guards, alarms, and outside lighting, as necessary (sounds like a concentration camp to me)
(5) performing background checks before hiring new personnel (ok all! every time you hire people or acquire an animal, it's a background check!)
(6) limiting access to the establishment; (Now we have to post a sign outside warning people premise is hazardous-if passed)
(7) accounting for missing stock (Now how many chicks did I have?)
(8) implementing mail-handling procedures; and
(9) such other security procedures (A little vague I would say) as the Secretary determines to be necessary to prevent unintentional or = intentional contamination of meat and meat food products.