Senator Leahy Doesn't Get NAIS

Yesterday I got a reply from Senator Leahy. It is aways hard to tell with him if it is just a canned response, a form letter or perhaps a real live personal letter. I did note a change in attitude, a little softening of his previously hard stance supporting the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). This is important as our dear Senator Leahy from Vermont, along with Arlen Spector of PA, was one of the the enabling supporters of legislation what allowed the USDA to create the monster of NAIS. Below is my letter replying to Senator Leahy followed by his letter. I post this as an overview and review of the issues.

It is good to see that you are starting to realize that there are problems with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) but I do not think you understand the true burden that NAIS will put on small farmers and folks raising their own food. I also do not think you realize how outraged people are about NAIS invading their privacy and trampling on their Constitutional rights. There is no need for the Premise ID, Animal ID or tracking for these people. On top of all that, NAIS will not be an effective system of disease control. Disease prevention could be accomplished with much simpler and less intrusive methods such as educating people in proper bio-security and health practices. We do not need Big Brother micromanaging our lives.

On a related note, right now you are on my "Naughty" list in the right hand sidebar of my web site http://NoNAIS.org because of your support for NAIS and for your part in creating this monstrosity. While I like that you are modifying your stance about NAIS I am still not at all pleased with your representation of Vermonters in Washington. You supporting the big moneyed interests at the loss to common Vermonters. We voted for you, not the the big lobbyists.

I speak to you as someone who has supported you in the past, a Vermonter and small farmer. We do not need NAIS in the slightest. Our pastured pork customers know exactly where their food comes from - it was bred, born and raised on our farm. Customers can come by and see their food in our fields any day of the week. If someone wants to know where their food comes from they should Buy Local which supports their local farmers, preserves open spaces and puts money into their local economy rather than the pockets of big Agri-Biz in distant corporate offices. If they want trace-back then they should pay a premium in a voluntary market driven system so that the farmers get paid something extra for providing the service which will cost them time and money.

Our secondary sales are piglets, mostly to the many hundreds of rural folk who want to raise a summer pig for themselves, family and friends in order to put meat on the table. They do not need any government bureaucracy to tell them where the pig came from. Those people came to our farm, picked up the piglet and took it home to raise. They know exactly where their pig came from, they know what they fed it and how it was cared for to produce quality home-grown pork. Homesteaders don't need the government intrusion in raising healthy food. NAIS will burden them with about $500 a year in added expense with no benefit. This amounts to hidden tax on food they have raised themselves. Not only is that unfair, since food is not normally taxed, but you are putting this burden on poorer, rural folk who can least afford to pay out more money each year from their meager incomes.

Perhaps NAIS might be a good idea for the large factory farms and feed lots selling into the anonymous commercial food stream of big stores. Maybe NAIS will help the big beef exporters sell to foreign markets, like Japan, which is the original reason for NAIS. It will certainly make the RFID industry rich with selling 12,000,000,000 mandatory tags a year at $3 a pop. NAIS will put money into the states' coffers as a hidden tax at 2,000,000 "farm premises" at $10 each for Premise ID - taxing us on something we have always done with no benefit. What NAIS will not do is help small farms, the rural poor or consumers who will ultimately pay the price through less choice and higher prices as the national food supply is consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer large corporations. NAIS only benefits the rich.

NAIS is not necessary or beneficial to small family farms, homesteaders or pet livestock owners. NAIS will cost us time and money in the form of increased taxes, fees, fines, tags, equipment and wasted time filling out more government forms. Imagine doing your own taxes every week of the year. NAIS is so complex that a great many people will get it wrong and be assessed enormous, onerous fines for simple mistakes making criminals out of honest people.

NAIS started out as a way of opening foreign markets for the few big beef exporters. That justification is still the real reason for NAIS but it is not a politically correct reason so the USDA had to come up with some other excuse. Disease prevention is the new justification for NAIS. At first they said BSE claim that NAIS is not necessary for BSE prevention (Testimony by Steve Kerr, VT Ag Comm.) which is simply caused by feeding cows to cows - imagine that! Now they are claiming we need NAIS to prevent Avian Influenza. NAIS won't prevent Avian Flu. Migratory wild birds and human travelers are the vectors for avian flu. NAIS will do nothing for either of those and knowing where all the domestic birds are located will also do nothing good as they are merely terminal hosts.

Moreover, NAIS does not track domestic pet cats, who are a host of Bird Flu and NAIS and Premise ID does nothing about the exotic bird trade and pet stores [per VT Ag Com Kerr 3/22/06 hearing] which is a much more likely source of problems than bio-diverse heritage breeds of backyard poultry. Why doesn't the USDA and Vermont Agriculture Department want to include these species? Because the American people would virtually all be directly affected. If everyone were the targeted they would strongly oppose NAIS. Instead the USDA is picking on a small minority group who lacks powerful lobbyists to protect them - the last remaining family farmers. NAIS is not about disease, it is about profits and power for a select few rich and powerful corporations.

If the government really wants to do something about Avian Flu then they should be educating the public on how to take care of themselves, how to always keep on hand a three month supply of food, how to do basic first aid, how to survive, not just a pandemic, but all sorts of disasters from earth quakes to hurricanes to floods and more. After all, it has been repeatedly proven that we can not depend on the government for help in times of crisis. If you want to help people, teach them to safely raise their own food so that more people might actually have a chance of surviving troubled times. But no, that is not something we'll see the government do because people living independently does not sell RFID tags, factory farmed chicken nuggets, feedlot stuffed beef, drive the economy or generate more taxes and fees for the state & federal coffers. Our government has fallen into a rut of co-dependence that is producing a weaker and weaker country. Lets see you get a spine and stand up -- fight for a stronger, more independent America.

Lastly, the USDA's proposed NAIS is unconstitutional. Specifically it violates the 1st, 4th, 5th, 14th and possibly the 13th Amendments to the United States Constitution. The foundation of our country, our Bill of Rights, is already under gross assaults from many sides. We do not need more tyrannical Nanny State regulations passed down from the USDA that will give them invasive powers to violate our privacy, circumvent due process of law and do warrant-less searches. As ex-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner recently observed, our country is slipping towards dictatorship. The government should not be in the fascist business of micromanaging Americans' lives - we are supposed to be the land of the free. You are our representative in the Senate for Vermont and I expect you to standup for the common folks' rights, to protect our independence from overreaching government bureaucracy and big corporate greed.

If we are to have trace-back, a stated purpose of NAIS, then it should be a completely voluntary system that is totally market driven. Frankly, there is not even a need for the USDA, or the government in any form, to be involved. If buyers like McDonald's want it, let them pay farmers something extra to provide that service. With NAIS being mandatory there will be no premium for the added cost of providing trace-back. Small farmers will be deprived of income by a mandatory program that would make them work harder to earn the same wage. NAIS hurts farmers coming and going. Keeping NAIS 100% voluntary will benefit farmers, homesteaders, rural folk and ultimately consumers. It will leave the burden off of those of use who do not need it and should not have to bear this cost just for the benefit of a few rich corporations.

Walter Jeffries A Pretty Pissed Off Pig Producer Sugar Mountain Farm http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/ http://NoNAIS.org

Thank you for contacting me about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). I appreciate hearing from you.

Since 1998, I have been proud to work with the Holstein Association in Brattleboro to create an animal identification pilot program. The Holstein Association's program, partially funded with assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a precursor to the NAIS that electronically identifies individual animals and tracks their movements from birth to slaughter within 48 hours. To date, the Holstein Association's pilot program has proven its electronic tracking capabilities with over a million bovines enrolled from over 7,000 farms in 42 states.

While the USDA has laid the groundwork of a national system through the work of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture and through their work with the Holstein Association, they have delayed full implementation of individual animal identification until this year. I am concerned with the USDA's lack of a plan to fund the program. Unfortunately, the USDA does not intend to assist producers with the costs of a national identification program nor has USDA proposed any assistance for meat processors. I believe this cost will be a burden on many small farmers and should be funded in part through the USDA budget. Furthermore, the USDA has issued contradictory statements regarding their intention to make this system mandatory or voluntary.

As a member of the Agriculture Committee, I will continue to urge the USDA to implement this plan keeping in mind its purpose to project animal health and avoid the spread of animal disease. Thank you again for contacting me on this important issue.

I fully support NIAS. Get your pigs chipped.

I particularly like this one for you by Digital Angel/Destron Fearing.

Destron e.TAGs™ provides reliable read distance and functionality on the farm and in food processing plants. e.TAGs™ incorporate a tiny microchip that is encoded with a unique identification number. A radio frequency scanner energizes the dormant chip to transmit the chip identification number to the reader.

The PigSMART system uses two types of electronic ear tags. Mature breeding animals use the Destron's Sow Tag and Hog Max Stud. This two-piece tag set provides a secure way to permanently identify breeding stock and prevent tag swapping. The Hog Max Stud provides a visual means of identifying breeding animals.

Younger animals use Destron's Piglet tag and square back stud. These electronic tags have been uniquely designed for use in younger piglets (5 days and older) and have demonstrated excellent retention and functionality on the farm and on through the packing plant. A recent field trial documented 98% tag retention on the farm and 97% retention through the packing plant. All recovered electron tags (100%) provided a minimum of 12 inches read distance after cycling through the de-hairing processes. Proper tag placement in the ear can affect tag retention.

Both tags utilize the proven Fearing Duplex ear tag system and applicator. Each e-tag is permanently Laser marked with an entire sequence of numbers on the tag surface that corresponds to the programmed ISO number in the microchip. A 2-D barcode is also included on each e-tag as an identification backup.

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