Free Republic

When the first U.S. case of mad-cow disease was discovered in December 2003, then-Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman pledged to hasten creation of a national identification system for tracing livestock quickly during a disease outbreak. She said she asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief information officer "to make it his top priority." Today, more than two years later, the U.S. still has no national ID system for most farm animals, including chickens and beef cattle. The USDA, which has been discussing a system for nearly a decade -- and has spent $84.7 million to develop it -- now...

USDA ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION BOONDOGGLE REPORT Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., introduced two bills that would amend the Animal Health Protection Act to direct the Sec of Agriculture to establish an electronic livestock identification system. This is where a multi-billion dollar federal program started spreading it’s roots. Now over $70,000,000 has been doled during the past 30 months to promote, study, plan, and implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The original idea was to develop a 48 hour national computer method to locate the life time communication path of any critter that might test positive for the dreaded BSE. Once the...