Opposition is building to USDA’s National Animal Identification System, but the government is moving ahead with the plan.
On April 6, USDA released its implementation schedule, which calls for “benchmarks for progress” by which the program can be assessed according to the level of voluntary participation. The benchmark for January 2009 is 100% participation.
The NAIS will require the registration in a national database of all livestock animals, whether they are used for food, recreation, or show. Every animal will be issued a tracking number, possibly in the form of an implanted radio-frequency tag, and owners will be required to report all movements of each animal they own.
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts issued a statement calling the NAIS “a misguided approach for confronting animal disease problems.” Rather than tracking every animal in the country because of mad cow disease, USDA should test every animal at slaughter. The test is simple, reliable and cheap, NOFA-Mass says.
The group also argues that USDA’s emphasis on on wild and pastured birds being the source of avian flu is misleading.
“The evidence that wild birds play a primary role in the transmission of avian flu is scant at best, and far better evidence suggests that the spread is connected to shipments of live birds and poultry manure from factory farms via rail and truck routes,” reports the organic farming group. Organic farmers believe that the presence of soil rich with microbial activity, and access to sunlight, fresh air and water are vital to raising healthy animals. The National Organic Standards call for all animals to be raised with access to the out-of-doors. Organic farmers are concerned that animal tracking could lead to greater pressure on farmers to confine their animals, making organic livestock production effectively impossible. They also worry that animal tracking, which would record premises where animals are still raised on pasture, could make their flocks into “misplaced targets” of mass culling. For more on the NAIS statement, visit
http://www.nofamass.org