farmers say animal id system too

Some farmers say animal IDs too invasive, costly

American farmers value their space, literally and figuratively, and

now many are afraid a new animal-identification program will bring the

eyes of the federal government a little too close too home, reports

Nicole Gaouette of the Los Angeles Times. The system is voluntary, at

least for now, but can keep out of contests animals and owners like

Brandi Calderwood, above, who couldn't enter her steer in the Colorado

State Fair because he wasn't registered. (Times photo by Nathan W.

Ames)

The Bush administration has touted the National Animal Identification

System as an important tool for monitoring the safety of U.S. meat,

but American farmers see the tagging project as an invasion of

privacy, or worse. Controlled by the Department of Agriculture, the

NAIS aims to register almost every farm animal in the country -- even

exotic ones -- and create a database that will allow the government to

track a disease outbreak back to its source in less than 48 hours.

Despite the system's goals, many farmers don't want to join.

"Family farmers see it as an assault on their way of life by a federal

bureaucracy with close ties to industrial agriculture," Gaouette

writes. "Privacy advocates say the database would create an invasive,

detailed electronic record of farmers' activities. Religious farming

communities, such as the Amish and Mennonites, fear the system is a

manifestation of the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of

Revelation," required to buy or sell.

The system has three parts: premises registration (to designate each

property), the Animal Identification Number (assigned by group for big

operations and by individual animal on small farms) and animal tracing

(movements of animals must be reported within 24 hours). Owners of

small farms complain the costs of tagging each animal -- the microchip

ID costs $1.50 -- and then tracking them are too high for their

operations.

Though the system is still voluntary -- President Bush has not

registered his Texas ranch or his eight head of cattle there -- some

states and farm groups have given farmers little choice. The USDA has

tied certain funds to the numbers of farms a state has registered, and

its youth programs require children to register their family farms.

(Read more)

Congress did not fully fund the NAIS in 2008, allocating $9.75 million

of the $33.2 million requested by USDA, reports Peter Shinn of

Brownfield Network. (Read more) For an example of one small farmer's

take on the NAIS, read Sharon Zecchinelli's September article for the

Daily Yonder.