Dan Green, Editor of Record Stockman has some interesting points on the animal identification situation, and I believe he is absolutely right in his take on it.
He says this issue is down to a strictly philosophical debate about whether you would rather have Uncle Sam or a private non-profit group keeing the data on your animals.
He says he always bets on private enterprise if given a choice and hasn't seen one instance in 58 years where government does a job more efficiently or economically or trustworthily than private enterprise. Who has????
He points out international trade, for one thing, is going to demand M-ID and the remaining question is who will do the job.
He asks "Are private contractors going to do it for a profit while working for the government, or are private contractors going to do it for a profit while working for a group controlled by cattlemen"?
He also points out the political machinations already at work by a couple of Senators from IA on this subject, relating how "Harkin has been a big hero of R-CALF, Farmers' Union and the crowd that believe government is the solution to any problem in agriculture". And that "Grassley used to be reliably conservative, but now he's pretty well put in with Harkin on ag issues in order to get re-elected".
He also touches on COOL current political positioning by politicians, stating "it will go no where except to help the sponsoring senators
re-election campaigns", and "that COOL is one of those "Hot Damn", we ought to do that" ideas that proves to be a lot more complicated and expensive in practice than it sounds in theory".
Good points, Dan!
MRJ
He says this issue is down to a strictly philosophical debate about whether you would rather have Uncle Sam or a private non-profit group keeing the data on your animals.
He says he always bets on private enterprise if given a choice and hasn't seen one instance in 58 years where government does a job more efficiently or economically or trustworthily than private enterprise. Who has????
He points out international trade, for one thing, is going to demand M-ID and the remaining question is who will do the job.
He asks "Are private contractors going to do it for a profit while working for the government, or are private contractors going to do it for a profit while working for a group controlled by cattlemen"?
He also points out the political machinations already at work by a couple of Senators from IA on this subject, relating how "Harkin has been a big hero of R-CALF, Farmers' Union and the crowd that believe government is the solution to any problem in agriculture". And that "Grassley used to be reliably conservative, but now he's pretty well put in with Harkin on ag issues in order to get re-elected".
He also touches on COOL current political positioning by politicians, stating "it will go no where except to help the sponsoring senators
re-election campaigns", and "that COOL is one of those "Hot Damn", we ought to do that" ideas that proves to be a lot more complicated and expensive in practice than it sounds in theory".
Good points, Dan!
MRJ