.....but can't ID cattle coming into and out of the U.S. first. I thought the U.S. had to secure its borders. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Lack of formal plan may block animal I.D. system
PHILIP BRASHER
DES MOINES REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
May 22, 2006
Iowa, US
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Lawmakers are threatening to cut off funding for a national animal identification system unless the U.S. Agriculture Department details how the program will work.
A USDA appropriations bill under consideration in the House would block the funding for the project as of Oct. 1 until USDA issues a formal plan for the ID program, which has divided livestock producers. The program is supposed to enable government investigators to track the location and history of any farm animal within 48 hours.
The Bush administration promised to speed development of the system after the discovery of the nation’s first case of mad cow disease in 2003.
The administration recently set a series of target dates for getting farms to participate in the program.
The spending bill, which was approved by the House Appropriations Committee, says that USDA has sent “mixed signals” about whether farms will ever be required to register their livestock.
The legislation would require USDA to publish the detailed plan, known as an “advance notice of proposed rulemaking,” and then take public comment on the proposal.
“We’re trying to see where they are at, where they are going,” said Rep. Tom Latham, an Iowa Republican who serves on the House Appropriations subcommittee that writes the USDA budget.
“We just have not seen where they have made any real progress or what their system is.”
Congress has appropriated $84.7 million for the program through this year. The House bill would provide an additional $33.1 million contingent on USDA issuing the plan.
“I think it’s going to slow USDA down, particularly as people realize the shortfalls of the system and the things that are going to have to be worked through that aren’t going to work,” said Chuck Kiker, a board member with the cattle producers’ group R-CALF USA.
Among other things, his group objects to producers having to pay for the cost of electronic ID tags that would be put on cattle.
R-CALF USA, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, is one of two major groups representing cattle producers. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association supports the animal ID program.
USDA spokeswoman Dore Mobley said the department would not comment on pending legislation.
The ID system is supposed to ensure that investigators no longer have to rely on paper records, which are often missing, to find livestock that may be infected with a significant disease. Because of inadequate records, USDA recently closed the investigation of a case of mad cow disease in Alabama without ever determining the animal’s origin.
The first step toward setting up the system is to issue premise
identification numbers to farms, feedlots and packing plants. So far, about 10 percent of the estimated 2 million premises nationwide have been registered. In Iowa, about 3,500 of an estimated 90,000 premises are registered.
Australia and Canada, major competitors of the United States in beef
production, have set up electronic ID systems for cattle, something U.S. consumer groups have been advocating for years.
“It sounds like Congress is as fed up with animal ID as we are on this thing,” said Chris Waldrop of the Consumer Federation of America.
“They are just fumbling about and cobbling something together. From my perspective, it makes sense to get something out for public comment that people could see where USDA is heading and try to actually go somewhere with it.”
desmoinesregister.com