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Here ya go, Oldtimer

Texan

Well-known member
Here ya go, Oldtimer. Looks like your Democrat heroes are going to shove a bureaucrat-managed ID down our throats. Those Dems are really looking out for us, aren't they? Hope this makes you happy. :???:

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Ag Committee Chairman Peterson Determined To Impose Animal ID

By David Bowser


LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee wants mandatory animal identification, according to his committee staff director, but he won't change the law to do it.

The Secretary of Agriculture already has that power, Chandler Goule says.

Chandler Goule, staff director for the House Agriculture Committee, has worked on policy issues in Washington for the last 10 years. He's in charge of Congressman Collin Peterson's animal identification agenda. Peterson, D-Minnesota, is chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

"He is supportive of the mandatory animal ID system," Goule says of Peterson.

But, Goule says, there are some misconceptions of Peterson's position.

"He does not plan on doing animal ID legislation because there's no need for that," Goule says. "There's enough authority at the USDA under the Animal Health Protection Act to accomplish an animal ID system."

Goule says Peterson does not plan on rewriting any animal identification legislation that is already in place, but is still holding hearings on animal identification in the House Agriculture Committee.

"His agenda is, if you're in a breed or herd registered program or if you're with the Northwest guys or if you're up in Montana or in Kentucky or somewhere and you're already participating in a program," Goule says, "his objective is to make sure that the USDA sets a standard that works with that program."

That may or may not include brands, something that concerns ranchers in western brand states.

"All these notions that keep flying around that we're going to require a new eartag, new readers and new equipment," Goule says, "that's not the objective whatsoever."

Goule says that needs to be cleared up.

"The chairman is very supportive of a mandatory system," Goule reiterates, adding that a number of issues in the livestock industry play into that.

"Whether it's the lack of a veterinary workforce out in rural areas, or just the fact that the USDA advised our committee a couple of weeks ago that it took on average 199 days to track down all the herdmates for 27 different TB outbreaks," Goule explains, "what we're trying to do is move away from using BSE as a reason as to why we need animal ID."

Goule says bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE or mad cow disease, is a slow-moving disease.

Tuberculosis moves faster than BSE, but it, too, is a slow-moving disease. Still, it took the U.S. Department of Agriculture 199 days to track down the animals exposed to the TB-infected cattle.

"If we were to get a disease like foot and mouth in the U.S. that could spread in 10 or 12 days," Goule says, "it would be a catastrophic experience like Britain had."

The lack of a comprehensive animal identification system is Peterson's concern, Goule says. That is why Peterson wants a mandatory system.

"The animal ID system is not a food safety system," Goule continues. "It is an animal disease surveillance system."

He says Peterson and others on the committee understand the concerns of producers about confidentiality. Goule says they continue to work on a solution for that issue.

"We just had a meeting today with four lawyers about how do we fix and protect this information in the animal ID system."

As an animal science major, he says there are other things he would rather do than meet with lawyers, but that's his job.

"We are also very aware that there's some unique situations out there," Goule says.

The ones he is watching are ranchers on public lands and fairs and rodeos.

Goule says the government needs a way to work with the public lands ranchers and with expositions.

"I was a 4-Her in Texas for nine years," he adds. "What are we going to do about the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and Fort Worth Stock Show and places like that?"

He acknowledges that there are situations that will fall outside the broad scope of the norm.

"We fully realize that there are unique situations out there that we're going to have to work with," Goule says, "but our overall goal is to take existing systems and develop them into a national system that can be used to trace quarantined animals in 48 hours in order to help minimize the damage."

Still, there are still issues to be resolved, he admits.

"I met with the public lands people last week," Goule says.

He says he and Peterson understand that brands are a part of Western culture, but when it comes to tracking down brand receipts and brand registries, finding cattle based solely on brands for identification can be difficult and time-consuming.

Goule says his family has a brand in Texas, but Texas brands are registered by county. With 254 counties in the Lone Star State, there could be several ranches with the same brand in that one state.

"Then if you go to New Mexico, somebody else could have that same brand, and if you go to Colorado, somebody else could have that exact same brand."

He says the argument he was given was simply to call those three people with the same brands to track down cattle.

"What if two of those people were on vacation for a week and a half and didn't answer their phone and we're sitting here with a disease outbreak?" Goule says. "I understand that branding is a large part of the culture. We talked about this a lot in country of origin labeling. I don't think there will be anything done to discontinue it. I think what we'll try to do is meld this in with a system that will meet the requirements of 48-hour traceback."

He says there has to be confidence in the producer, confidence in the government and confidence in the industry.

Without a mandatory animal identification system, he sees a scenario where animal health officials might have to shut down cattle movement in all the states west of the Mississippi.

"It would be much better if we had a mandatory ID system and had to shut down just two states," Goule says, "because we were able to contain the disease in a faster time period."

The House Agriculture Committee has had one hearing in which they heard from producers and industry witnesses and from the United States Department of Agriculture.

"The next hearing that we have planned," Goule says, "will be after the April recess, and it will be government agencies."

He says U.S. Department of Agriculture officials will testify along with officials from the Department of Homeland Security.

"They have done several scenarios over the last five to six years on what would happen if we had an intentional outbreak of foot and mouth disease," Goule says, "or if we had a naturally occurring outbreak."

He says the fact is that the government can't track cloven-hoofed animals, not just cattle and pigs, but deer and elk and animals of that sort that are also commercially produced.

An outbreak like that, he says, if it were in three parts of the country, could cause from $30 billion to $100 billion in damages.

"That's our next set of hearings that we're going to look at."

Goule says there will likely be another hearing after that, but no date has been scheduled.

"I'm pushing for specialty situations," he says. "We need to bring somebody in and talk about the stock shows. Let's talk about horse races. Let's talk about public lands and things like that."

He says they need to look into some of the unique situations in animal agriculture.

"I can see a third hearing."

Some have questioned why Peterson is conducting hearings if he isn’t going to bring legislation to the floor.

"The only type of legislation that would even be reasonable," Goule says, "would be to do something like requiring the USDA to have a mandatory animal ID system in place by ‘X’ date and time, but we're not doing that."

The Secretary of Agriculture already has the authority to do that, he insists.

"These hearings are to demonstrate the need and why we need a mandatory animal ID system," Goule says. "I think through the last administration there was too much opposition down at the department. We wasted $142 million and eight years, and we had 35.1 percent of premises registered. If that's the direction it's going to continue going, the chairman's not going to be supportive of it."

Goule points out that Peterson said at the hearing a couple of weeks ago that if opposition to animal identification continues and there is a foot and mouth outbreak in this country, producers need not come to him thinking he's going to have a receptive ear to bail out those in trouble and give money to depopulate the animals.

"We're trying to fix the problem now."

He says he thinks Peterson is trying to look further ahead than the detractors of an animal identification program.

"What are we going to do?" Goule asks.

There could be a time when health officials won't have 199 days to find infected or exposed cattle, he warns.

"It's not just animal ID," Goule says. "We have a problem with the veterinary workforce. We don't have enough veterinarians. We don't have a system that can talk to itself."

Those are the things that Peterson's trying to demonstrate at the hearings, Goule explains.

He says Peterson has had some good conversations with the new Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, since the last hearings. Vilsack is the former governor of Iowa and ran for President in the 2008 primaries.

Goule says Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chairwoman of the Agricultural Appropriations Committee, was pretty blunt with the secretary.

"I think we have definitely come together to agree upon a phased-in system that ends up being mandatory," Goule says. "That's the way it has to go, but it has to work with existing systems that are already out there."



http://www.livestockweekly.com/papers/09/04/16/whl16bow-goule.asp
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Whats new-- It hasn't deviated one inch since the Bush USDA initiated and released the original NAIS plan.....Only thing different is Bush was doing it behind the scenes using taxpayer funded bribe money to NCBA/Tribes/AAA/States and doing little mandates one at a time-- while openly telling us everything was "voluntary"....

Kind of like the difference of getting raped with or without a kiss.... :roll:
 

Texan

Well-known member
The Bush Administration was pretty much content to let industry working groups come up with something on their own. But now? Now we'll have professional bureaucrats come up with the plan.

What would have been better? Ranchers and brand inspectors working together on something that would work for all of us? Or Rahm Emanuel deciding what we need?

You got what you wanted, Oldtimer. The Bush Administration didn't get ID done. Now Obama will do it. Congratulations.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Texan said:
The Bush Administration was pretty much content to let industry working groups come up with something on their own. But now? Now we'll have professional bureaucrats come up with the plan.

What would have been better? Ranchers and brand inspectors working together on something that would work for all of us? Or Rahm Emanuel deciding what we need?

You got what you wanted, Oldtimer. The Bush Administration didn't get ID done. Now Obama will do it. Congratulations.

Before you know it, OT will be against branding & brand inspections....... and saying NAIS will be better for ranchers.................

Just as soon as Zer0's clones have their way.................
 

Broke Cowboy

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Whats new-- It hasn't deviated one inch since the Bush USDA initiated and released the original NAIS plan.....Only thing different is Bush was doing it behind the scenes using taxpayer funded bribe money to NCBA/Tribes/AAA/States and doing little mandates one at a time-- while openly telling us everything was "voluntary"....

Kind of like the difference of getting raped with or without a kiss.... :roll:

So your Prez supports the Bush idea - perhaps he is - in your opinion doing it in an open manner - but your Prez has decidedly favoured a Bush idea and is continuing on that path - perhaps they are more alike than you would like to admit - or perhaps Obama has suddenly realized that Bush had some good ideas.

I think you are still going to get raped - and it will happen very soon - I would not want your tax bill once the bail outs come home to roost

BC
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
USDA opens to input on livestock ID system

Western ranchers remain skeptical of tracking system



By TOM LUTEY

Of The Gazette Staff

The Billings Gazette - Montana

April 18, 2009



A controversial federal plan to track livestock from birth to butcher shop needs more input from the people it intends to regulate, new U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said earlier this week.



Vilsack made the announcement after hearing from several farm and ranch groups, including representatives from Montana, about the National Animal Identification System. Western farm and ranch groups of all political stripes have called the government's plans overreaching and unworkable.



"All of the groups that represent the cattle-raising West are pretty unanimous in our take on it," said Gilles Stockton, of the Western Organization of Resource Councils. "We're pretty skeptical."





1st meeting

The rancher from Grass Range said Vilsack's sit-down meeting with livestock groups big and small was a first, despite the USDA having spent years planning to track farm animals from farm to supermarket. National identification system advocates say the tracking is needed so the government can easily locate sources of disease in the nation's food supply and identify animals that have been potentially exposed. Most vocal among the groups is the American Veterinary Medical Association, which contends that extensive identification not only protects consumers but is also necessary to minimize the livestock loss.



Currently, the identification system is voluntary. But, if nationally enforced it would require everyone from large operators to urbanites with egg laying hens to tag their animals, probably with microchips or radio tags, and regularly report the animals' status to the government.



Ranchers would have to document the movements of range animals like cattle or sheep being moved from spring to summer pasture. Newborns would have to be tagged and reported within a day. An animal dead from illness or predator attack would have to be reported in 24 hours.





Voluntary participation

Producers involved in relatively contained and tightly controlled operations like dairies, poultry operations or hog farms haven't objected much to national animal identification, partly because the necessary scanning and monitoring is relatively easy in a controlled situation. Voluntary participation by producers in those groups is at or near the federal goal of 70 percent.



Western livestock groups are the biggest holdouts. Ranchers argue that open pasture and grazing leases on broad swaths of government land make it nearly impossible to track livestock and determine their interaction with animals from other herds. Ranchers like Stockton say recent problems with American food safety have stemmed from how the animals were handled at the slaughterhouse, not how they were treated in pasture.



"The USDA has failed to explain and justify why a radically new system is needed when the preexisting systems have been highly effective in controlling disease," said Bill Bullard of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America. "We have become the envy of the world in controlling disease."



Bullard, who attended the Washington, D.C., meeting for R-CALF USA, said Vilsack brought the various groups in because voluntary participation in the National Animal Identification System wasn't strong. The USDA had hoped the majority of American farms and ranches would register their operations with the federal government as a first step, but participation was less than half. The meeting ended with Vilsack promising a countrywide listening tour to gather more input from farmers and ranchers.



"He indicated that this was a beginning of a dialogue with the industry and that he was concerned of the potential for Congress to shut off funding for this program,"
Bullard said.



Some states, Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Utah, have passed laws barring their state livestock agencies from carrying out a mandatory federal program. A bill to keep the animal identification voluntary in Montana died in the Legislature this year. Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, have all mandated programs to dovetail with federal identification plans.



The Montana Stockgrowers Association would like animal identification to remain voluntary, said Errol Rice, the group's chief executive. If the market wants an identification system, and one is already evolving to meet the beef demands of foreign buyers in countries such as Japan and South Korea, then a system will be created, Rice said.



The Stockgrowers also want to preserve hot-iron branding, the West's original identification system, because it makes sorting mingled herds easier. Radio tags all look alike.



Source: The Billings Gazette

billingsgazette.net
 

Mike

Well-known member
Vilsack is making token gestures in the disguise of "Transparency" to win the hearts and mind of ranchers everywhere. :lol:

The last two USDA heads did the same thing and invited 1000's of comments posted on the USDA website.

It'll wind up the same way, no matter how you go about it. NAIS.....
 

knabe

Well-known member
Ranchers would have to document the movements of range animals like cattle or sheep being moved from spring to summer pasture. Newborns would have to be tagged and reported within a day. An animal dead from illness or predator attack would have to be reported in 24 hours.

sounds like a good illegal alien program and a way to document anchor babies and give them all the benefits of the country their parents are from.

seems as if the government can track more cattle than illegal aliens which leave far more traces of their activities.
 
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