The National Animal Identification System: A Brave and Terrifying New World
Richard Morris
April 28, 2006
TCV The Common Voice
This article first appeared at breadandmoney.com
Close your eyes.
Now imagine a wondrous world where the organic grocery stores are stocked with brightly colored fruits and vegetables, but look closer. This isn't any ordinary produce. Those shiny red apples have come halfway around the world from an orchard in Iran where they were designed to withstand the 120 degree temperatures on the plains of the Persian Gulf. That broccoli was grown on the frozen shores of Uummannaarsuk, Greenland, inside the Arctic Circle. It contains the genes of a salmon and is a source of omega-3 oil.
In the meat case, dazzlingly perfect cuts of beef, poultry and pork, lie neatly wrapped in edible spray-on plastic packaging. All meat is 100 percent fat free and contains the genes of the soy bean. Spoil-proof, organic, yolk-free eggs, engineered with extra thick shells, come guaranteed against accidental breakage. They spent a month in a cargo container on their journey from a massive chicken factory in China. All dairy comes from plants. All meat, including fish, comes from factories.
Food animals are derived from genetically engineered clones to optimize their value to producers. Chickens are bred without beaks or feathers, fish without bones and pigs, without tails. Some foods are simply synthesized in a Petri dish. Everything there is to eat in this brave new world comes pasteurized, sterilized and irradiated. Most food comes from beyond America's shores and is completely inert. In that sense, it is no different from the package in which it is sold, but what of the people?
Sixty percent of the populace is obese, up from 30 percent at the turn of the 21st century. Diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, asthma and cancer are so commonplace that they are now regarded as a normal part of a teenager's journey to adulthood. Billions of dollars are raised each year to; "find a cure" for these afflictions, but the cures never come. Infertility is epidemic. Universal health insurance accounts for 50 percent of expenses for those who can afford it. Street corner pharmacies, a trillion dollar industry, now outnumber fast food restaurants.
The family farm is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. Few can afford to garden anymore. Most food crops have been patented, their seeds engineered to be sterile. Washington and big business control the food supply. Government surveillance of American citizens, warrantless search and seizures, fines and imprisonment are used to force compliance with the new food laws. Citizens of this new world order must obey, must comply or they will not eat. And what they do eat is killing them.
Now open your eyes. This nightmare isn't over. Thanks to the National Animal Identification System, it may have just begun.
What is the NAIS?
The future portrayed above is a bleak one and to the casual reader, beyond believable, but is it? A 2004 Roper Poll puts the number of U.S. farms that have disappeared at 5 million since the 1930s. Today, barely 1 percent of the population is involved in farming and food production. Already, a handful of multinational corporations control much of the food we rely on. The push by big business to weaken organic food standards is underway and the technology for cloning animals for food is already here.
Our projected life spans may be slightly longer, but we're getting sicker sooner. Increasingly, disease intrudes on our lives. The choice to decide what to eat is a fundamental freedom that Americans have enjoyed for over two centuries. Now comes the National Animal Identification System, which may ultimately take that choice away.
What is the NAIS? In the words of the USDA:
"The NAIS is a national program intended to identify all agricultural animals and track them as they come into contact with, or are inter-mixed with, animals other than heardmates from their premises of origin."
The NAIS is comprised, in part, from existing programs designed to register and track domestic agricultural animals. It was officially conceived in 2005 with the publishing of a strategic plan developed by the USDA. Under the plan, aquaculture, llamas and alpacas, cattle/bison, dear and elk, equine, goats, poultry, sheep and swine would be tracked.
The program is divided into three key components:
The first is a requirement that premises where animals are kept be registered with a 7 digit ID number.
The second is that each animal shall be assigned a 15 digit ID. In the case of large producers, groups of animals would be identified with a 13 digit ID.
The third is that a system shall exist whereby the movement of these animals shall be tracked and recorded whenever they leave their point of origin.
The technologies under discussion for how identification and tracking shall be accomplished may include everything from manually documenting an animal's movement to GPS, radio frequency tags (RFID) retinal scans and DNA.
Supporters of the NAIS say that such a program is long overdue. They cite the three key selling points of the NAIS:
It will enable animal health authorities to identify the source of a disease outbreak within a 48 hour period.
It will protect Americans from "intentional and unintentional" acts of sabotage.
It will increase foreign markets for American producers by assuring the rest of the world that American animal products are safe.
What makes the NAIS different from existing programs is its extensive reach into the private lives of family farmers and its potential to put them out of business. The NAIS, as currently proposed, harms the family farmer, homesteader and animal hobbyist in a number of ways:
It represents an unprecedented intrusion into the lives of private citizens by requiring that they record the movement of their animals whenever those animals cross their property line. A horseback ride into the country, for example, would require that the owner notify the local and/or federal government. A stray chicken who wanders onto the neighbor's property would have to be reported as well.
The movement of animals may be tracked via long range electronic surveillance. This may be the first time in modern history that the movements of farmers are under surveillance by the federal government.
The cost of the NAIS to the family farm is undetermined at this point, but no one doubts that it will be high. Once you factor in the cost of identification technology, the application of that technology to your animals, the investment in infrastructure (computers, manpower) to comply with the system, fines and the time spent notifying the government of your animal's movements, the costs may put many farmers out of business.
Compiling a massive database that includes the location and size of a farm, what animals are on that farm and the movement of those animals amounts to de-facto surveillance of the farmers themselves. Imagine how you might feel if you had to report the movements of your dog or cat in this manner.
The USDA makes it clear that the management of the NAIS will require a collaboration of public and private stakeholders. Does this mean that the database(s) that contain so much private information might fall into the hands of a for-profit database management company? What safeguards exist to prevent a private company from selling this information to others? What safeguards exist to prevent the same company from turning the management of the database into a lucrative venture by gouging family farmers?
If you walk your dog, take him to the vet, to the park or a friend's house, how would you feel if you knew you were under constant surveillance? How comfortable would you be knowing that the dates, times and frequency of your movements were now in the hands of a company that markets dog food or home security systems?
At what point, in the interest of 'safety' will the government and industry decide that spying on a farmers' movements is not enough and that regulating how farmers care for their animals is the new goal. This would effectively prevent a small farmer from competing with Big Agriculture in the only way he can, not on price, but in the area of quality? Such a move would mark the end of life as we know it for the family farm.
Refuting the benefits of the NAIS to the small farmer
While some form of the NAIS may make sense for large mega-farms with thousands of animals crammed together in close quarters, it does not make sense for the small farmer. Let's revisit the benefits of the NAIS.
It will enable animal health authorities to identify the source of a disease outbreak within a 48 hour period.
History shows that when things go wrong in the large farm operations, more consumers are subjected to greater risk. Usually the problem isn't identified until the tainted food arrives on someone's dinner plate. In those instances, thousands may be affected. The reach of the family farm is comparatively small where many producers provide food for a very limited number of people.
The NAIS will protect Americans from "intentional and unintentional" acts of sabotage.
If there's one thing 9/11 has taught us it is that size and symbolism matters. A saboteur is unlikely to target a small farm with 20 animals when there are larger operations available that run well over a thousand head.
The NAIS will increase foreign markets for American producers by assuring the rest of the world that American animal products are safe.
Small farms don't generally count foreign countries among their customers and most aren't interested in the foreign market. This claim by the industry and the USDA is particularly egregious in light of what happened two years ago involving, beef producer, Creekstone Farms. According to Creekstone, their Asian customers were leery of U.S. beef absent definitive test results proving that their meat was safe. Creekstone was happy to oblige, announcing that they intended to test every animal. Predictably, the USDA and large meat packers opposed this move with the inexplicable reasoning that testing every animal could not ensure the safety of the food.
Beef industry watchers suggest that what the large meatpackers really objected to was the cost of implementing a program that tests every animal. Instead, they've decided to get behind the NAIS which promises to create a monstrous bureaucracy of red tape and paperwork, a bureaucracy that eliminates the small farmer by way of predatory regulation.
What can you do?
Go to the USDA web site and read the FAQ on the NAIS
Read the excellent article on the NAIS by Mary Zanoni, PhD. In the 2006 January/February issue of Countryside magazine.
Support your local farmers by buying their products.
Contact local small farm organizations in your area and ask how you can help. Donations are nice, but what they really need is for you to make a show of force to your elected representatives. Farmers demanding fair treatment is one thing, but when voting consumers join them, that's what gets a politician's attention.
Choice is at the heart of what it means to be free. Preserving choice in our foods means preserving the family farm. Time is running out.
Richard Morris
April 28, 2006
TCV The Common Voice
This article first appeared at breadandmoney.com
Close your eyes.
Now imagine a wondrous world where the organic grocery stores are stocked with brightly colored fruits and vegetables, but look closer. This isn't any ordinary produce. Those shiny red apples have come halfway around the world from an orchard in Iran where they were designed to withstand the 120 degree temperatures on the plains of the Persian Gulf. That broccoli was grown on the frozen shores of Uummannaarsuk, Greenland, inside the Arctic Circle. It contains the genes of a salmon and is a source of omega-3 oil.
In the meat case, dazzlingly perfect cuts of beef, poultry and pork, lie neatly wrapped in edible spray-on plastic packaging. All meat is 100 percent fat free and contains the genes of the soy bean. Spoil-proof, organic, yolk-free eggs, engineered with extra thick shells, come guaranteed against accidental breakage. They spent a month in a cargo container on their journey from a massive chicken factory in China. All dairy comes from plants. All meat, including fish, comes from factories.
Food animals are derived from genetically engineered clones to optimize their value to producers. Chickens are bred without beaks or feathers, fish without bones and pigs, without tails. Some foods are simply synthesized in a Petri dish. Everything there is to eat in this brave new world comes pasteurized, sterilized and irradiated. Most food comes from beyond America's shores and is completely inert. In that sense, it is no different from the package in which it is sold, but what of the people?
Sixty percent of the populace is obese, up from 30 percent at the turn of the 21st century. Diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, asthma and cancer are so commonplace that they are now regarded as a normal part of a teenager's journey to adulthood. Billions of dollars are raised each year to; "find a cure" for these afflictions, but the cures never come. Infertility is epidemic. Universal health insurance accounts for 50 percent of expenses for those who can afford it. Street corner pharmacies, a trillion dollar industry, now outnumber fast food restaurants.
The family farm is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. Few can afford to garden anymore. Most food crops have been patented, their seeds engineered to be sterile. Washington and big business control the food supply. Government surveillance of American citizens, warrantless search and seizures, fines and imprisonment are used to force compliance with the new food laws. Citizens of this new world order must obey, must comply or they will not eat. And what they do eat is killing them.
Now open your eyes. This nightmare isn't over. Thanks to the National Animal Identification System, it may have just begun.
What is the NAIS?
The future portrayed above is a bleak one and to the casual reader, beyond believable, but is it? A 2004 Roper Poll puts the number of U.S. farms that have disappeared at 5 million since the 1930s. Today, barely 1 percent of the population is involved in farming and food production. Already, a handful of multinational corporations control much of the food we rely on. The push by big business to weaken organic food standards is underway and the technology for cloning animals for food is already here.
Our projected life spans may be slightly longer, but we're getting sicker sooner. Increasingly, disease intrudes on our lives. The choice to decide what to eat is a fundamental freedom that Americans have enjoyed for over two centuries. Now comes the National Animal Identification System, which may ultimately take that choice away.
What is the NAIS? In the words of the USDA:
"The NAIS is a national program intended to identify all agricultural animals and track them as they come into contact with, or are inter-mixed with, animals other than heardmates from their premises of origin."
The NAIS is comprised, in part, from existing programs designed to register and track domestic agricultural animals. It was officially conceived in 2005 with the publishing of a strategic plan developed by the USDA. Under the plan, aquaculture, llamas and alpacas, cattle/bison, dear and elk, equine, goats, poultry, sheep and swine would be tracked.
The program is divided into three key components:
The first is a requirement that premises where animals are kept be registered with a 7 digit ID number.
The second is that each animal shall be assigned a 15 digit ID. In the case of large producers, groups of animals would be identified with a 13 digit ID.
The third is that a system shall exist whereby the movement of these animals shall be tracked and recorded whenever they leave their point of origin.
The technologies under discussion for how identification and tracking shall be accomplished may include everything from manually documenting an animal's movement to GPS, radio frequency tags (RFID) retinal scans and DNA.
Supporters of the NAIS say that such a program is long overdue. They cite the three key selling points of the NAIS:
It will enable animal health authorities to identify the source of a disease outbreak within a 48 hour period.
It will protect Americans from "intentional and unintentional" acts of sabotage.
It will increase foreign markets for American producers by assuring the rest of the world that American animal products are safe.
What makes the NAIS different from existing programs is its extensive reach into the private lives of family farmers and its potential to put them out of business. The NAIS, as currently proposed, harms the family farmer, homesteader and animal hobbyist in a number of ways:
It represents an unprecedented intrusion into the lives of private citizens by requiring that they record the movement of their animals whenever those animals cross their property line. A horseback ride into the country, for example, would require that the owner notify the local and/or federal government. A stray chicken who wanders onto the neighbor's property would have to be reported as well.
The movement of animals may be tracked via long range electronic surveillance. This may be the first time in modern history that the movements of farmers are under surveillance by the federal government.
The cost of the NAIS to the family farm is undetermined at this point, but no one doubts that it will be high. Once you factor in the cost of identification technology, the application of that technology to your animals, the investment in infrastructure (computers, manpower) to comply with the system, fines and the time spent notifying the government of your animal's movements, the costs may put many farmers out of business.
Compiling a massive database that includes the location and size of a farm, what animals are on that farm and the movement of those animals amounts to de-facto surveillance of the farmers themselves. Imagine how you might feel if you had to report the movements of your dog or cat in this manner.
The USDA makes it clear that the management of the NAIS will require a collaboration of public and private stakeholders. Does this mean that the database(s) that contain so much private information might fall into the hands of a for-profit database management company? What safeguards exist to prevent a private company from selling this information to others? What safeguards exist to prevent the same company from turning the management of the database into a lucrative venture by gouging family farmers?
If you walk your dog, take him to the vet, to the park or a friend's house, how would you feel if you knew you were under constant surveillance? How comfortable would you be knowing that the dates, times and frequency of your movements were now in the hands of a company that markets dog food or home security systems?
At what point, in the interest of 'safety' will the government and industry decide that spying on a farmers' movements is not enough and that regulating how farmers care for their animals is the new goal. This would effectively prevent a small farmer from competing with Big Agriculture in the only way he can, not on price, but in the area of quality? Such a move would mark the end of life as we know it for the family farm.
Refuting the benefits of the NAIS to the small farmer
While some form of the NAIS may make sense for large mega-farms with thousands of animals crammed together in close quarters, it does not make sense for the small farmer. Let's revisit the benefits of the NAIS.
It will enable animal health authorities to identify the source of a disease outbreak within a 48 hour period.
History shows that when things go wrong in the large farm operations, more consumers are subjected to greater risk. Usually the problem isn't identified until the tainted food arrives on someone's dinner plate. In those instances, thousands may be affected. The reach of the family farm is comparatively small where many producers provide food for a very limited number of people.
The NAIS will protect Americans from "intentional and unintentional" acts of sabotage.
If there's one thing 9/11 has taught us it is that size and symbolism matters. A saboteur is unlikely to target a small farm with 20 animals when there are larger operations available that run well over a thousand head.
The NAIS will increase foreign markets for American producers by assuring the rest of the world that American animal products are safe.
Small farms don't generally count foreign countries among their customers and most aren't interested in the foreign market. This claim by the industry and the USDA is particularly egregious in light of what happened two years ago involving, beef producer, Creekstone Farms. According to Creekstone, their Asian customers were leery of U.S. beef absent definitive test results proving that their meat was safe. Creekstone was happy to oblige, announcing that they intended to test every animal. Predictably, the USDA and large meat packers opposed this move with the inexplicable reasoning that testing every animal could not ensure the safety of the food.
Beef industry watchers suggest that what the large meatpackers really objected to was the cost of implementing a program that tests every animal. Instead, they've decided to get behind the NAIS which promises to create a monstrous bureaucracy of red tape and paperwork, a bureaucracy that eliminates the small farmer by way of predatory regulation.
What can you do?
Go to the USDA web site and read the FAQ on the NAIS
Read the excellent article on the NAIS by Mary Zanoni, PhD. In the 2006 January/February issue of Countryside magazine.
Support your local farmers by buying their products.
Contact local small farm organizations in your area and ask how you can help. Donations are nice, but what they really need is for you to make a show of force to your elected representatives. Farmers demanding fair treatment is one thing, but when voting consumers join them, that's what gets a politician's attention.
Choice is at the heart of what it means to be free. Preserving choice in our foods means preserving the family farm. Time is running out.