Sandhusker
Well-known member
Premises Registration, the USDA Way
At the end of October, an announcement came out of the USDA that the national animal identification program was going to be voluntary. At that time, we expressed our skepticism. We pointed out the USDA’s lack of credibility as evidence that its announcement of a permanently voluntary system was difficult to swallow. Now we have even more evidence of the USDA’s real intentions.
All farmers and ranchers recently received in the mail a document entitled the “2006 Agricultural Identification Survey.” The instructions for the survey indicate that a response is required to the survey under penalty of law. Failure to respond carries a $100 penalty while providing false information cost $500. It is interesting that the information requested in the survey is identical to that needed for the premise registration part of the national id program.
Supposedly, this survey comes because of the USDA taking the burden of a farm census away from the Census Bureau. But now a different federal agency will have access to the collected information. The USDA is notorious for leaks, whereas the Census Bureau has always carefully guarded the individual information it has collected. In addition, the timing of survey is suspect. The USDA was supposed to take over the farm census in 1998, taking a census that year and every five years thereafter. According to schedule, a census should have been taken in 1998, in 2003, and not again until 2008. They have not exercised this function until now. Why not?
It seems more than mere coincidence that according to the USDA’s original mandatory animal id plan premises registration would be completed by 2007. This seems like another back door plan to get a job done under the radar and away from public notice. Thanks to an article by Henry Lamb in WorldNetDaily, the word is out.
At the end of October, an announcement came out of the USDA that the national animal identification program was going to be voluntary. At that time, we expressed our skepticism. We pointed out the USDA’s lack of credibility as evidence that its announcement of a permanently voluntary system was difficult to swallow. Now we have even more evidence of the USDA’s real intentions.
All farmers and ranchers recently received in the mail a document entitled the “2006 Agricultural Identification Survey.” The instructions for the survey indicate that a response is required to the survey under penalty of law. Failure to respond carries a $100 penalty while providing false information cost $500. It is interesting that the information requested in the survey is identical to that needed for the premise registration part of the national id program.
Supposedly, this survey comes because of the USDA taking the burden of a farm census away from the Census Bureau. But now a different federal agency will have access to the collected information. The USDA is notorious for leaks, whereas the Census Bureau has always carefully guarded the individual information it has collected. In addition, the timing of survey is suspect. The USDA was supposed to take over the farm census in 1998, taking a census that year and every five years thereafter. According to schedule, a census should have been taken in 1998, in 2003, and not again until 2008. They have not exercised this function until now. Why not?
It seems more than mere coincidence that according to the USDA’s original mandatory animal id plan premises registration would be completed by 2007. This seems like another back door plan to get a job done under the radar and away from public notice. Thanks to an article by Henry Lamb in WorldNetDaily, the word is out.