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THE PEOPLE VS. THE NAIS GANG

PORKER

Well-known member
Sunday, June 24, 2007
BATTLE LINES DRAWN IN MISSOURI: THE PEOPLE VS. THE NAIS GANG

Bill to stop NAIS assassinated to prevent passage
From The Eco-logic Powerhouse
By C. Russell Wood
June 15, 2007

A bill that would have prevented the National Animal Identification System from being implemented by the state of Missouri was assassinated on its way to a final vote as the legislative session ended. Was it the victim of a lone madman, or was it shot down on orders from the NAIS Gang who had no other way of stopping its passage into law?

A close look into the matter reveals several truths:

The Missouri state legislature was strongly in favor of a bill to prevent NAIS from ever being mandated in the state. They had voted 137-to-10 in the House and 29-to-2 in the Senate on bills to prevent that very thing.

This was not a Republican/Democrat issue. Not even a city/country divide. There was broad support state-wide.

The opposition came from a group becoming known as the NAIS Gang, made up of Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri Cattlemen's Association, MFA, Inc., and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. These groups can no longer hide in the shadows, as they are the ones who testified against the bills, urged legislators to vote against them and lobbied hard in the Capitol to allow NAIS in the state.

Those working hard along with key Senators and Representatives to stop NAIS were mainly property rights advocates, who are not professional lobbyists. They were there walking the halls of the Capitol because they strongly believed in what they were doing, not because they were on a payroll and it was their job. In a House committee hearing, Mike John, outgoing president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association who is beef marketing manager and head of the MFA health track beef alliance for MFA Inc., said those wanting to stop NAIS were either animal rights activists, environmental extremists, or owners of sick cattle.
Regardless of Mike John's description of those wanting to stop NAIS, his side was far behind where it counted - in votes of both Houses. But the Gang had an ace in the hole. John Quinn is chairman of the House AG. Committee. All bills passing through the House dealing with NAIS had to go through his hands, and as committee chairman he had a stranglehold on them. A bill by Representative Mike Deathrow was granted a hearing in Quinn's committee and was passed through only after being amended by Quinn to change the wording from stopping NAIS, to essentially permitting NAIS. Bills offered by Representatives Van Kelly and Jim Whorton were never advanced in Quinn's domain.

But a bill sponsored by Senator Chuck Purgason sailed through the Senate, and was sent to the House where it, too, ended up in Quinn's grip. After a sham hearing before his committee (where Mike John made his remarks) Quinn striped Purgason's bill of its language, replaced it with his reworked substitute for Dethrow's bill and added 90 some pages, which included a bill Farm Bureau was having trouble getting through the Senate. Now Purgason's bill number was on matters totally opposite or unrelated to his intentions.

And, there is more. An amendment was attached to an omnibus agriculture bill which once again would stop NAIS in Missouri. This passed the House 137-to-10, but had to go to a joint House/Senate conference committee. At this point, those wanting to stop NAIS were asked to try to work out differences with the NAIS Gang. This seemed a little strange, seeing which side had 93 percent of the votes on the floor. But most differences were worked out to the point that everyone was assured that the final version would be brought forward for a final vote. That was midway of the final week.

But by the next day, it had all changed. To the dismay of all the legislators and volunteers who had worked long and hard on the issue, John Quinn shot it down to prevent it from ever coming to a vote. It was obvious the bill would pass if given a vote. The only way the NAIS Gang could stop it was to kill it by whatever means available.

Scruples bedamned. Ethics bedamned. Will of the people and the Missouri legislature bedamned. This Gang wants the National Animal Identification System put into effect, and they are willing to go to any lengths to get it done.

But, there is an equally determined group aiming to stop it. It's called the public. MFA Inc.'s and Missouri Cattlemen's Mike John is about to become better acquainted with the public - which he seems to have never met.
As property rights advocate Ray Cunio said,"They think they threw water on our fire. Instead they threw gasoline."

We have only just begun.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
This is one of the better articles I have seen. It does what more articles need to do---do the research and then assign responsibility to individuals who are selling out the public interest. These politicians rarely have repercussions and even if they don't get elected again, they get a lucrative lobbyist job to exploit the contacts they made while in government.
 

QUESTION

Well-known member
Maybe it just don't understand but what is wrong with a Nat.ID system? Is it a bad thing to have a system to track where a sick cow comes from ? I do understand the whole liabilities thing but Just some food for thought for those property rightguys. look at the canadian tracking system it is controlled by a third party and a application has to be made to get the imfo required so the system cannot be abused. And it can only be acessed for animal health reasons. The canadian system seems to working very well so why not adopt it in the US?
 

PORKER

Well-known member
So ,can you go to the Canadian cattle ID site and do a search on the heifier you have in the catch chute right now,I don't think so.You couldn't even tell if the RFID tag is liget or it is or was a male or female by the tag number.
 

Bill

Well-known member
The CCIA ID program and protocol has been so successful for cattle that their database also includes the national ID program for sheep and bison in Canada. Interestingly, Wisconsin has contracted with the CCIA to use their protocol and database. That may be a forerunner of how the ID issue will evolve in the U.S., since more American states have been in contact with the CCIA to see how it works and how they might follow Wisconsin’s lead.

Common sense would recognize the lead Canada has now developed in this whole area and it should behoove the USDA and U.S. cattle producer organizations to consider some sort of an arrangement with the CCIA. With today’s ever-evolving computer technology, it doesn’t really matter whether 10 million cattle are registered in a database or 100 million.

But that is unlikely. Politically, it would not sit well with some U.S. producer organizations to use a foreign agency, even if they are your best friend. Besides, government agencies are prone to re-inventing the wheel. I expect the USDA has already spent millions of dollars trying to come up with a national livestock ID system. Millions more will no doubt be spent as various parties wrestle over who will control what, when and how.

Pity really, especially for the U.S. taxpayer, when all the American cattle industry has to do is take advantage of what is happening up here in the Great White North .

Why don't they use your system Porky?
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
QUESTION said:
Maybe it just don't understand but what is wrong with a Nat.ID system? Is it a bad thing to have a system to track where a sick cow comes from ? I do understand the whole liabilities thing but Just some food for thought for those property rightguys. look at the canadian tracking system it is controlled by a third party and a application has to be made to get the imfo required so the system cannot be abused. And it can only be acessed for animal health reasons. The canadian system seems to working very well so why not adopt it in the US?

The people pushing ID only had an idea that had more questions than answers. It wasn't laid out who would control the data base, how the data would be collected, what equipment would be used, how much anything would cost, etc... They were also talking that animals would have to be tracked each time they changed pastures. Their whole idea is rough.

On top of that, many states can already track animals via their brands systems and what not. In those cases, why subject them to the costs and hassles of a completely new system when theirs are working fine?

I also question why they claim they need to be able to track a sick animal to the ranch when they have the capabilities to easily track a bad batch of ground beef to the packer and they won't do it. I don't think safety is their concern as they're telling us it is.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
They already are as per Mr.Kanitz see this web site;
www.alaskacertified.org , it has been funded by USDA for COOL,FDA 2002 Bioterrorism law and NOAA fish law.
 

Bill

Well-known member
PORKER said:
They already are as per Mr.Kanitz see this web site;
www.alaskacertified.org , it has been funded by USDA for COOL,FDA 2002 Bioterrorism law and NOAA fish law.

If you don't know the answer then maybe you could ask Mr. Kanitz why Wisconsin has partnered with the CCIA.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
So ,can you go to the Canadian cattle ID site and do a search on the heifier you have in the catch chute right now,I don't think so.

On top of that, many states can already track animals via their brands systems and what not. In those cases, why subject them to the costs and hassles of a completely new system when theirs are working fine?

Ditto
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Say Bill, Run this RFID tag thru the search engine at ScoringAg ,I sold the RFID tags 985120022956391

QC Data International ,Calagary Alberta needs to look at more advanced database structures to compete with ScoringAg.
 

Bill

Well-known member
PORKER said:
Say Bill, Run this RFID tag thru the search engine at ScoringAg ,I sold the RFID tags 985120022956391

Say Porky, why don't you answer the question? You're the one who keeps chirping and using this site as a sales/promo tool. Tell us why Wisconsin would even consider using Canada's NATIONAL cattle ID database if it is as inferior as you try to make out.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Look at the difference of data thats public with this RFID number.
985120022956391

You can even see it! And its avaiable within milliseconds.
 

QUESTION

Well-known member
Porker, Sand what is the deal ? . You don't want a system that works? Some of you want a system that tracks individual animal footsteps in a pasture but that imfo can't be shared with others. I think you guys have a big decision to make but a national manditory ID system controlled by a third party that would only give confidential imfo in cases of a public health concerns is the way to go. If you don't want a tracking system to make sure a animal can't be traced back to the owner you will pay for it in international markets. You can keep making excuses or set up a system that works like the one in canada. It is your choice. Some people want to complain for the sake of complaining.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
I agree Quest ,the one system that everyone wants is one that is cheap,it works dayin and dayout, and I can retrieve the data within a second on the kill floor at or at my meat fabrication plant to do segeration on the fly and the government is kept out unless their is a event .Ranchers want data now ,not when they are in the office. They want it on the ipod or phone PDA where they stand.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
QUESTION said:
Porker, Sand what is the deal ? . You don't want a system that works? Some of you want a system that tracks individual animal footsteps in a pasture but that imfo can't be shared with others. I think you guys have a big decision to make but a national manditory ID system controlled by a third party that would only give confidential imfo in cases of a public health concerns is the way to go. If you don't want a tracking system to make sure a animal can't be traced back to the owner you will pay for it in international markets. You can keep making excuses or set up a system that works like the one in canada. It is your choice. Some people want to complain for the sake of complaining.

I think you missed the part where I said many states already have a system that works. I also pointed out that we haven't been presented with a system that works yet - only a concept full of holes.
 

Mike

Well-known member
I also pointed out that we haven't been presented with a system that works yet - only a concept full of holes.

The system that was proposed by the USDA (actually conceived by some cattlemen and number crunchers) in early 2006 was very workable. I read the 100+ pages of material from asshole to appetite and was impressed by the thought that went into it.

The problem is cattlemen never want to change anything. They act like they have something to hide.

ID will take the excuses away from the packers on COOL.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
ID will take the excuses away from the packers on COOL.

That right on the Money Mike, Local butcher houses now need a system to make sure COOL works for them. I am having a good time selling The Best system to do COOL .Alot of small plants thought it (COOL)would never happen,guess what ,the Democrats got in office . Now everyone wants to buy software.Even sold a small grocery chain a full COOL recordkeeping system. Well even your peanut industry will need COOL records if the drought dosen't take its toll.
 
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