December 1 Action Alert: USDA Memo Mandating Premises Registration Creates Conflicting Reports!  Read more about it in the article below.

September 17, 2008: FARFA joined with fifty-four other organizations to send a letter to Congress opposing funding for NAIS and asking Congress to keep NAIS out of any food safety bills.  Read more here 

ARTICLE:  The Government’s Doublespeak on  the National Animal Identification System

The USDA’s implementation of the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS, has taken government doublespeak to a new level.  The USDA’s original plan for NAIS, released in May 2005, called for the program to become mandatory after an initial voluntary period. In fact, the first two stages – premises registration and animal identification – were supposed to become mandatory in January 2008, followed by animal tracking in January 2009.  When a public outcry ensued, the USDA changed the timeline and called for “100% voluntary participation,” an absurd concept.  Chastised yet again by animal owners, the USDA then stated, in November 2007, that NAIS was “voluntary at the federal level.”  At the same time, the USDA issued guidelines for funding states that implemented NAIS.  The USDA stated that it would fund mandatory state programs, data mining efforts, and other non-voluntary methods of getting people into NAIS.  Throughout this process, USDA officials have made statements along the lines of: “People are overreacting.  You shouldn’t rely on what the documents say, you should ask us what we meant.”

In the course of the last two years, the USDA’s mis-use of the word “voluntary” has been amply demonstrated.  Wisconsin and Indiana have openly mandated premises registration, while other states have used creative coercive tactics. Tennessee and North Carolina state agriculture departments denied drought-stricken farmers disaster relief if they were not registered in NAIS.  Children were kicked out of the Colorado state fair for not being registered.  Ranchers in Idaho found themselves registered in NAIS without their knowledge or consent after filling out paperwork to keep their rights to their brands, while horse owners in New York were similarly registered after taking their horses in for routine disease testing. 

The USDA took another step along its twisted path this fall, issuing a memo to its Veterinary Services Management Team that requires NAIS premises registration for various disease program activities.  The memo includes activities such as vaccinations, testing, and applying official ear tags, for programs for every livestock species, ranging from brucellosis to scrapies to equine infectious anemia.  Under this memo, people who refuse to have their farms registered would be registered against their will.  Animal owners who take government-required steps, such as testing and vaccinating their animals, would find themselves enrolled in the NAIS premises registration database with or without their consent.

USDA has failed to follow any of the administrative procedures required to create enforceable regulations when it issued this new step in NAIS.  And, indeed, even the proponents of NAIS have apparently realized the lack of authority for this latest step.  The U.S. Animal Health Association, while supporting a mandatory NAIS, has passed a resolution calling on the USDA to show its legal authority for the memo.  The American Horse Council, another NAIS proponent, has tried to reassure horse associations that the memo doesn’t really mean what it says.  The AHC claims the memo was about what would happen in the future – despite the clear, present tense of the memo’s language.  Some USDA field offices and state animal health authorities have claimed ignorance of the memo’s contents, while others have said that it will not be enforced.

Regardless of its implementation or enforceability, however, the memo reveals USDA’s plan for NAIS.  Here are some excerpts:

• USDA is requiring NAIS premises registration “as the sole and standard location identifier” for activities relating to any disease regulated through the Code of Federal Regulations, for emerging or re-emerging disease, and for foreign animal diseases (p.1);
• People who refuse to voluntarily register their properties in NAIS will be registered against their will: “If the person responsible for the premises chooses not to complete the form to register his/her premises, either the animal health official or an accredited veterinarian will collect the defined data fields.”  (p.2);
• The memo applies to federal animal health authorities, state animal health authorities, and private veterinarians who are accredited for federally regulated diseases (p.1);
• Any veterinarian who is accredited for a federally regulated disease is subject to the USDA’s edict to involuntarily register his or her clients: “A PIN is required for activities performed at a premises by a State or Federal animal health authority or an accredited veterinarian for any disease that is regulated through Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations.” (p.4);
• The listed disease programs for which a PIN will be required include programs that cover every species of animal, from tuberculosis and brucellosis programs in cattle to the scrapie program for sheep and goats to equine infectious anemia in horses (p.5); and
• The activities that will result in being registered in NAIS include vaccinations, diagnostic tests, certifications (other than certificates of veterinary inspection), and the application of official eartags or backtags (p.5).

As they have done throughout the implementation of NAIS, USDA officials and pro-NAIS industry groups are yet again saying: “We didn’t really mean what the document says.”  First it’s mandatory, then it’s voluntary, then it’s up to the states, then the states have to do what USDA says, then it’s mandatory again, then it’s voluntary.  Over and over, the USDA issues documents, and then claims that the public is overreacting to what those documents clearly state.  It is long past time for Congress and the President to rein in this agency.

Older News:    

Good news from the Senate Appropriations Committee!

The Senate Appropriations Committee's report has been released, and it does not include the provision linking the School Lunch program to NAIS, or any other provision for mandatory NAIS, as far as we can tell! 
 
The Committee did include some funding for NAIS: approximately $9.8 million for NAIS itself and $3.2 million for related programs (WLIC, FAIR, and RFID research).  Although we would have liked to see all funding stopped, this is still a significant improvement over last year's Senate recommendation of approximately $24 million for NAIS and NAIS-related programs!
 
Thank you to all those who called their Senators and made their voices heard!

July 2008: 81 organizations, including FARFA, signed a letter to the House Appropriations Committee asking them not to link NAIS to the School Lunch Program. 

US Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chairwoman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, has inserted pro-NAIS provisions into the Agriculture Appropriations bill for 2009.  According to her press release, the bill would require USDA to purchase meat products for the School Lunch Program from livestock premises registered with National Animal Identification System beginning in July 2009.  This is a back-door method for mandating NAIS through the power of the purse strings.  The bill also provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million or about $4.8 million above 2008.  The House Agriculture Appropriations bill is stuck in Committee and is not expected to move ahead in 2008.

Talking Points

In addition to the message above, here are some more talking points about why the NAIS provisions in the Agriculture Appropriations bill should be taken out.  Pick one or two to focus on, and put them in your own words!
 
*  This bill uses the government's power to economically coerce farmers into NAIS. That is not a "voluntary" program.

*  This bill throws good money after bad, supporting a program that is not sound economically or scientifically. 
    *  USDA has presented no science to back up its claims that NAIS will address livestock diseases.
    *  The USDA has never completed a cost/benefit analysis to show that NAIS is worthwhile.
    *  NAIS will not improve food safety.  The massive Hallmark/Westland beef recall this past year was caused by the slaughterhouse employees' failure to follow existing regulations for handling "downer" cows.  Mandating NAIS on cattle producers will not make anybody obey the laws we already have.
    *  NAIS will not help Americans compete in the world market.  If it is mandatory, or even adopted by most producers, those who participate will not get premiums for their meat.

*  Pouring more money into the program is a waste of precious tax dollars that could be better spent on safety inspections at packing and processing plants, where most food contamination occurs.
 
* Using the school lunch program to force farmers into NAIS undermines the growing farm-to-school program, which helps children get fresh, local, and sustainably raised foods.  Local farmers should not be forced into an unpopular program that has nothing to do with food quality or safety in order to provide food for our children.
 
*  The claim that USDA has achieved 33% of its Premises Registration goal is wrong.  USDA computes its percentage of premises registered based on farmers who answer the agriculture census.  Hundreds of thousands of additional horse owners, families with a few chickens, suburbanites with a pet pot-bellied pig, and others like them are technically covered by NAIS, but USDA ignores them when it reports its supposed successes to Congress.  The vast majority of people who will be impacted by NAIS either oppose it or are still unaware of it!
 
* NAIS has never been specifically approved by Congress.  This massive program, which will impact millions of people, should be addressed through full and open debate, not snuck in through appropriations.

More Information

DeLauro's press release is posted at: http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DeLauroSubMarkup06-19-08.pdf  See pages 6-7 for discussion of the NAIS provisions in the bill.
 
DeLauro has supported tracking farms for some time.  Her food safety bill from 2007 included tracking all food from its origin to consumer's plates.  Her press release on the school lunch initiative states, "We will also strengthen Animal ID and the National School Lunch Program including language to provide market-based incentives to strengthen both the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and the National School Lunch Program."
 
The press release makes it clear that DeLauro supports moving the entire NAIS program forward: "The bill's report details specific implementation milestones to shine the spotlight on APHIS's delivery of NAIS.  The Committee worked in consultation with the agency, and we largely derived these performance measures from the agency's own NAIS business plan.  We are going to move well beyond tracking the number of premises registered and follow more closely how APHIS is using the money. The NAIS milestones include (1) 48-hour traceability standards for specific species; and (2) program administration deliverables."

The actual bill language is not yet available.  We will send a follow up alert when it is.

This is going to be another hard fight to win.  Several key committee members in both the House and the Senate support a mandatory NAIS, and will be glad for anything that moves us towards that.  So we need everyone to call!  Tell your friends and neighbors what is happening, and ask them to call also.
 
Let your voice be heard!

Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
www.farmandranchfreedom.org
866-687-6452