| Speaking for the National Milk Producers Federation was Karen Jordan. Like most of the speakers at the hearing, she's a vet. She owns a farm with 145 cos in North Carolina and she practices as a vet as well. Unfortunately, she called for mandatory animal identification. She compares animal ID to license plates on cars - they don't prevent car accidents but they do give you an idea of where all the cars are and where they have been. True, but cars don't have babies or get eaten by coyotes as noted by the NYT op ed I alluded to above.
Jordan came out as clearly pro-Big Brother by saying the National Milk Producers Federation is for:
- "the establishment of a mandatory national animal identification system (NAIS) at the earliest possible date for reporting livestock movements in the U.S.;
- adoption of International Organization for Standardization (ISO)-compliant radio frequency identification device ear tags for the cattle industry; and
- one centrally-managed national database, which facilitates ready access to essential tracking data by all state and federal animal health authorities on a real-time basis, while safeguarding producer confidentiality."
This is all very bad.
Next up - the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Speaking for them was Ron DeHaven, also a vet. He's another vote for a mandatory national animal ID system. He compares NAIS to phone books and notes that individual animal ID systems are used daily by producers. That may be so, but a phone book does not track each individual American's movements and you CAN choose to be unlisted from your phone book!
What surprises me is that fact that the proponents of NAIS keep mentioning the need for traceability in order to contain any disease within 48 hours. R-CALF's testimony showed that in cases where we DO have animal ID in place (for animals entering from Mexico, for example), when diseases have occurred we STILL haven't been able to trace them the way we'd like to. In other words, NAIS won't work. Why does everyone ignore this evidence and claim that it will work?
Next up was the Australian, Rob Williams, Agriculture Counsellor at Australia's DC Embassy. He spoke about Australia's version of NAIS, NLIS - the National Livestock ID System. He said they've had a mandatory ID system for cattle since 1967 and they need it because they rely on export markets - 2/3 of agricultural products are exported. It's mandatory for cattle and they are working on other species - sheep, goats, pigs, and alpacas.
Here's my question: If NAIS is so important for exports, then why must it be forced upon small farmers who don't want to export their livestock or meat? Why can't it be voluntary (truly voluntary, NOT like it is now) on the whole, but mandatory if you wish to export products?
The last speaker spoke on behalf of the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency. And honestly? I read the first few sentences and then laughed and quit reading. Any claims from Canada that an animal ID system is working to prevent disease is, well, laughable. What about the mad cow disease that showed up there? And then how about the cow with mad cow that came from Canada to the U.S.? What's that tell you about this big, expensive, burdensome, crazy system's ability to prevent the outbreak or spread of disease??
In my opinion, this hearing did not go well. Three votes for a mandatory NAIS system - Milk, Vets, and Australia. Two votes for voluntary - the USDA and Beef (NCBA). One vote against NAIS, from R-CALF. This is bad. |
