| For several years now, USDA has been pushing for implementation of the NAIS in the USA. Originally it was slated to become fully operational by the end of 2009 for over 30 species kept for animal agriculture and aquaculture. Everything from poultry, ratites, fowl, hoofstock, cameids, fish, shellfish, and some crustaceans. Just about any animal you might find on a farm except dogs, cats and rabbits. Many individuals and organizations have been fighting to keep the NAIS voluntary with varying degrees of success. Mostly I think all it's done has been to delay mandatory participation, but you have to do what you have to do, and it almost looked like we were going to enjoy a modicum of success.
On the 15th of April, 2009, Ag Sec. Vilsack held a round table with producer groups and others, including Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm in Vermont and also proprietor of NoNAIS.org, and Judith McGeery of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance as well as Dr. Thornsberry from R-CALF USA. During the roundtable, Vilsack stated that he was interested in coming up with a mandatory NAIS that would be acceptable to everyone.
I was alarmed when I heard him talk about a Mandatory NAIS, but I figured, hey, perhaps they'll just make it mandatory for people selling into the national/international commodities systems and let the small producers selling locally/direct to the consumers, homesteaders and hobbyists have the option of participating if they so choose. Well, maybe not....
On the 5th of May, a public hearing was held on NAIS by the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry along with the Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology. Quite a handle, hmm? Anytime I hear that DHS is involved in something like this I get skittish.
The hearing was broadcast live over the internet for those of us who couldn't make it to DC, and I tuned in and watched the whole hearing. While there is no transcript available yet, you can download the texts of the opening statements made by the panelists here. If you are concerned about NAIS as a mandatory program, I would advise you to get and read the texts. They will give you a pretty good idea of just where this is heading right now. During the hearing, I never once heard that there was any distinction between large commercial, small commercial selling direct to consumers, homesteaders or hobbyists. All I ever heard was that everyone wants a mandatory NAIS. For everyone.
During the testimony and the Q&A I heard that in the event of an FMD outbreak in this country, we can't have movement stopages to contain disease, we can't stop commerce, that NAIS if fully implemented, will give USDA and other agencies and responders rapid traceout on all at risk animals, etc. I even heard the speculation that if we just had NAIS it would have enabled our trading partners' markets to stay open to pork from US producers during this current H1N1 outbreak, which, in my opinion is utter lunacy. In the first place, the current H1N1 influenza is a human disease, and even though pigs can apparently get it, the actual host that's hauling the thing all over the planet at the moment are people, not pigs. I don't see any of our trading partners closing their borders to American or Canadian tourists, business travelers, etc.
Also, during the 2007 outbreak of FMD in the UK, everyone closed their borders to imports of any succeptable animal from the UK, even the light lambs from Scotland, which is about as far away from Surrey England, site of the original outbreak, as you can get and still be in the UK. It wasn't due to a lack of tracability, the UK has long had a robust tracability system for livestock. It was due to the fact that those countries, including the USA, know that tracability systems always have flaws. Nothing's 100%.
The truth of the matter is that in an outbreak, our trading partners follow OIE (Office International de Epizoote, aka the World Animal Health Organization) guidlines, and those guidlines recomend that you close your markets to at risk animals and materials untill an outbreak of a disease of concern is completely stamped out, especially if you don't allow vaccination and you don't allow the import of vaccinatied animals (for the disease of concern). OIE also recomends specific waiting periods after a disease has been stamped out, before animal movements are allowed within the country affected, and certian methods for placing and testing sentinal animals. NAIS will not cause countries to open their markets to USA produced animals and unprocessed meats before the ammount of time those guidlines recomend. It took months for the US to allow animals and animal products from anywhere in the UK after the last suspect animals had been killed, and it was almost a full year from the start of the outbreak that the this country opened it's boarders to FMD susceptable animals or meats from Surrey England. USDA waited for the full time the OIE recomends after the last suspect animal is killed. England has a very robust tracability system, almost or as good as NAIS, and it was still 6 months after the last detection of virus in Surrey that our markets were opened. It appears that tracability wasn't what helped them, it was the lack of evidence of disease. RFID ear tags and a fancy database won't help with that, it takes as long as it takes.
If we really want to keep the people of this country and their animals safe we need to educate those people about disease, so they know what the early signs are. We need to have enough inspectors at our borders, ensure that they are trained properly, and have all of the resources they need to do their job, a very solemn and vital job to protect all of us and our animals from the introduction of a FAD into the USA, either intentionally or inadvertently. Most importantly, and this is key, USDA needs to earn back the trust and respect that many livestock and poultry owners used to have in the department and its leadership. Something that USDA couldn't have damaged more over the last 4 years if it had intentionally tried to.
By the way, you may have noticed that when refering to livestock, I refrained from refering to them as 'the national herd' or 'the national flock' or 'the national school of fish'. There's a reason for that. Those animals, with the exception of most wildlife and mustangs in this country don't belong to the country. These animals are private property. The don't belong to the US, they are not part of a 'National Herd'. My stock doesn't belong to you, and your stock doesn't belong to me, and none of our animals belong to Dr. John Clifford, Seceretary Vilsack, or any of the other panelists or committee members at that public hearing. The United States of America doesn't import or export anything, unless it's a federal agency or department doing the import/export. It's individuals and companies in the USA that do the importing and exporting. Saying that our animals are part of the national herd or the national flock, sounds to me like someone is trying to place my private property and yours into the commons of this country. That dog won't hunt, as they say in the vernacular.
I sat through the whole public hearing on the 5th of May. I took notes during the first panel. I didn't bother taking notes during the second panel because it was pretty much just more of the same that I heard during the first panel. All panelists submitted text copies of their opening statements. I would highly recomend downloading and reading them if you are concerned about how the NAIS will probably be implemented in the near future (over then next few years) as well as reading the current business plan to advance animal disease tracability, and the benefit/cost analysis that was reseased by USDA in the past week or so.
For more info on the NAIS situation -
Written testimony of panelists scroll down to the May 5th Public Hearing
My notes on the first panel and the questions/answer part of the hearing
A Business Plan to Advance Animal Disease Tracability
Overview of the NAIS Benefit/Cost Analysis
NAIS Benifit/Cost Analysis
NAIS listening sessions/meetings around the country organized by USDA and feedback links
Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry members
Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology |
