Why Is Time Magazine Peddling Bullshit on NAIS?

by: Jill Richardson

Fri May 15, 2009 at 17:00:09 PM PDT

The cost of NAIS is high. According to a study USDA released last week, full implementation would cost $228 million annually. But not doing so would be even more expensive, it found: the status quo could cost the country $13.2 billion annually if foreign markets shut out U.S. meat for health reasons.

That's surprisingly honest. They tally the costs of a disease outbreak in U.S. livestock in terms of exports lost, not in terms of food safety or health for Americans. That's because it won't do anything to help Americans at all. Animal health problems are much more of a problem in factory farms (petri dishes for disease, as some call them) where thousands of animals crowd together in their own manure. In these environments, diseases can spread through the population and potentially mutate into a form that humans can contract. Not only that, but any bacteria on a factory farm is likely to be resistant to antibiotics because the animals receive antibiotics in their feed to promote growth and to allow them to survive the factory farm conditions. In other words, the problem is not the lack of an animal ID system, it's factory farms. That's a problem NAIS will make worse, not better, as I will explain below.

As for food safety? Food safety problems in meat happen in slaughterhouses, when - as Eric Schlosser might put it - shit gets into the meat. That occurs after the animal is dead and when the national animal ID system is no longer in effect (NAIS ends when an animal dies... while a cow may live its life with an RFID tag in its ear, the tag does not stay with each chunk of that cow's meat after slaughter).

Below, I've included a May 12 press release from the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund in which they cite a USDA report from April 29, 2009. According to the USDA, NAIS will cost a factory farm $2.48 per cow, whereas a farm with less than 50 cattle would pay $7.17 per animal. The Legal Defense Fund believes that the USDA underestimates the costs to small farmers, but even if the USDA's numbers were accurate, it still shows how unfair such a system will be to small producers. NAIS will make animal health problems worse, not better, by giving factory farms an additional competitive advantage over small producers.

As a consumer, I am outraged that my health and my ability to buy animal products from ethical farmers will be compromised in the name of our export markets. Clearly, the health of Americans and the ability of Americans to buy the highest quality and most humane and sustainable animal products is less important to our government than the ability of people outside this country to purchase crap quality factory farmed meat. We live with the environmental pollution generated by that meat's production and the potential human diseases and loss of the use of human antibiotics resulting from irresponsible factory farming practices, the foreign consumers get cheap meat, and a few corporations get rich. How's that fair?

To write a letter to the editor of Time, write to Letters at Time dot com.

USDA's Own Cost Analysis Shows That the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Will Put Small Farmers Out of Business

Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund Says NAIS Clearly Penalizes Small Farmers

May 12, 2009

FALLS CHURCH, Va.--The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Foundation said today that a cost/benefit study commissioned by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proves that the costs for small farmers to implement the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) could put many of them out of business.

"Most animal health problems are the result of the high-density CAFOs that concentrate thousands of animals in one location, while food safety problems begin at the slaughterhouse where NAIS traceability ends"

"The government's own numbers show that a small farmer will pay at least twice and in some cases nearly three times the costs per animal to participate in NAIS as will the operators of the large confined animal feeding operations (CAFO)," said acting Fund president Pete Kennedy.

The costs for animal identification quoted in the study called "The Benefit-Cost Analysis of the National Animal Identification System," which was released April 29, range from $2.48 per animal for CAFOs with more than 5,000 cattle to $7.17 per animal for producers with less than 50 and who do not currently tag their cattle.
"Not only does the difference illustrate how unfair NAIS will be," Kennedy says, "we think the numbers themselves are substantially underestimated, which will further burden the small farmers to the point of making their way of life untenable."

Kennedy also pointed to the study's unreasonably low estimate of what it would cost a small farmer to hire someone to read the tags since many of them will not be able to afford to purchase the thousand-dollar-plus electronic tag reading equipment.

"The government's time and labor costs for custom tag reading for animal identification are not grounded in reality," Kennedy said. "For instance, the study estimates that a small farmer could hire a third party to travel to his farm to do it for only $1.87 per animal. That estimate seems ridiculously low, especially for farms and ranches located in remote areas."

Fund board member Taaron G. Meikle said that the unrealistic and misleading cost assumptions together with USDA's own statement about the major benefits of NAIS are further evidence that the animal identification program is being implemented to benefit CAFOs at the expense of the small farmer.
Meikle pointed to a fact sheet published by the USDA's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services that lists "key points" from the study. "The first one speaks to the timely recovery of export markets after a disease outbreak and the second says that traceability is necessary to participate in the global marketplace," she said. "Neither of these matter to a small farmer who sells his beef to his neighbors on his farm or at a farmers' market."

Meikle reiterated the Fund's position that implementing NAIS will do little if anything to improve animal health or food safety in the United States. "Most animal health problems are the result of the high-density CAFOs that concentrate thousands of animals in one location, while food safety problems begin at the slaughterhouse where NAIS traceability ends," she said.

"By implementing NAIS-which requires small farmers and ranchers to track each animal individually while allowing CAFOs to track all animals under one blanket Group Identification Number-the USDA would be rewarding factory farms whose practices encourage disease while crippling small farms and the local food movement in the name of increased international sales."

Meikle also noted that the Fund intends to have a presence at the upcoming listening tour on NAIS that the USDA plans to conduct in seven cities beginning May 15. "The USDA is positioning these hearings as a forum to discuss 'stakeholder concerns' about NAIS, when the hearings should be focused on whether or not it is needed at all, and we intend to make sure the voices of small farmers are heard."

The Fund last year filed suit in the U.S. District Court - District of Columbia against the USDA and the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) to stop the implementation of NAIS.
The MDA has implemented the first two stages of NAIS - property registration and animal identification - for all cattle and farmers across the state under the guise of its bovine tuberculosis disease control program. MDA's implementation of the first two steps of NAIS was required in exchange for a grant of money from the USDA.

The Fund's suit asks the court to issue an injunction to stop the implementation of NAIS at both the State and Federal levels by any State or Federal agency. If successful, the suit would halt the program nationwide.

About The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund: The Fund defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of sustainable farmers, and protects consumer access to local, nutrient-dense foods. Concerned citizens can support the Fund by joining at www.farmtoconsumer.org or by contacting the Fund at 703-208-FARM (3276). The Fund's sister organization, the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation (www.farmtoconsumerfoundation.org), works to promote consumer access to local, nutrient-dense food and support farmers engaged in sustainable farm stewardship.