The USDA is Listening

by: Jill Richardson

Mon May 25, 2009 at 14:07:06 PM PDT

If you are a consumer of meat, eggs, or dairy from small farmers, or if you own any livestock - even just a backyard chicken or two for your own personal egg consumption - this is something you want to pay attention to. Farmers feel threatened that they are being unfairly targeted by NAIS, but as a consumer I am also upset because this system threatens my access to healthy, humane, and sustainable animal products.

Also, I want to note that while this diary is largely critical of the USDA based on its animal ID efforts, I do want to commend them for their efforts to listen. I'm not sure if it's just going through the motions so they can say they've listened before cracking down on animal ID, or if they are really interested in what we have to say, but I have heard feedback from SEVERAL sources that the new leadership at the USDA is VERY good at listening.

A rank and file worker at the USDA told me that she's never in her 10+ year career at USDA met a Secretary of Agriculture, but Tom Vilsack attended a recent meeting of her department's and stayed for over an hour and even took questions. Another source told me that the #2 at the USDA, Kathleen Merrigan, opened her door to all attendants of the recent National Organic Standards Board meeting. And when Vilsack was interviewed before about making the currently voluntary NAIS program mandatory, he immediately said that he wanted to listen to the opposition before acting. However, in this case, I think his goal is to listen and then try to convince the opposition that the USDA can implement a mandatory program that addresses their concerns, and that's something I highly doubt.

It's more than just a competitive disadvantage though - it might be enough of a burden financially and in terms of labor that it would put small farms under. A small farmer wrote about her own costs under the system in the NYT here, estimating it would cost her farm $10k, or 10% of their entire operating budget, to implement NAIS.

And to others it's just simply a freedom issue. Why do they need to do this when it's unnecessary? They are not the farms creating animal health or food safety problems in this country, so why are they being penalized more than those who are? They don't want Uncle Sam breathing down their necks with no good reason.

Listening Session Schedule
The first set of listening sessions are well underway. A second set has been announced including one near me, in Riverside, CA on June 18. The first set included: Harrisburg, PA; Pasco, WA; Austin, TX; Birmingham, AL; Louisville, KY; and two upcoming sessions listed below.

May 27 - Storrs, CT
University of Connecticut
Storrs Campus - Bishop Center
One Bishop Circle
Storrs, CT 06269
Room 7

June 1 - Loveland, CO
The Ranch
Larimer County Fairgrounds and
  Events Complex
5280 Arena Circle, Suite 100
Loveland, CO 80538

From JudithM in the comments, the next set of locations are as follows:

Tuesday, June 9: Jefferson City, Missouri
Thursday, June 11: Rapid City, South Dakota
Tuesday. June 16: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Thursday, June 18: Riverside, California
Thursday, June 25: Raleigh, North Carolina
Saturday, June 27: Jasper, Florida

What Happened at the First Listening Sessions
I've heard feedback from 2 of the listening sessions - Texas and Pennsylvania. In Austin, a friend told me that about 150 people showed up. It was mostly farmers and ranchers but some other folks including about a dozen consumers who like to eat ethical, sustainable meat, and about a dozen industry guys (who I'm guessing were pro-NAIS). At each of the sessions thus far, the vast majority of attendees were opponents of NAIS.

Carol Ann Sayle of Boggy Creek in Austin (one of my favorite farms!) wrote her thoughts on the Austin NAIS listening session just before it occurred. She says:

As a peasant--and proud of it--I am one who dreads interference from government in my Hen House. I mean, if the Feds want to send an official to stand guard every night to protect my hens from predators, that would be ok with me. Perhaps I wouldn't have to go out after dark every single night of the year to dig accumulated mud and organic matter out of the Hen House threshold so that the gate will close as tightly as possible. The guard could just sit in an easy chair in the portal and do battle with raccoons and possums from dusk to dawn. Now that's interference that I would welcome!

She says that her chickens are a break even business as far as eggs are concerned. The eggs are very popular with her customers, but she's primarily a vegetable farmer. A vegetable farmer who appreciates the poo de poulet as she puts it (chicken poo) for its fertilizer uses. And a vegetable farmer who happens to have a real soft spot for her chickens. Carol Ann or Boggy Creek would not be the same without the henhouse!

So here's what she says about NAIS:

And what will the NAIS accomplish for us little farmers and back-yard chickenists? It will cause onerous insults to our privacy (GPS identification of our home), more labor (sending reports of every "event" in Aunt Drop Tail's life, like birth, getting into the neighbor's yard, returning to our farm, or death), and cost. I will have to tag every one of our sixty hens and Rusty Roo, our rooster, and buy a reader "gun" to read their "rfid" numbers. In contrast the owner of a "concentration camp" housing 20,000 hens will have one identification number for the entire flock. Talk about unfair!

This law will affect not only the big egg factories (which it's designed for) but also every single one of us who has even one chicken. I think the USDA is going to get an earful here in Austin, the home of the Funky Austin Chicken Tour and hundreds of backyard hen houses. Hope they don't suffer ear strain, but all they have to do is exempt hens like Aunt Drop Tail, Rusty Roo, and Tootie J. Tootums, and we'll cackle and crow happily.

An interesting point to note from the Harrisburg listening session is that several Amish or Mennonite farmers felt that NAIS violates their religious freedoms. Here's some of what was reported from the Harrisburg meeting:

If Thursday's meeting on the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) at the Farm Show Complex was any indication, then finding a solution to the question on a workable system is far from over.

Dozens of passionate and at times angry farmers and industry people showed up for the day-long meeting inside the complex's large banquet room.

While it was the hope of USDA officials to get some consensus on the program, they instead got an earful from people who feel the agency has lost touch with their concerns and feel it will overburden them with paperwork and costs.

Each person was given three minutes to share their thoughts on the program, including one woman who donned a shirt that read "I love my country, it's the government I'm afraid of."

Sorry, USDA. This isn't going to be as easy as you'd hoped. We're not backing down.