USDA's Mandatory Property and Animal Surveillance Program

[Guest guest]

(posted on another group - Anna)

 

Here's some more of the big picture on the agribusiness thing. There

are corporations trying to do everything to thwart the very steps we

need to be doing right now to survive the years ahead. It's come down

to " raise a chicken, go to jail... "

Greg

 

Why You Should Oppose the USDA's Mandatory Property and Animal

Surveillance Program

by herdsire

Sun Oct 16, 2005 at 10:12:23 PM PDT

 

(reprint of article by Mary Zanoni, Ph.D., contact info at the end)

 

Poultry fanciers and keepers of small flocks are facing a grave threat

from a proposed government intrusion into their innocent choice of

pastimes and way of life.

 

For several years, the USDA has been working with the largest-scale

animal industry organizations (for example, the National Pork

Producers, Monsanto Company, and Cargill Meat) to develop a mandatory

" National Animal Identification System " ( " NAIS " ).

 

However, most small scale livestock producers, people who raise

animals for their own food, and people who keep horses or livestock as

companion animals do not know about the USDA's plans.

 

The NAIS will drive small producers out of the market, will make

people abandon raising animals for their own food, will invade

Americans' personal privacy to a degree never before tolerated, will

violate the religious freedom of Americans whose beliefs make it

impossible for them to comply, and will erase the last vestiges of

animal welfare from the production of animal foods.

 

    * herdsire's diary :: ::

*

 

The Problem

 

On April 25, 2005, the USDA released " Draft Program Standards " ( " St. " )

and a " Draft Strategic Plan " ( " Plan " ) concerning the NAIS.  If you

think the description below sounds too bizarre to be true, please go

here , read the Standards and Plan, and check the citations.

By January 1, 2008, the NAIS will be mandatory.  (Plan, pp. 2, 10, 17.)

 

Every person who owns even one horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep,

pigeon, or virtually any livestock animal, will be forced to register

their home, including owner's name, address, and telephone number, and

keyed to Global Positioning System coordinates for satellite

monitoring, in a giant federal database under a 7-digit " premises ID

number. "   (St., pp. 3-4, 10-12; Plan, p. 5.)

 

Every animal will have to be assigned a 15-digit ID number, also to be

kept in a giant federal database.  The form of ID will most likely be

a tag or microchip containing a Radio Frequency Identification Device,

designed to be read from a distance.  (Plan, p. 10; St., pp. 6, 12,

20, 27-28.)

 

The plan may also include collecting the DNA of every animal and/or a

retinal scan of every animal.  (Plan, p.13.)

 

The owner will be required to report:  the birthdate of an animal, the

application of every animal's ID tag, every time an animal leaves or

enters the property, every time an animal loses a tag, every time a

tag is replaced, the slaughter or death of an animal, or if any animal

is missing.  Such events must be reported within 24 hours.  (St., pp.

12-13, 17-21.)

 

Third parties, such as veterinarians, will be required to report

" sightings " of animals.  (St., p. 25.)  In other words, if you call a

vet to your property to treat your horse, cow, or any other animal,

and the vet finds any animal without the mandatory 15-digit

computer-readable ID, the vet may be required to report you.

 

If you do not comply, the USDA will exercise " enforcement " against

you.  (St., p. 7; Plan, p. 17.)  The USDA has not yet specified the

nature of " enforcement, " but presumably it will include imposing fines

and/or seizing your animals.

There are no exceptions -- under the USDA plan, you will be forced to

register and report even if you raise animals only for your own food

or keep horses for draft or for transportation.

 

The Negative Effects

 

Eradication of Small Farms - People with just a few meat animals or

40-cow dairies are already living on the edge financially.  The USDA

plan will force many of them to give up farming.

 

Loss of the True Security of Organic and Local Foods - The NAIS is

touted by the USDA and agricorporations as a way to make our food

supply " secure " against diseases or terrorism.  However, most people

instinctively understand that real food security comes from raising

food yourself or buying from a local farmer you actually know.  The

USDA plan will only kill off more local sources of production and

further promote the giant industrial methods which cause many food

safety and disease problems.

 

Extreme Damage to Personal Privacy - Legally, livestock animals are a

form of personal property.  It is unprecedented for the United States

government to conduct large-scale computer-aided surveillance of its

citizens simply because they own a common type of property.  (The only

exceptions are registration of motor vehicles and guns, due to their

clear inherent dangers - but they are registered at the state level,

not by the federal government.)  The NAIS would actually subject the

owner of a chicken to far more surveillance than the owner of a gun.

Surveillance of small-scale livestock owners is like the government

subjecting people to surveillance for owning a couch, a TV, a

lawnmower. 

 

What about non-livestock animals? 

 

Will the government next want to register all cats, dogs, and

parakeets, and demand the global positioning coordinates of their

owners' houses and apartments?

 

Insult to Animal Welfare - The NAIS is the ultimate objectification of

higher, sensitive living creatures, treating individual animals as if

they were cans of peas with a bar code.  Many people who raise their

own animals or buy from small, local producers do so because they are

very troubled by industrial-scale production of chickens, cattle, and

pigs.  These people will be forced either to sacrifice their personal

privacy to government surveillance, or to stop raising their own food

by humane standards.

 

Burden on Religious Freedom - Many adherents of plain (and other)

faiths raise their own food animals and use animals in farming and

transportation because their beliefs require them to live this way.

Such people obviously cannot comply with the USDA's computerized,

technology-dependent system.  The NAIS will force these people to

violate their religious beliefs.

 

What You Can Do

 

Small-scale keepers of poultry and other livestock can take action to

create an effective movement in opposition to the USDA/agricorporate

plan.  First, small-scale livestock owners should not participate in

any so-called " voluntary " state or federal program to register farms

or animals.  The USDA is using farmers' supposed willingness to enter

a " voluntary " program as a justification for making the program

mandatory.  (See Plan, " Executive Summary " and pp. 7-8.)

 

Small farmers and livestock owners can also help inform and organize

others.  The USDA presently does not plan to finalize its rules for

mandatory ID until the summer of 2006.  There is still time to oppose

this plan.

Several farmers and other concerned citizens have joined together to

form FARM for LIFETM, a public-interest organization to support the

rights of small and subsistence farmers and consumers of organic,

natural, and local foods.  FARM for LIFE's first project is to stop

the USDA plan for mandatory animal ID.

 

The organization will publish a newsletter three times a year (first

publication scheduled for November 1, 2005), to inform citizens of

developments concerning animal ID and other issues vital to the small

farming and natural/organic food communities.  Newsletter rs

will also be sent information at appropriate times on how to contact

lawmakers and the USDA to oppose animal ID.  In addition, FARM for

LIFETM will coordinate with other existing interest groups to mount an

effective campaign against animal ID.

Please help STOP animal ID and support FARM for LIFETby subscribing to

the newsletter: $25 Individual Subscription (1 year), $40

Institutional Subscription (1 year), Please help with an additional

donation in any amount. Make your check payable to " Farm for Life " and

mail to: Farm for Life, PO Box 501, Canton, New York 13617.

------------

I have reprinted this article by: 

 

Mary Zanoni, Ph.D. (Cornell), J.D. (Yale), Executive Director of Farm

for LifeTM

P.O. Box 501, Canton, New York 13617