[CitizensTruth] Speaking of SH**y stuff going on with corporate agriculture: National Animal Identification System

[Daniel Stafford]

*National Animal Identification System*

We also have other work to do. We've been campaigning for a long time 
against something called NAIS, the National Animal Identification 
System. NAIS is a bureaucratic nightmare designed to tag every farm 
animal in America, and track them in yet another vast centralized 
government database. <http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=46>

The alleged purpose of NAIS is too improve food safety, but the rules 
are written to favor large corporate farms, while strangling small farms 
in a web of expensive compliance costs. NAIS could put many farmers out 
of business and concentrate agriculture in fewer and fewer hands.

This could make our food supply less safe, rather than more secure. 
Centralized food production will be more vulnerable to the spread of 
disease. We need diversity, not concentration.

NAIS is also unnecessary. Despite highly publicized problems our food 
supply has actually been getting more safe, without additional 
regulation. The economist Alex Tabarrok provides the evidence here. 
<http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/06/krugman-gets-a.html>

In addition, some of the most publicized food problems, as with the sick 
cow forced into the food chain by the Hallmark/Westland company, owe 
more to the failure of government regulators to do their job using 
powers and resources they already have. In fact, those cows were tagged 
under current regulation. Obviously, that didn't prevent sick cows from 
being processed into meat for schoolchildren, and NAIS won't do so either.

NAIS is just another government power grab. And, as usual, Congress and 
the bureaucracy are trying every trick in the book to ram this system 
down the throat of America's farmers. The tactics they're using could, 
ironically, be called "picking off the herd." If they can't pass NAIS, 
they'll phase elements of it in, piecemeal.

The first piece of the meal is a provision inserted into a pending 
agriculture appropriations bill. This provision would prohibit the USDA 
from buying food for the federal school lunch program from farms that 
aren't NAIS compliant. And lest you think we're exaggerating about the 
intent, here's how House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug 
Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee 
Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro presented this proposal to her Congressional 
colleagues . . .

    "We will also strengthen Animal ID and the National School Lunch
    Program including language to provide market-based incentives to
    strengthen both the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and
    the National School Lunch Program. This proposal would increase
    participation in the animal ID program... Because AMS (Agricultural
    Marketing Service) is a major purchaser of meat products through the
    School Lunch Program, this proposal would generate significant
    market-based incentives to strengthen the department's voluntary
    animal ID system and support livestock producers and other premises
    that signup for USDA's system . . . The public has already made a
    massive investment in USDA's NAIS system -- $128 million since
    fiscal year 2004. Why not use the system that the public has paid
    for to support producers who voluntarily enroll in NAIS and to
    strengthen the animal traceability capability to provide better
    assurances for the National Scho ol Lunch Program?"

The bill provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million. That's 
$4.8 million above 2008 levels. But it will only succeed in driving up 
the cost of the school lunch program, centralizing the sources of food 
for this program, and harming smaller, local farms.

DownsizsDC.org has signed a coalition letter asking Congress to remove 
this provision from the appropriations bill. You can help by sending a 
similar message to Congress. Our standard message for this campaign asks 
Congress to end the NAIS program. PLEASE USE YOUR PERSONAL COMMENTS to 
request that the school lunch NAIS provision also be removed from the 
current agriculture appropriations bill, which does not yet have a bill 
number assigned, but is in now moved to mark-up by the full Agriculture 
Committee. You can send your message here. 
<http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=46>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080626/a4f6f71b/attachment.html>