Farm Bureau has been involved in designing and building the NAIS for almost two decades. Its involvement began at least by the early 1990s. In a meeting on August 15, 2006, requested by concerned Illinois horse owner Don Shepherd and attended by Illinois state Senator Brad Burzynski and Representative Bob Pritchard, Jim Fraley (Livestock Program Director for Illinois Farm Bureau) stated that he’d “been developing this since 1994.”

But the roots of Farm Bureau’s involvement reach back even farther. At the 1994 National Livestock Identification Symposium, Nancy Robinson (vice president for government and industry affairs of the Livestock Marketing Association) said that the mission of those attending, including Farm Bureau representative Kenneth Olson, was the same as it had been in 1988: “To evaluate current and potential identification procedures of various species and recommend options that will lead to increasing the percentage of animals uniquely identified, with immediate emphasis on identification in such a way to permit tracing from farm through slaughter, along with an aim towards standardization.” Her statement makes clear that those attending the 1994 meeting already had been working together for six years.

Let’s pause here to look at some of the players in this little drama. First is the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA), which recommended the structure of the NAIS to USDA. Until 1999 the organization was known as Livestock Conservation Institute (LCI). In 2000 the NIAA was established and LCI merged with it. Farm Bureau, for this discussion, means to the American Farm Bureau Federation, unless referred to by a particular state’s name. Certain individual players stand out in the pro-NAIS crowd:

• Jim Fraley—livestock program director of the Illinois Farm Bureau (the legal name of which is Illinois Agriculture Association) and secretary of the NIAA;
• David Miller—director of research and commodities for the Iowa Farm Bureau and member of the NIAA board of directors;
• Kenneth Olson—director of educational programs of NIAA, past chairman of the board of directors of NIAA, and former staff member of Farm Bureau.

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Karin Bergener is an attorney living in Freedom, Ohio, a former member of the board of directors of the Portage County, Ohio, Farm Bureau, and co-founder of Liberty Ark Coalition. This article appeared in the Holiday 2006 issue of Rural Heritage.