Concerns about Ramifications
by Steven J. Kamin
The
USDA is planning to implement to National Animal Identification System
by the fall of 2007. The Draft Strategic Plan will be written by July
of 2006, with a short period for commentary to follow. This is a critical
point for all homesteaders and small farming operations with livestock.
According to the requirements for registration and identification, every
animal that could possibly be used for human consumption, from farmed
fish to a pet horse, would have to be registered and accounted for through
a government agency. Every time an animal leaves your property—for
breeding, a show, slaughter, or just to ride your horse on a trail—you
will be required by federal law to report it within 24 hours.
I am concerned about the ramification of such stringent guidelines for
private ownership and use of livestock. As a small-scale beef rancher,
I feel my livelihood is in serious jeopardy. Although there are real
dangers of food source contamination, these exist primarily in feedlots,
where thousands of animals are held in a confined area. The NAIS does
not focus on these operations. Quite the contrary. Large-scale producers
would be allowed to umbrella thousands of animals under one identification
code, whereas small-scale owners will be required to register each individual
animal, with large animals requiring an implant or tag containing a
microchip. In addition, any property where an animal is raised must
be registered by owner’s name, address, and phone number and keyed
to GPS [global positioning system] coordinates for satellite assisted
location of houses and farms, to be mandatory by January 2008.
The USDA has admitted there will be a cost to the producers.
This means the small operator will bear the brunt of the expense, because
each individual animal requires a registration code number. No justification
can be strong enough to subject a family-run farm to these restrictions.
The fees and bureaucratic red tape will make it impractical to continue
raising livestock for personal use. Approval of the NAIS as written
could signal the end of homesteading and the American family farm.
We need to organize and fight the obvious persecution of all small volume
livestock owners by the large corporate producers, and the makers of
high-tech animal ID equipment and their lobbyists, who endorse these
unrealistic restrictions. If our way of life is to continue, we must
revise the proposed guidelines being implemented in some states at this
very moment. To hesitate now could mean the loss of the American family
farm tradition forever. Let us unify to protect the most unquestionable
human right, a tradition as old as civilization—raising animals
to feed our families.
Steven J. Kamin lives in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. His letter
appeared in The Evener 2006 issue of Rural
Heritage.
|