NAIS to be Scrapped!!!!!

Congress shut the funding off for it last year. They told the USDA they had spent enough time and money on it. Get everybody on board or drop it.

The old may have been tossed out the window but according to an email I received this evening an announcement on a new venue has already taken place today.

Next thing you know it will be created with executive order if this doesn't fly.

What I received in part:
================
Release No. 57.10
Contact:
USDA Office of Communications (202) 720-4623

*
*USDA ANNOUNCES NEW FRAMEWORK FOR ANIMAL DISEASE TRACEABILITY*

*
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2010—Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced
today that USDA will develop a new, flexible framework for animal
disease traceability in the United States, and undertake several
other actions to further strengthen its disease prevention and
response capabilities.

“After concluding our listening tour on the National Animal
Identification System in 15 cities across the country, receiving
thousands of comments from the public and input from States, Tribal
Nations, industry groups, and representatives for small and organic
farmers, it is apparent that a new strategy for animal disease
traceability is needed,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
"I’ve decided to revise the prior policy and offer a new approach to
animal disease traceability with changes that respond directly to
the feedback we heard."
======
etc. I wasn't given a link to the actual news release.

Ding Dong
The Witch is Dead!

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The sheep industry has had a ID program for years. You get a flock number and recieve free tags. Sheep have to be tagged to be sold. Simply, no cost. I did not like the cost component to the NAIS tags and tagging hassle for cattle. If one of my fat lambs loses a tag, get in the trail when loaded and tag him.. Not so easy with a load of 800lb calves.

NAIS is now dead and you have your state program so everyone is happy.

It was open and the vast majority rejected it; seems simple enough to understand. The new proposal may or may not be worse and I guarantee you more people will be paying attention now.

__________________
www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

bruce2288, what is the cost of the sheep tags? The cow tags that are RFID cost $2.00. Is that the high cost that turned you off?

Seventeen (17) states have subscribed to the new database USAHerds and are storing livestock data, just like the USDA's plan.

There are no major slaughterhouses in Michigan. Some cows get butchered in tiny family run operations, not for resale to the public. All the rest will need tags for interstate movement. Refuse to tag and your calves feeders, finished and old dairy cows will be discounted in value due to diminished market.
Just as with USDA's NAIS, those that don't market commercially, it doesn't effect you.

Obama was my state senator. He understood NAIS enough that he had a 2 page form letter he sent out expounding the benefits of NAIS.

He was very pro-NAIS

__________________

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http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

NAIS would have affected even the non commercial producers. No one was exempt from the system.

I have said from the beginning that I do not oppose some sort of traceback for animals raised and sold into the public meat supply. But 48 hour traceback is NOT long enough and there was no contingency for prevention of the spread of disease. I do not need NAIS to tell me if I can buy a cow from farmer Bob who takes it to the slaughter house where I then can pick up the meat. Private sales like that do not belong in the govt database. I should not have to report to the govt if I sell a dozen eggs or a processed duck to someone at work or give them to a non-resident relative or my neighbor.

I'm glad to hear that... I thought it was a requirement for the state fair in Springfield - my children started 4-H this year. But when I checked the state fair site I see that they have a voluntary premises ID program.
http://www.agr.state.il.us/isf/premium/

So pleased that NAIS is in the trash, where it should have been tossed when first proposed.

My 2¢, and I have my tinfoil hat and Nomex suit on, so flame away.

This is only my opinion; These govt. programs are so that the PTB can inventory food supplys, whether it is grain or livestock.

Glad I'm not the only one with a shiny hat on - I totally agree.

That is exactly the line of thinking I have never understood about Nais.

Your comments make no sense at all to me.

Any you are typically a smart person around here, I enjoy your messages, good common sense.

But here on this issue, I just can't comprehend.....

Nais didn't do any of the things you talk about. It was to help prevent infecting many many animals with a dieseae if such a disease were to break out.

That was all.

Not a bad goal.

The traceback was not for meat sold. It had nothing to do with consumers, really. It had to do with protecting other farmers.

That point seemed lost on many people.

Not important now, but - I just don't understand where you are coming from. It's as if we were talking about football, and your comment is that you don't like stealing bases.... Well that's fine, but doesn't really apply to what we are talking about?

Again, water over the dam, the program will change to something else now so no matter. You might get your wish - I kinda fear you will.

--->Paul

I agree with you and oneokie.

I read every document and PDF I could find about NAIS and all I ever found (even after reading the links you and arabian knight provided) was about 48 hour traceback pre slaughterhouse. There was no mention anywhere of steps to prevent spread of disease, no program to test for disease, no eradication or prevention info. All NAIS was ever about was knowing the location of every livestock animal in the country. It was only after the first public outcry that animals which never left their premis of birth were exempted. Which meant even people who raised their own would have to report taking any and every animal to the butcher. Even a group of 10 chickens would have been required to be reported and RFID tagged. There was NOTHING in NAIS that would have protected purchasers of diseased animals, no assistance for eliminating the disease, and most important, no disease testing protocols. Had the proposal contained one single bit of testing or immunization requirements I might have believed the whole thing was based on the health of livestock. As written it was simply a tracking bill.

Please note that I am not against the share of information regarding where feedlot animals originate or where they end up. But to require large and small producers alike to provide that info to the govt is asking too much.

Here we go again beating that imabinary dead horse. I can't find anywhere, except the propaganda on noNAIS, that states anything about a RFID for chickens. It makes no sense.
NAIS is a tool. The way rthe tool would be used depends on the disease situation. When wild hogs from a hunt club were found to have psudorabies, the farms in that area were tested to insure it hadn't spread to the farmer's hogs. If there had been some infected pigs, the USDA would want to find out if some pigs from the infected farm went to other farms, so those pigs could be inspected. Without such knowledge, farms could be infected, without knowing it, and sell to other farms and within a short time, the disease would have been spread around. Those are clearly how disease is prevented from spreading very far before it can be reined in.
While different diseases would need to be handled in differing ways, NAIS helps locate the animals that may have been exposed, allowing cost effective testing of just those possibly exposed. The protocall for testing and assistance in eradication have been in place for decades and need no further inclusion to the NAIS traceback/trace forward program
From the very beginning there were exceptions that made good scientific sense. Those that raised their own were exempted when there was no movement of these animals to other farms. Also, if you raised a number of animals, never selling off or adding to, but just taking them directly to slaughter all at once, you were exempt from tagging every cow.

When you agree that the big producer should have regulations that small farmers that sell commercially is class envy, pure and simple.

We've been over this a thousand times. No one changes their mind. What we say here makes no difference. It will be what it is. I'm sure you aren't going to like it.

I did find one little blurb from APHIS that said chickens would not need individual identification for the commercial industry.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publicatio...st_poultry.pdf

Now several groups are fighting the new proposals because the new requirements would make it harder to track animals.

IMO, to hand more power and more info to the same govt that would do this:
http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2...ter-F.doc.aspx
is just too much.

BTW, the reason poultry is not specifically mentioned in the NAIS literature is because the commercial industry is already 95% compliant. The cattle industry does not comply with current requirements. So why not just crack down on non-compliant cattle? So far this question has not been answered.

Huh? RFID is a requirement in only a few states, Michigan is one that has this requirement, because of efforts to eradicate TB.
Most places you only tag with a RFID if you want to.

From what I'm seeing, the cattle industry is on board with current requirements.

Figure out what non-compliant means and I'll bet USDA has answered the question.

Dodge ball isn't productive communication. You say NAIS requires RFID for poultry, I say that's a bunch of BS, so you make an excuse and switch specis.

I read the whole thing from the above site and the only thing I can see is they changed the name from a Donkey to a Jackass. Still the same animal.

Nancy

__________________
A small Goat farm in East Tennessee
http://www.freewebs.com/rockytopsis/

Ah, yes, the Henshaws. That old fable still around?
Wild boars, like to 80 or so that were illegally at Henshaws Hunt Club Compound, threaten every person that raises pigs.
Because such hunt clubs often lose pigs through their fences, Wild Boar are now in many states that are not their normal habitat. Wild Boars can carry psudorabies and infect farmer's pigs. Those that pasture their pigs are at greatest risk.

Psudorabies has been eradicated in all farm raised pigs. This took millions of blood tests. It also meant that infected herds had to be destroyed. Wild Boars threaten the livelihood of every hog farmer. The loss of any state's psudorabies-free status would create a hardship to every pig farmer in that state.

The USDA had been in communication with the Henshaws about their violation.
To protect the pig farmers in that state, "depopulation" had to be done before the owners could open their fence, releasing the infected hogs into the environment.

In every state where wild boars were imported, they have escaped. Eradication of these pests have been totally unsuccessful.

Do I want the USDA to protect the pig farmers from psudorabies? Yes. Do I want livestock with incureable communicable diseases to be "depopulated"? Yes, yes, yes.

I don't care if it is TB, Mad Cow, psudorabies or that sheep disease that is in some ways like the cattle disease Mad Cow, scrapie, I want efforts to eradicate it.

The USDA decides which states are declared TB free, psudorabies-free, brucelous-free, etc. If it USDA helps funds each state's animal ID program and they don't do it in an effective way, I'm guessing the funding goes away and the state will lose it's whatever-free status.
Donkey, jackass, whatever. Michigan is on board with it and we are doing fine with it.