Family Farm Friday #8: Victory for Family Farmers!

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." ~Henry Ford

This week, the USDA announced that it is cancelling the National Animal Identificaion System (NAIS). This news was music to the ears of many American producers and pro-agriculture organiztions. Especially for family farmers, and any smaller scale producers, survival may rest on the death of NAIS.

The NAIS program began in 2004 by the USDA. At the most basic level, the NAIS would have eventually required the registration of all farm animals (cattle, bison, poultry, swine, sheep, goats, deer, elk, horses, llamas...). The program began as voluntary, and never moved into the required stages.

The NAIS required producers to have a "premises identification" number that identified their particular farm or ranch. This identified the locations where an animal had been at one time or another. There would have also been an "animal identification" number, which would be specific to each animal. So, if a rancher had 100 cows, he would have only one premesis identification number, becuase that number referred only to his ranch. He would have 100 different animal identification numbers. The final requirement was "animal tracing" which would follow the movements of animals between locations. This information would be maintained in a database owned and managed by private parties.

There were several concerns about the NAIS program, and several producers and agricultural groups that strongly opposed the program. The concerns include:

• Confidentiality: The information maintained in the databases could have been sought by people under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or similar state statutes. They could be subpoenaed by a court in litigation. This would provide names, addresses, phone numbers, information about where animals are transported, housed, sold, etc.
  
• Liability: These records, if released, could lead to liabilty for producers in cases where an illness arose. Because they would track an animal at every location it might have ever been, producers who did nothing wrong, and then sold the animal could still have been subject to lawsuit. Even if they were eventually found to be free of fault, the cost of this kind of suit could be enough to put a producer out of business.
  
• Costs: The government requirements of keeping records, tagging animals and reporting statistics would have fallen entirely on the producer. This would have been seriously problematic for family operations. Many of these family operations involve several types of livestock, and the owners might have hundreds or thousands of animals. The costs of implementing the NAIS requirements could have been monumental.

The NAIS being cancelled is a great example of what can happen when producers ban together. People and orgnizations spoke out about these, and other, problems with the NAIS. It took six years, but the government listened. Producers need to be willing to make noise and oppose programs, regulations, laws....whatever is out there that is harmful for our industry. When we join forces, we can make positive things happen!