US Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chairwoman of the House Agriculture
Appropriations Subcommittee, has inserted pro-NAIS provisions into the Agriculture
Appropriations bill for 2009. According to her press release, the bill would require USDA
to purchase meat products for the School Lunch Program from livestock premises
registered with National Animal Identification System beginning in July 2009. This is a
back-door method for mandating NAIS through the power of the purse strings. The bill
also provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million or about $4.8 million above
2008.
We must stop these provisions from going any further!
The full House Appropriations Committee will meet to discuss the Agriculture
Appropriations bill on Thursday, June 26. After that, it will go to the full House. So we
need everyone to call the Committee members and their own Representatives as soon as
possible! We also need calls to the Senate Appropriations Committee, to keep them from
following DeLauro's lead.
Take Action
1) Call or fax your US Representative. You can look up who represents you at
www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-
340-9281.
2) Call or fax the members of the House Appropriations Committee who come from your
State. The members are listed at: http://appropriations.house.gov/members110th.shtml
When you see a member who comes from your state, click on his or her name to get
contact information.
3) Call or fax your Senator if he or she is on the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
members are listed at: http://appropriations.senate.gov/members.cfm
With each person, ask to speak to the staffer who handles appropriations. If you get
their voice mail, leave the following message, or something in your own words that
makes the same points:
MESSAGE: My name is ____. I am a constituent [or live in your state, if you aren't in their
district]. I am calling because the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee has
inserted language requiring the School Lunch Program to only buy meat from farms
registered in the National Animal Identification System. I am against NAIS, and I do not
want it to be tied to school lunch programs. NAIS, which tracks live animals, will not
improve food safety because most food safety problems start at the slaughterhouse and
food processing facilities. Funding for NAIS, particularly any mandatory NAIS, needs to
be stopped. Please call me back at _____.
When you talk to the staffer, be sure to make the same points as in the message, and
expand on them with some of the talking points below.
For more information, contact the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance at
[email protected] or 866-687-6452.
Talking Points
In addition to the message above, here are some more talking points about why the NAIS
provisions in the Agriculture Appropriations bill should be taken out. Pick one or two to
focus on, and put them in your own words!
* This bill uses the government's power to economically coerce farmers into NAIS. That is
not a "voluntary" program.
* This bill throws good money after bad, supporting a program that is not sound
economically or scientifically.
* USDA has presented no science to back up its claims that NAIS will address livestock
diseases.
* The USDA has never completed a cost/benefit analysis to show that NAIS is
worthwhile.
* NAIS will not improve food safety. The massive Hallmark/Westland beef recall this
past year was caused by the slaughterhouse employees' failure to follow existing
regulations for handling "downer" cows. Mandating NAIS on cattle producers will not
make anybody obey the laws we already have.
* NAIS will not help Americans compete in the world market. If it is mandatory, or even
adopted by most producers, those who participate will not get premiums for their meat.
* Pouring more money into the program is a waste of precious tax dollars that could be
better spent on safety inspections at packing and processing plants, where most food
contamination occurs.
* Using the school lunch program to force farmers into NAIS undermines the growing
farm-to-school program, which helps children get fresh, local, and sustainably raised
foods. Local farmers should not be forced into an unpopular program that has nothing
to do with food quality or safety in order to provide food for our children.
* The claim that USDA has achieved 33% of its Premises Registration goal is wrong.
USDA computes its percentage of premises registered based on farmers who answer the
agriculture census. Hundreds of thousands of additional horse owners, families with a
few chickens, suburbanites with a pet pot-bellied pig, and others like them are
technically covered by NAIS, but USDA ignores them when it reports its supposed
successes to Congress. The vast majority of people who will be impacted by NAIS either
oppose it or are still unaware of it!
* NAIS has never been specifically approved by Congress. This massive program, which
will impact millions of people, should be addressed through full and open debate, not
snuck in through appropriations.
More Information
DeLauro's press release is posted at:
http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DeLauroSubMarkup06-19-08.pdf See pages 6-7
for discussion of the NAIS provisions in the bill.
DeLauro has supported tracking farms for some time. Her food safety bill from 2007
included tracking all food from its origin to consumer's plates. Her press release on the
school lunch initiative states, "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."
The press release makes it clear that DeLauro supports moving the entire NAIS program
forward: "The bill's report details specific implementation milestones to shine the
spotlight on APHIS's delivery of NAIS. The Committee worked in consultation with the
agency, and we largely derived these performance measures from the agency's own NAIS
business plan. We are going to move well beyond tracking the number of premises
registered and follow more closely how APHIS is using the money. The NAIS milestones
include (1) 48-hour traceability standards for specific species; and (2) program
administration deliverables."
The actual bill language is not yet available. We will send a follow up alert when it is.
This is going to be another hard fight to win. Several key committee members in both
the House and the Senate support a mandatory NAIS, and will be glad for anything that
moves us towards that. So we need everyone to call! Tell your friends and neighbors
what is happening, and ask them to call also.
Let your voice be heard!
Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
www.farmandranchfreedom.org
866-687-6452
This email service uses active, trackable links. If you are do not wish to use the links, or
they do not come through your email properly, you can also find all of these materials by
navigating our website, www.farmandranchfreedom.org.
Appropriations Subcommittee, has inserted pro-NAIS provisions into the Agriculture
Appropriations bill for 2009. According to her press release, the bill would require USDA
to purchase meat products for the School Lunch Program from livestock premises
registered with National Animal Identification System beginning in July 2009. This is a
back-door method for mandating NAIS through the power of the purse strings. The bill
also provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million or about $4.8 million above
2008.
We must stop these provisions from going any further!
The full House Appropriations Committee will meet to discuss the Agriculture
Appropriations bill on Thursday, June 26. After that, it will go to the full House. So we
need everyone to call the Committee members and their own Representatives as soon as
possible! We also need calls to the Senate Appropriations Committee, to keep them from
following DeLauro's lead.
Take Action
1) Call or fax your US Representative. You can look up who represents you at
www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 866-
340-9281.
2) Call or fax the members of the House Appropriations Committee who come from your
State. The members are listed at: http://appropriations.house.gov/members110th.shtml
When you see a member who comes from your state, click on his or her name to get
contact information.
3) Call or fax your Senator if he or she is on the Senate Appropriations Committee. The
members are listed at: http://appropriations.senate.gov/members.cfm
With each person, ask to speak to the staffer who handles appropriations. If you get
their voice mail, leave the following message, or something in your own words that
makes the same points:
MESSAGE: My name is ____. I am a constituent [or live in your state, if you aren't in their
district]. I am calling because the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee has
inserted language requiring the School Lunch Program to only buy meat from farms
registered in the National Animal Identification System. I am against NAIS, and I do not
want it to be tied to school lunch programs. NAIS, which tracks live animals, will not
improve food safety because most food safety problems start at the slaughterhouse and
food processing facilities. Funding for NAIS, particularly any mandatory NAIS, needs to
be stopped. Please call me back at _____.
When you talk to the staffer, be sure to make the same points as in the message, and
expand on them with some of the talking points below.
For more information, contact the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance at
[email protected] or 866-687-6452.
Talking Points
In addition to the message above, here are some more talking points about why the NAIS
provisions in the Agriculture Appropriations bill should be taken out. Pick one or two to
focus on, and put them in your own words!
* This bill uses the government's power to economically coerce farmers into NAIS. That is
not a "voluntary" program.
* This bill throws good money after bad, supporting a program that is not sound
economically or scientifically.
* USDA has presented no science to back up its claims that NAIS will address livestock
diseases.
* The USDA has never completed a cost/benefit analysis to show that NAIS is
worthwhile.
* NAIS will not improve food safety. The massive Hallmark/Westland beef recall this
past year was caused by the slaughterhouse employees' failure to follow existing
regulations for handling "downer" cows. Mandating NAIS on cattle producers will not
make anybody obey the laws we already have.
* NAIS will not help Americans compete in the world market. If it is mandatory, or even
adopted by most producers, those who participate will not get premiums for their meat.
* Pouring more money into the program is a waste of precious tax dollars that could be
better spent on safety inspections at packing and processing plants, where most food
contamination occurs.
* Using the school lunch program to force farmers into NAIS undermines the growing
farm-to-school program, which helps children get fresh, local, and sustainably raised
foods. Local farmers should not be forced into an unpopular program that has nothing
to do with food quality or safety in order to provide food for our children.
* The claim that USDA has achieved 33% of its Premises Registration goal is wrong.
USDA computes its percentage of premises registered based on farmers who answer the
agriculture census. Hundreds of thousands of additional horse owners, families with a
few chickens, suburbanites with a pet pot-bellied pig, and others like them are
technically covered by NAIS, but USDA ignores them when it reports its supposed
successes to Congress. The vast majority of people who will be impacted by NAIS either
oppose it or are still unaware of it!
* NAIS has never been specifically approved by Congress. This massive program, which
will impact millions of people, should be addressed through full and open debate, not
snuck in through appropriations.
More Information
DeLauro's press release is posted at:
http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DeLauroSubMarkup06-19-08.pdf See pages 6-7
for discussion of the NAIS provisions in the bill.
DeLauro has supported tracking farms for some time. Her food safety bill from 2007
included tracking all food from its origin to consumer's plates. Her press release on the
school lunch initiative states, "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."
The press release makes it clear that DeLauro supports moving the entire NAIS program
forward: "The bill's report details specific implementation milestones to shine the
spotlight on APHIS's delivery of NAIS. The Committee worked in consultation with the
agency, and we largely derived these performance measures from the agency's own NAIS
business plan. We are going to move well beyond tracking the number of premises
registered and follow more closely how APHIS is using the money. The NAIS milestones
include (1) 48-hour traceability standards for specific species; and (2) program
administration deliverables."
The actual bill language is not yet available. We will send a follow up alert when it is.
This is going to be another hard fight to win. Several key committee members in both
the House and the Senate support a mandatory NAIS, and will be glad for anything that
moves us towards that. So we need everyone to call! Tell your friends and neighbors
what is happening, and ask them to call also.
Let your voice be heard!
Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
www.farmandranchfreedom.org
866-687-6452
This email service uses active, trackable links. If you are do not wish to use the links, or
they do not come through your email properly, you can also find all of these materials by
navigating our website, www.farmandranchfreedom.org.
