NoNAIS.org

[nnbreeder]

Here is a link for the Plan, it is a PDF file so you will need Adode to open it. http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/naislibrary/documents/plans_reports/NAIS_Business_Plan.pdf

 

[Chick_a_dee]

There was an article in our Hobby Farm's magazine about this ... I read it, I don't agree with it.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
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Andy said:

If disease X appears in the US...it is of paramount importance that: 1. A quarantine zone be put in place. 2. Effected animals culled. 3. Other animals tested and cleared.

Show me in writing where they will test my birds before culling. Tell me there will be no Kill Zones where every animal they know about will be culled. No, show me they will always test.​

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
Because each and every animal needs some kind of identification, be it a chip, or a band, whatever, that complies with whatever requirement the government dreams up. Every time that animal is moved, or is sold, or is killed for food, whatever, each and every animal, it has to be reported. Note, however, this doesn't apply to the large animal suppliers, it's only for the little guy. The big guys get to group their animals into lots.

2) Falls under the umbrella of Homeland Security-all basic rights are suspended. Why is it under Homeland Security? What is the purpose for it?

Ask the government, they're the ones who set it up that way!

3) Invasive and damaging to property rights/unconstitutional
In what way and for what reason?

Because they can come onto your property at any time for any reason and confiscate your animals for whatever reason they dream up.

4) Repetitive program-systems are already in place for everything this purports to do. What does it purport to do and what other programs does it overlap?

There are any number of programs it overlaps. The best way to learn more about this is to visit the many NAIS info sites there are out there. Yes, many of them are biased, but if you really read them you'll figure it out pretty quick.

5) Punishes the small farmer/flock owner by making him ID every single animal instead of a group like the Big Guys get to do. Punish????

Absolutely. Not only that, but it has been suggested in some states, if you don't sign up for NAIS, your local feed store won't be able to sell you food. Seriously!

6) ineffective for the purpose it was supposedly designed for. How is a number going to do anything to stop disease? Wont. What do you mean? Is it to track possible disease and to the source to prevent further problems?

How are they going to track 'lots' any better than they do now? As it is, with the mad cow issue that exists, the USDA still refuses to allow farmers who want to show that their cattle are raised safely to do so. It might shine a light on those who aren't quite so scrupulous. Read up on Joe Salatin's problems with the USDA. It's ridiculous. But they're the government, and they're here to help

7) Worded so it has "catches". Says if an animal never leaves the property, it wont have to be IDd. Dumb. If you take your animal to the vet, it's left your property. They've got you then. How is it worded exactly?

Have you been to NoNAIS.org and read a bit? Yes, it's an anti-NAIS site, but it answers most of your questions.

8) People will stop taking sick animals to the vet for fear of being IDd.

Absolutely.

Pros? None.
None? At all?

It'll give a whole new echelon of government workers jobs. Some might think that's a good thing, most of us don't.

*They dont even track sex offenders this closely, for Pete's Sake!*

You've got that right!

Not trying to be argumentative, Cyn. I really want factual non emotional answers from people who have read and understand both sides.

I can't see how anyone could educate themselves about NAIS and not feel passionately against it. This has nothing to do with protecting anyone but big ag interests. And big ag is a pretty unstoppable machine nowadays

Quote:
Edited to add: I am far from a left-wing liberal, as a matter of fact, I'm probably one of the most conservative women anyone is ever going to come across. I take care of myself and my own and don't look to anyone for help. I do care passionately about the food supply in this country, however, and have watched the steady decline in quality since the early 70's - right about the time big ag really started to control it. Sorry, but it's not just conspiracy theorists who are against NAIS, it's any thinking American who values their freedom and their food.​

 

[MayberrySaint]

They may not test your animals before culling...if they fall within a quarantine zone, they could very well be culled to control the spread of disease.

 

[nnbreeder]

If they would have stuck to the original plan which was COOL, Country of Origin Labeling instead of trying to supersize it to a fix all type of deal I would have supported it all the way. In Australia it truely is a voluntary program for the welfare of the producers.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Well, that isnt what you wrote in the first place. Sorry, but let's be honest here, Andy, not blow smoke. And those 12 mile Kill Zones could wipe out small agriculture for years in one fell swoop. And with it, many heritage chicken breeds that may never recover! You can bet that a big Tyson producer in that zone wont have his entire operation wiped out. If he did, the govt would subsidize him an entire new one and we all know it.

We have some serious 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th amendment issues here, constitutionally. Look up those amendments and then read the entire NAIS proposal. It will become obvious to you. Sorry, Terrie, I cannot write a formal treatise on the subject. I will bow out of this conversation and let others carry on.

http://nonais.org/techdocs/AGuidetotheStructureofNAIS.pdf
Look at this chart. There's your chain of command structure. Things have been revamped a bit, I think, since 9-11.


I find that non-Americans and Americans who are not native to this country dont seem to relate to the passion against NAIS. Just an observation.

 

[NYREDS]

There are so many miscoceptions about NAIS floating around most fueled by emotional posts on forums like this one. Unfortunately some of the most emotional opinions are based soley on "information" from forums like this one rather than by actually reading the legislation &/or talkling to someone @ USDA.
A common such misconception is that NAIS is part the Dept of Homeland Security. Absolutely false, it's a USDA program. Alltogether different govt. agencies.
Another is that every time an animal leaves the home farm it has to be reported-a favorite illustration of this is the cow that "gets out". This also is not true and neither is the requirement of reporting taking a chicken to a fair.
Perhaps the most absurd "fact" of all is that every chicken must be microchipped. It is not and never was a requirement.
This all reminds me of a quote from JFK: "People tend to enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought".

 

[MayberrySaint]

Quote:
Well, that isnt what you wrote in the first place. Sorry, but let's be honest here, Andy, not blow smoke. And those 12 mile Kill Zones could wipe out small agriculture for years in one fell swoop. And with it, many heritage chicken breeds that may never recover! You can bet that a big Tyson producer in that zone wont have his entire operation wiped out. If he did, the govt would subsidize him an entire new one and we all know it.

There is no such thing as a 12-mile kill zone...most are 1-2 miles depending on the topography, prevalent wind directions, etc. You obviously do not know that several large operations have been completely culled on the eastern shore of Maryland and in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during avian flu outbreaks. These were contract growers for large producers and the integrators were not reimbursed for losses. During the pseudorabies clean-up in NC, every producer, large and small was compensated for losses if the animals had to be eliminated.

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

For the record I am PRO NAIS, & hope a similar system is adopted in Canada.

I believe there are many benefits to being able to track the source of where our food comes from.

There are many articles that offer the OTHER side of the coin for those who are interested.

A pundit recently suggested that since the US government cannot locate aliens when they illegally enter the country, but the USDA was able to find a widely dispersed herd within days after a BSE-infected cow arrived from Canada, then every illegal alien should be given a cow. Whether you agree or not with such largess, the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has become part of the life of livestock producers.

“Implementation of NAIS will support state and federal animal disease monitoring and surveillance through the rapid tracing of infected and exposed animals during animal disease outbreaks. Additional benefits of NAIS include enhanced consumer confidence in the health of U.S. livestock and associated products and improved productivity management for producers.” That is the official position of USDA on the issue.

Although details about the identification of individual animals have yet to be decided, the premise registration part of the program has been up and running. As of November 28, 2005 (the date of the last USDA report), 159,764 premises have been registered. Are you part of the program? It proposes requiring stakeholders to identify premises and animals according to NAIS standards by January 2008. Requiring full recording of defined animal movements is proposed by January 2009.

While farm organizations debate whether the program should be mandatory, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns approved a public/private partnership to ease some of the fears of those producers not wanting government involvement in their business:

· The system must be able to allow tracking of animals from point of origin to processing within 48 hours without unnecessary burden to producers and other stakeholders.
· The system's architecture must be developed without unduly increasing the size and role of government.
· The system must be flexible enough to utilize existing technologies and incorporate new identification technologies as they are developed.
· Animal movement data should be maintained in a private system that can be readily accessed when necessary by state and federal animal health authorities.

Going beyond the political issues and controversy over making the program mandatory, there are some elements in the program that will indeed benefit livestock producers. The Animal Science Department at the University of Illinois says there are production and marketing benefits that will develop:

“Individual identification of animals throughout the production cycle is becoming a critically important management tool. Consumers demand identification because of food safety concerns and animal welfare. Processors demand individual identification to track animals from multiple suppliers and control quality. Finally, producers demand this identification because of marketing and animal performance monitoring. Despite these needs from the field to fork, technologies for animal identification and monitoring at present remain primitive, especially in consistency across the production-consumer continuum.”

Those technologies will likely be in the form of electronic devices that can be implanted under the skin of an animal that will record and provide on demand everything a producer would need to know about its performance. At Kansas State University livestock researcher Dale Blasi says….

“With concerns about livestock health, food safety and security prominent among consumers at home and abroad, as well as food companies and legislators, we are providing a service that will evaluate these emerging technologies so that people can make informed comparisons of the systems. We can impartially evaluate new and existing technologies so as to better compare systems with the intent of sharing the various systems’ attributes with our stakeholders.

“While my colleagues and I from the Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine will provide the expertise from the animal interface perspective, The Electronics Design Laboratory at Kansas State University will help characterize the relative radio frequency operating environments for these systems so that we can quantify their performance in the real world; in the laboratory and in the presence of potential sources of interference,”

The Livestock Marketing Information Center, a function of Extension in the Western US, says, "Consumers are worried about meat quality, its origin, and its integrity from farm to table. Thus, they need additional assurances about the product’s quality characteristics, either from industry or governmental providers. The existence of credence characteristics must be communicated to the consumer in the form of a label, advertisement, certification, or some other way besides physical inspection by the consumer. Traceability systems such as the NAIS and certification programs that may evolve from the NAIS may provide consumers with lower levels of uncertainty regarding the quality characteristics of the meat products they eat than if no such system were in place. This lower level of uncertainty should provide many consumers with an increased level of utility and could result in consumer willingness to pay premiums for enhanced assurances about food safety and other credence characteristics in meat products if this information is communicated appropriately and effectively to them."

Summary:
You may already be one of the nearly 160,000 producers who have registered their premise under the National Animal Identification System, and are willing to participate in the tracking program. But those who have not registered may have either not gotten around to it, or may have philosophical differences with the concept. Over and above those issues is the opportunity to financially benefit from the identification program. If you produce good meat animals, and someone wanting such a product will compensate you. As another pundit once said, when you have lemons, make lemonade.