What constitutes a greater risk, the dozen llamas on Mary Smith's farm or the ten thousand cooped-up chickens in the poultry processing center? How unlike the Republican party to endorse such a big government solution on Americans, but not big industry, without due justification.
And isn't it nice that the huge agrobusinesses get exemptions from the program. It appears that this administration wants to develop a huge, imposing database on those American families who raise animals, with very little evidence of an actual threat or of the policy's effectiveness. Also read this very good commentary discussing the details of this program. I can't get the Dept of Agriculture NAIS site to load, but there is this Q&A site that seems to be working, and you can access this Wiki site for more information. The result is a system meant to help farms that many farmers oppose. Religious farming communities, such as the Amish and Mennonites, fear the system is a manifestation of the Mark of the Beast foretold in the Book of Revelation.Īnd despite the administration's insistence that the program is voluntary, farmers and families, such as the Calderwoods, chafe at the heavy-handed and often mandatory way states have implemented it, sometimes with the help of sheriff's deputies. Privacy advocates say the database would create an invasive, detailed electronic record of farmers' activities. They point out that they will have to track every animal while vast commercial operations will be allowed to track whole herds. And databases will record every animal movement from birth to slaughterhouse, including trips to the vet and county fairs.īut the system is spawning a grass-roots revolt.įamily farmers see it as an assault on their way of life by a federal bureaucracy with close ties to industrial agriculture. Information will be kept on every farm, ranch or stable. Most farm animals, even exotic ones such as llamas, will eventually be registered. A Bush administration initiative, the National Animal Identification System is meant to provide a modern tool for tracking disease outbreaks within 48 hours, whether natural or the work of a bioterrorist.
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