Re: [Biofuel] U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock
Hi Keith ; The title is very misleading. They never say they are dropping the program, just dropping this version of the program. BR Peter G. Thailand www.gac-seeds.com --- On Fri, 2/5/10, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Biofuel] U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 1:12 PM http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/business/05livestock.html?scp=1sq=usdast=cse U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock By WILLIAM NEUMAN Published: February 5, 2010 Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak. In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry. The agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, will announce the changes on Friday, according to officials at the Agriculture Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been made public. The officials said that it would be left to the states to devise many aspects of a new system, including requirements for identifying livestock. New federal rules will be developed but the officials said they would apply only to animals being moved in interstate commerce, such as cattle raised in one state being transported to a slaughterhouse in another state. It could take two years or more to create new federal rules, the officials said, and it was not clear how far the government would go to restrict the movement of livestock between states if the animals did not meet basic traceability standards. The system was created by the Bush administration in 2004 after the discovery in late 2003 of a cow infected with mad cow disease. Participation of ranchers and farmers in the identification system was voluntary, but the goal was to give every animal, or in the case of pigs and poultry, groups of animals, a unique identification number that would be entered in a database. The movements of animals would be tracked, and if there was a disease outbreak or a sick animal was found, officials could quickly locate other animals that had been exposed. But the system quickly drew the ire of many farmers and ranchers, particularly cattle producers. Some objected to the cost of identification equipment and the extra work in having to report their animals' movements. Others said they believed the voluntary system would become mandatory, that it was intrusive and that the federal government would use it to pry into their lives and finances. The old system received $142 million in federal financing, but gained the participation of only 40 percent of the nation's livestock producers, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. When Mr. Vilsack took over the Agriculture Department last year, he began a series of public meetings on the identification program and was bombarded by strident opposition. Agriculture officials said that most details of a new system would be worked out in the coming months through consultation with the livestock industry and the states. It was just overwhelming in the country that people didn't like it, and I think they took that feedback to heart, said Mary Kay Thatcher, public policy director of the American Farm Bureau Federation, which had opposed the identification system. I think it's good they've at least said we're going to do something different. Carol Tucker Foreman, a food safety expert of the Consumer Federation of America, agreed that the old system was not working and needed to be changed. But she worried that a new system that could have different rules in every state might not be effective. It's very, very hard to have an effective state-by-state program, she said. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ -- next part -- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20100206/8196a94c/attachment.html ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock
Hi Peter Hi Keith ; The title is very misleading. They never say they are dropping the program, just dropping this version of the program. That's right. This version though favoured big agribiz and was very small-farm unfriendly. Some comments from the ag lists: I believe it was a convenient way to drive the little guy out, which has for whatever reason been a goal for some time now, beginning at least in the 70s and maybe before. For instance, the fee structure had been designed so that large producers had a mere few dollars to pay for entire herds numbering in the thousands, while small producers had to pay by the head. That's only one of the devices used; I'm glad to see the end of the whole blamed thing, although I will admit I wanted to see somebody stand and microchip a hive of bees one by one. Some ideas were never meant to fly. This is good news no matter what, but we don't know HOW good it is quite yet. In today's conference call, Vilsack emphasized that they are starting the process, and it's all in the development stages. ... I think there's a lot of work ahead of us to ensure that the new framework doesn't turn into another agribusiness boondoggle. But the agency's fact sheet and Vilsack's responses to questions on the conference call were very encouraging. (the fact sheet is posted at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/content/printable_version/faq_traceability.pdf ) A few ideas for next steps: ...Write a letter to the editor to the New York Times - let's make sure they know that this change was due to the grassroots community, not American Farm Bureau (who helped develop NAIS and originally supported a mandatory NAIS) And so on. As usual, you have to keep holding their feet to the fire. All best Keith BR Peter G. Thailand www.gac-seeds.com --- On Fri, 2/5/10, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Biofuel] U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 1:12 PM http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/business/05livestock.html?scp=1sq=usdast=cse U.S.D.A. Plans to Drop Program to Trace Livestock By WILLIAM NEUMAN Published: February 5, 2010 Faced with stiff resistance from ranchers and farmers, the Obama administration has decided to scrap a national program intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak. In abandoning the program, called the National Animal Identification System, officials said they would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program that could win widespread support from the industry. The agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, will announce the changes on Friday, according to officials at the Agriculture Department, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been made public. The officials said that it would be left to the states to devise many aspects of a new system, including requirements for identifying livestock. New federal rules will be developed but the officials said they would apply only to animals being moved in interstate commerce, such as cattle raised in one state being transported to a slaughterhouse in another state. It could take two years or more to create new federal rules, the officials said, and it was not clear how far the government would go to restrict the movement of livestock between states if the animals did not meet basic traceability standards. The system was created by the Bush administration in 2004 after the discovery in late 2003 of a cow infected with mad cow disease. Participation of ranchers and farmers in the identification system was voluntary, but the goal was to give every animal, or in the case of pigs and poultry, groups of animals, a unique identification number that would be entered in a database. The movements of animals would be tracked, and if there was a disease outbreak or a sick animal was found, officials could quickly locate other animals that had been exposed. But the system quickly drew the ire of many farmers and ranchers, particularly cattle producers. Some objected to the cost of identification equipment and the extra work in having to report their animals' movements. Others said they believed the voluntary system would become mandatory, that it was intrusive and that the federal government would use it to pry into their lives and finances. The old system received $142 million in federal financing, but gained the participation of only 40 percent of the nation's livestock producers, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service. When Mr. Vilsack took over the Agriculture Department last year, he began a series of public meetings on the identification program and was bombarded by strident opposition. Agriculture officials said that most details of a new system would be worked out in the coming months through consultation
