ABOUT THE NATIONAL ANIMAL ID SYSTEM (NAIS)
1. What is the NAIS?
A scheme hatched by the federal government and corporate agribusiness
to tag every animal in the US with an identity number and to track
every animal through processing. The excuse for it is the discovery of
two cases of mad cow disease (BSE or bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
2. What does it require?
It requires every farm in the country to register as a "premises."
Each registered premises will then have to register & tag every
alpaca, bison, cow, emu, goat, horse, llama, sheep, swine, and all
poultry. (As far as we know right now, catfish and goldfish are
exempted.) It provides no exemptions. If you have as much as one
chicken, you must register.
3. What does it mean?
This is not about controlling disease, it's about controlling farmers.
When social security was first introduced, the government promised the
people that the number would never be used for "identification
purposes." But today you can't get health care, insurance, a bank
account, an apartment, a job, or your tooth pulled without giving a
social security number.
4. Isn't it voluntary?
Only for now. The present USDA "Draft Strategic Plan" calls for
making it mandatory by January 2008. "Mandatory" means that they will
fine, arrest, or jail you if you refuse to comply. For the system to
work, the government obviously must force every farm and every farmer
to register every animal, and no one will be able to seek veterinary
care, transport, sell, or process animals without registry. In other
words, the freedom to farm that has belonged to mankind since Creation
will be abolished.
5. Who and what is behind the NAIS?
According to the USDA National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
Draft Strategic Plan 2005 to 2009, page 3, paragraph 1, at
http://animalagriculture.org/aboutNIAA/ ... ectory.asp,
"In 2002, the National Institute of Animal Agriculture (NIAA)
initiated meetings that led to the development of the U.S. Animal
Identification Plan (USAIP)." "Driving force ? The strongest driving
force for developing the NAIS is the risk of an outbreak of a foreign
animal disease (FAD). There is broad support for NAIS among
government, industry, and public stakeholders." ("Stakeholders are
defined as those individuals and groups in the public and private
sectors who are interested in and/or affected by the Department's
activities and decisions."
http://www.ci.doe.gov/cigapol.htm.)
6. Who is the National Institute of Animal Agriculture? NIAA website
states, "The mission of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture
is to provide a forum for building consensus and advancing solutions
for animal agriculture and to provide continuing education and
communication linkages to animal agriculture professionals."
http://animalagriculture.org/aboutNIAA/ ... tsheet.asp. In fact,
the NIAA is a national agribusiness organization whose purpose appears
to be lobbying government for laws and policies that favour
agribusiness. A brief glance at the board of directors seems to
confirm that, since all are drawn from agribusiness companies,
industry groups, or schools of agriculture (which notoriously favour
corporate agribusiness over small farmers and sustainable
agriculture).
http://animalagriculture.org/aboutNIAA/ ... ff/BOD.asp. A list of
members leads to the same conclusion.
http://animalagriculture.org/aboutNIAA/ ... ectory.asp.
7. Who will bear the burden of NAIS?
Small farmers, and especially those engaged in the New Agriculture
("permaculture" or "sustainable agriculture"). First, they will be
forced to pay for NAIS, at least in part. Second, they will be forced
to work for NAIS. In the words of the NAIS Draft Strategic Plan, page
14, paragraph 3, "All groups will need to provide labour." NAIS will
add yet another cost disadvantage to small farmers and the New
Agriculture, and will make local agriculture less competitive with
agribusiness.
http://animalagriculture.org/aboutNIAA/ ... ectory.asp.
8. Won't NAIS help prevent and control disease?
No, NAIS isn't about preventing or controlling disease, it's about
marketing. When a case of mad cow disease (or any other disease)
surfaces, NAIS aims to protect meat producers' markets by tracking
animals through processing to "prove" that only a few animals are
affected and so prevent a public revulsion against their meat. The
most effective way to control disease is to produce meat and milk for
local instead of national markets and "closed herd" techniques.
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National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
Fact Sheet
The National Animal Identification System is being put into place "to
enable 48 hour traceback of the movements of any diseased or exposed
animal."
The NAIS consists of three components:
# Premises registration
# Animal identification
# Animal tracking
Those putting this into place do not consider you the owner of your
animals. Their approach to this is "We must ensure the participation
requirements of the NAIS not only provide the results necessary to
maintain the health of the national herd ?
The government is already encouraging voluntary registration on the radio.
"The USDA?will enact regulations by early 2008, requiring stakeholders
to identify their premises and animals. At that time, all animals
leaving their current premises must be identified with the AIN or
Group/Lot ID.
" Even with public funding, there will be costs to producers. Both
public and private funding will be required for the NAIS to become
fully operational. The Federal government is providing the standards,
national databases, and basic infrastructure.
# States and Tribes will register premises within their areas. They
will also support the administration of animal identification and
tracking systems that will feed information into the national database.
# Producers will identify their animals and provide necessary
records to the databases.
# Managers of shows and events will report a record of participating
animals.
# Market operators and processing plants will provide animal
location records.
# Service providers and third parties will assist by providing
animal identification and movement records to the NAIS on behalf of
their producer clients.
# All groups will need to provide labour."
The Timetable
2005:
? Premises registration: July 2005: All States operational
? Animal identification: August 2005: Initiate "840" number with AIN
tag manufacturers and AIN tag managers
? Animal tracking: January-December 2005: Test identification and
automated data collection technologies
2006:
? Premises Registration: April 2006: Performance measure: 25% of all
premises registered
? Animal identification: April 2006: AIN Management System fully
operational
? Animal tracking:
- July 2006: Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI)
operational in all States
- Focus on integration of management systems to forward animal
locations/sightings
2007
? Premises registration: April 2007: Premises registration "alert"
(scaled up communication campaign to create awareness of January 2008
requirements for premises registration).
? Animal identification: April 2007: Animal identification alert
(scaled up communication campaign to create awareness of January 2008
requirements for animal identification).
? Animal tracking:
- April 2007: Incentives to report interstate movements using ICVI or
electronic movement permit system.
- October 2007: Infrastructure established to collect animal
termination records at high capacity abattoirs.
- Initiate collection of animal movements at concentration points
(markets, feedlots, etc.).
- Expand the integration of management systems to forward animal
locations/sightings.
NAIS Strategic Plan - DRAFT Lines of Action
2008:
? Premises registration: January 2008: All premises registered with
enforcement (regardless of livestock movements).
? Animal Identification: January 2008: Animal identification required
with enforcement.
? Animal tracking:
- July 2008: Collect high percentage of animal termination
records at abattoirs (processing plants).
- July 2008: Collection and reporting all defined
movements.
2009:
- January 2009: Enforcement for the reporting of animal
movements.
- NAIS fully implemented and all components are mandatory.
Compiled from
www.usda.gov/nais click on "Draft Strategic Plan" on
right side of the page under "What's New" heading.
