This excellent analysis generously shared by the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance!
The Federal Plan
After it took up the task from NIAA, the USDA developed the plan through working groups, made up of representatives from government agencies, large agribusinesses, and technology companies. Notably absent from these workgroups were any significant representatives of pet owners, recreational animal owners, and small farmers and ranchers.
On April 25, 2005, the USDA published “Draft Program Standards” (“Standards”) and a “Draft Strategic Plan” (“Plan”) for the NAIS in the Federal Register. While these documents used to be available online, USDA appears to have removed them.
The Standards and Plan have no authority in law. The USDA has stated that the Animal Health Protection Act of 2002 is the source of its authority. (Plan at 9.) But that statute addresses only the import and export of animals, interstate travel, quarantines areas, and related programs. Two Congresses have tried but failed to pass legislation that would amend the Act to provide for a mandatory electronic tracking system for individual head of livestock. USDA is operating without authority from Congress.
USDA, various state agencies, and many private companies who have vested financial interests in seeing NAIS adopted have tried to present an image of the NAIS as a sensible, practical plan to address animal disease. A review of the government’s plan, however, shows quite the opposite. The NAIS Plan provides:
Premises registration: Every person who owns even one horse, cow, pig, chicken, sheep, goat, deer, elk, bison, or virtually any livestock animal, will be forced to register their home, including owner’s name, address, and telephone number, and keyed to Global Positioning System coordinates, in a government database under a 7-digit “premises ID number.” (Standards, pp. 3-4, 10-12; Plan, p. 5.)
Animal Identification: Every animal will have to be assigned a 15-digit ID number by the government. The form of ID will most likely be a tag or microchip containing a Radio Frequency Identification Device, designed to be read from a distance. (Plan, p. 10; Standards, pp. 6, 12, 20, 27-28.) The plan may also include collecting the DNA of every animal and/or a retinal scan of every animal. (Plan, p.13.) Some animals such as pigs and poultry, owned by large producers, may have a “group” identifier assigned instead of an individual number for each animal, as described below.
While some state agencies and industry actors have pointed to the provision for “group numbers” for poultry and swine, small farmers do not manage their animals in ways that would qualify. Group or lot identification can only be used where groups of animals are managed together from birth to death and never commingled with other animals. (Standards pp.5-6.) This provision is tailored for confinement poultry operations, not pastured poultry operations. If animals do not meet the requirements for group identification, they will have to be individually identified.
Animal Tracking: The owner will be required to report: the birthdate of an animal, the application of every animal’s ID tag, every time an animal leaves or enters the property, every time an animal loses a tag, every time a tag is replaced, the slaughter or death of an animal, or if any animal is missing. Also, every time an animal goes onto or off of another person's premises, a report would be required, showing that the tagged animal had been on each of these other premises. Such events must be reported within 24 hours. (Standards, pp. 12-13, 17-21.)
Third parties, such as veterinarians, will be required to report “sightings” of animals who do not have ID numbers. (Standards, p. 25.) In other words, if a farmer or rancher calls a vet to their property to treat an animal, and the vet finds any animal without the mandatory 15-digit computer-readable ID, the vet may be required to report that non-compliance.
As an example of what can be expected as far as enforcement, the proposed Texas regulations for mandatory premises registration provided for fines of up to $1,000 per day and criminal penalties.
The timeline in the Plan included the adoption of federal regulations in July 2006.
2006 Developments
On April 6, 2006, USDA released a press release and additional documents relating to the implementation of NAIS, including “Strategies for the Implementation of NAIS” (“Strategies”) and “Administration of Official Identification Devices with the Animal Identification Number” (“Administration”). These documents have not been published in the Federal Register, unlike the Draft Plan and Draft Strategic Standards from 2005.
These documents provide that the NAIS information will not be kept in a federal database. Rather, NAIS will be implemented by the states and private entities, and USDA will have access to the information through a metadata portal. Animal owners face exactly the same burdens, only now both the government and a private entity will have access to the information on their homes, animals, and movements.
While the press release and Strategies document repeatedly discussed how NAIS is a “voluntary plan,” they include a novel definition of the word “voluntary.” The Strategies states:
USDA will evaluate whether the participation levels are increasing at rates that will achieve full participation by 2009. Based on that analysis, USDA will determine if the market-driven incentives, along with industry “buy-in” for improved animal disease programs, is resulting in adequate participation and growth rates for NAIS to be successful by the established target dates. If participation rates are not adequate, the development of regulations through normal rulemaking procedures will be considered to require participation in certain aspects of the program.
(Strategies, p.3, emphasis added.) There is no definition for “adequate participation” or “growth rates.” USDA set the following benchmarks:
January 2007: 25% of premises registered
January 2008: 70% of premises registered
40% of animals registered
January 2009: 100% of premises registered
100% of “new” animals identified (“New” is defined as animals born in the last year)
60% of animals < 1 year of age have complete movement data
(Strategies, p.3) “These benchmarks are participation levels APHIS believes are necessary for the industry, State, and Federal partnership to successfully achieve the goals and objectives of NAIS.” (Strategies, p.3.) Consistent with the goal of 100% participation, the Administration document states: “To have a successful animal disease management program, all producers and affected industry segments will have to participate eventually.” (Administration, p.1, emphasis added.)
In other words, the USDA contends that 100% of premises must be registered by January 2009, and that all animals born after January 2008 will have to be individually identified, to meet its goals. And if those goals are not met, we can expect there to be federal regulation. Indeed, by setting the intermediate benchmarks, if USDA does not think that there is adequate “growth rates,” it may issue proposed regulations even before 2009.
Overall, the April 6th announcements present a small victory, while still showing how much work is in front of us. We have gained precious time, and no longer face the imminent threat of regulations. Yet the USDA has not changed the true substance of NAIS. Rather, we face a fight in every state to prevent burdensome and pointless regulations, while still facing the threat of federal regulation if USDA believes that there is insufficient progress.
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Arizona and New Mexico Counties Take a Stand
http://www.rddavis.org/equitation/freedom-vs-id.html
Articles:
http://www.eco.freedom.org/el/20060102/edwardhey.shtml
Animal Chip Makers in Hog Heaven
Global Land Grabbing, The Big Picture
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/articles/roberts_animalid.pdf