Cuttin NAIS funding is doing the right thing

Agweek
Published: 08/17/2009

WASHINGTON — We are pleased that the Senate, through a unanimous consent vote, supported an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., that slashes funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Identification System by one-half in the 2010 agriculture appropriations bill.

“Perhaps most important, USDA has pursued NAIS without working in cooperation with the very industry sector that would be directly impacted by the agency’s radical new proposal. Instead, USDA has proceeded to implement NAIS despite overwhelming opposition from the men and women who comprise our U.S. livestock industry, and particularly from those involved in the largest segment of our livestock industry — the U.S. cattle industry,” says Max Thornsberry, president of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.

“As evidenced by USDA’s numerous listening sessions held throughout the U.S., this overwhelming opposition arises from those individuals who have the greatest stake in ensuring that our livestock herds remain protected from the introduction and spread of disease — the individuals whose very livelihoods and businesses are dependent on preventing, controlling and eradicating diseases,” Thornsberry says. “This, above all else, should demonstrate to Congress that USDA’s NAIS program is wholly inappropriate and unsuitable for the United States livestock industry.”

Thornsberry points out that USDA already has spent about $140 million of taxpayer money on NAIS, claiming the program would allow animal disease traceback within 48 hours, but such an arbitrary timeframe would not appear to prevent the spread of diseases with long incubation periods, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or bovine tuberculosis. Nor would NAIS appear to prevent the spread of diseases that incubate quickly, such as foot-and-mouth disease, which would necessitate more immediate containment actions to prevent disease spread beyond an infected animal.

R-CALF signed on with a letter to the entire Senate from a coalition of 76 other organizations that oppose NAIS.

The coalition’s letter touched on a few of the reasons NAIS is fundamentally flawed:

There are “no analysis or quantification of the alleged benefits. USDA has made unsupported assertions that our country needs 48-hour traceback of all animal movements for disease control. Yet USDA has failed to provide any scientific basis, including risk analysis or scientific review of existing programs, to support this claim.

“The costs of complying with NAIS will be unreasonably burdensome for small farmers and many other animal owners.

“NAIS will not prevent foodborne illnesses from E. coli or salmonella, because the contamination occurs at the slaughterhouse, while NAIS tracking ends at the time of slaughter. Thus, NAIS will neither prevent the contamination nor increase the government’s ability to track contaminated meat back to its source.

“In addition to the costs, NAIS would impose significant reporting and paperwork burdens on small farms. In addition, sustainable livestock operations, which manage animals on pasture, would face higher rates of tag losses than confinement operations due to animals getting their tags caught on brush or fences. NAIS essentially creates incentives for (concentrated animal feeding operations), with the accompanying social and environmental concerns.”