Update on the National Animal ID System

Hello and welcome to the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance e-news alert.  Feel free to forward this email to your friends and acquaintances.

Write Congress!

USDA's "comment period" on its November User Guide supposedly ended on January 22nd.   But anyone who has not yet written USDA and their elected officials about the user Guide should still do so!  USDA still has not published the User Guide in the Federal Register, so the comment period has no legal force.  Write the USDA and your Congressman and Senators today!

At the same time that you educate your Congressman on the problems with the User Guide, ask him or her to seek hearings on USDA's tactics in implementing the program.  In addition to the federal funding of mandatory and coercive programs, it looks like States could face penalties from USDA if they do not implement mandatory programs of at least portions of NAIS.  The U.S. Animal Health Association has made a "recommendation" that USDA adopt an interim rule that would stop interstate transport of cattle from states that do not have a "a requirement that all breeding age cattle be officially identified by means of official tag or registration brand or tattoo at each change of ownership, other than movements direct to slaughter, or movements through one approved market and then direct to slaughter."  If such a rule is adopted, it would mean that even animals who never left their local area, much less the state, would have to be "officially identified" or else the entire state would face the economic consequences of restricted interstate trade.  Where's the valid health reason or cost-benefit basis for that?  If this is done by an "interim rule," the agency would bypass the normal notice and comment period for rulemaking.  We need Congress to stop this from happening.

Read the full report of the livestock committee on our Articles page (scroll down to "government documents" at the bottom of the page)

If you do not know who your Congressman is, go to http://www.house.gov/writerep/.  To find your Senators, go to http://www.senate.gov/

You can find FARFA's comments on the USDA User Guide on our Articles page.  To make the greatest impact, write your elected officials a short, personalized letter telling them why this issue in important to you and what NAIS would do to your life.  Then enclose a copy of FARFA's comments as a detailed analysis of the flaws with the latest plan, and ask for hearings.  You can find a sample letter to Congress, which includes addresses for the House and Senate Ag Committees, on the Take Action page.

(note: this email service uses active, trackable links.  If they do not come through your email properly, or you are not comfortable with them, you can always find the materials by navigating our website)

State Update

The fight to protect our rights and our food supply is growing by leaps and bounds!  At the same time, the pressure from government and industry to implement NAIS continues.  The last few weeks have seen a number of new developments.

* Six states have now introduced legislation to stop or severely limit NAIS: Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

* Two other states are moving forward very aggressively to implement NAIS: Kentucky and Michigan.

*  Other states continue to move forward with so-called voluntary programs without legislation to stop abuses of the system, including Colorado and Vermont.

For more details on all of these, read the article on the Articles page.

Join FARFA - Membership now starts at just $10

Becoming a member of FARFA helps the fight against the NAIS.  Your membership fees help fund FARFA's work - but even more importantly, more members means the government pays more attention to what we have to say.

Last summer, FARFA was invited to testify at a hearing in front of the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture (you can find the text of our testimony on the Articles page of our website).  One of the first questions the Senator asked was: "How many members do you have?"  In other words, he wanted to know why he and other senators should listen to us.  We have the truth and facts on our side.  But we need members to convince the legislators that they should listen to those facts!

And, of course, we need money to continue our education and lobbying efforts. We  were given a $5,000 matching donation. Please help us to raise another $5,000!

For just $10, you help increase our ability to influence legislators and receive an e-newsletter.  If you give $35 or more, you will receive our new hard-copy newsletter.

We are gaining momentum in this fight, but we have a long way to go.  Please help us to continue this important work by joining today.  Visit our membership page.

For more information, visit our website at www.farmandranchfreedom.org.
 
Working together, we can make our voices heard!
 
Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
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