March 9, 2010: The Wisconsin trial court has dismissed the case against Mr. Miller, an Amish farmer who refused to register his property on religious grounds.  Read the court's decision here.  FARFA and 22 other organizations filed an amicus brief in support of Mr. Miller, which you can read here.

February 8, 2010: Read FARFA's letter to Secretary Vilsack about USDA's announcement that it is dropping NAIS and focusing on a new interstate program 

 February 5, 2010:  USDA announces that it is dropping NAIS.  This is a major victory for the grassroots!  USDA has stated that it is refocusing its efforts on “a new, flexible framework” that will apply only to animals moved in interstate commerce and encourage the use of “lower-cost” technology.  You can read more details from USDA at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_health/content/printable_version/faq_traceability.pdf

We still have more work in front of us.  As USDA develops its new framework, we must be involved and vocal, so that agribusiness does not develop yet another high-tech, big-industry boondoggle.  We must be active at the state level to ensure that the state agencies do not implement unnecessary and burdensome rules.  And we must work to roll back the unfair requirements that have already been implemented in Wisconsin and Michigan.  Ultimately, it is up to us – as animal owners, homesteaders, farmers, ranchers, and consumers -- to build a positive vision for our farms and our food.

Thank you to everyone who took action to help make this happen!

December 2, 2009:  FARFA filed comments on the USDA's "Concept Papers" for bovine
tuberculosis and bovine brucellosis, objecting to the agency's proposal to use electronic movement certificates, as well as the agency's proposal to ignore State boundaries in favor of a "zoned" approach and to bypass the due process protections of the Administrative Procedures Act. Read our comments here.

December 2, 2009:  FARFA and 21 other organizations file amicus brief in support of Amish farmer to stop mandatory premises registration in Wisconsin.  Read the brief here. 

*** 100 Organizations Ask USDA and Congress to End NAIS!*** 

November 20, 2009:  FARFA coordinated letters to Congress and USDA that were signed by 100 organizations, asking that USDA use the funds appropriated to wrap up NAIS and end the program. 

October 2, 2009: The Agriculture Appropriations Conference Committee has issued its report, and NAIS got $5.3 million in funding for Fiscal Year 2010.  This is about 1/3 of what USDA had requested ($14.76 million).  Thank you to everyone who took the time to call their Congressman and the Conference Committee members! You can read the relevant portion of the Committee's report here.

September 24, 2009: FARFA and 28 other organizations send letter to USDA Undersecretaries John Ferrell and Ann Wright, asking them to halt NAIS implementation.  Read the letter here 

September 9, 2009: FARFA coordinated a letter, signed by more than 90 organizations, urging that the conference committee adopt the House version of the Appropriations bill and eliminate funding for NAIS in the 2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill.  Read the letter here: Letter to the Agriculture Appropriations Conference Committee 

August 3, 2009: FARFA coordinated a letter to the U.S. Senate, signed by 77 organizations, urging that the Tester Amendment to cut NAIS funding in half be adopted, as a first step towards eliminating all funding.  Read the letter here.  FARFA also coordinated an earlier, more detailed letter to the Senate explaining the problems with NAIS, which you can read here

USDA Listening Sessions

USDA has wrapped up its listening sessions on NAIS.  But you can still submit written comments! Check out some of the highlights of the meetings:

• FARFA's  written comments
• FARFA's Director's statement at the Austin listening session on May 20, 2009
• Statement by Wendell Berry
• Video clips from the Texas meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suZ2SjT9fu8
• Video clips from the Missouri and SD meetings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsmUzTITQFc  

Take Action - Submit written comments

You can submit comments ONLINE at:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2009-0027   

Helpful tips for using the government comments site: Click on the yellow balloon under the "add comments" column.  Fill out the required sections, and type in your comments.  If you have long comments, it works best to type them up in a document, and then copy & paste them into the comment box.  Then click "next step."  On the next screen, click "submit." You should get a confirmation number at the end of the process.  If you don't, double check that you've filled in all the required fields and clicked all the "next step" buttons.

Or MAIL to:

ATTN NAIS

Surveillance and Identification Programs

National Center for Animal Health  Programs, VS, APHIS,

4700 River Road Unit 200

Riverdale, MD 20737   

Download sample comments that you can personalize.   You can also check out the alternatives that FARFA proposes to NAIS fore more ideas.

Other News 

May 5, 2009: The House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry will hold a joint hearing with the Homeland Security's Subcommitee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology.  The list of panelists is expected to be released the day before the hearing

April 15, 2009: Secretary Vilsack hosted a roundtable in DC, inviting 29 organizations to provide comments on NAIS.  FARFA was one of the groups invited.  Read our written comments here

March 16: FARFA joined with more than 70 other organizations to send a letter to USDA Secretary Vilsack on March 16, opposing the USDA's proposed rule for NAIS and the implementation of NAIS generally.   Download the letter here

March 16: Over 18,000 people submitted comments on USDA's proposed rule to mandate NAIS premises registration for certain disease control programs.  Read more about the proposed rule below.

March 2009: Read about the food safety bills currently before Congress here  

Congressional Hearing on NAIS 

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry held a hearing on "animal identification programs" on Wednesday, March 11, 2009.  

Read our press release about the hearing!

Download FARFA's written testimony to the Subcommittee here 

Click here for a list of the Subcommittee members. 

Appropriations News

The 2009 omnibus Appropriations bill, HR 1105, was signed into law on March 11.  The bill includes $14.5 million of funding for NAIS, which is significantly less than the amount requested by the USDA for FY 2009.
 
Representative Obey (D-WI) included a statement in the record about the intended uses of the appropriations for USDA, including timelines and performance goals for NAIS.  This statement does not mandate NAIS, but it implies approval of the USDA's Business Plan, which includes using existing disease control programs to implement NAIS and achieve those performance goals.  

The good news is that it appears that the provision that would have required the School Lunch Program to buy meats only from NAIS-registered farms did NOT make it into the omnibus Appropriations bill!  You can read our sign-on letter to Congress, with more than 60 organizations, on this issue at http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/files/SignOnLetter080625.pdf    Thank you to everyone who called and wrote their Congressmen to oppose that provision!

To read the Omnibus Appropriations bill, go to www.thomas.gov and enter "HR 1105" in the search box.  Click the option for "Bill Number" and then hit "search."  Rep. Obey's explanatory statement can be read by clicking on the link for "H1653-H2088" under "Note" (towards the top of the page of the search result).

USDA Proposed Rule - Comment Period Ended March 16, 2009

In February, the USDA proposed a rule to require all farms and ranches where animals are raised to be registered in a federal database under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for existing disease control programs.  The draft rule covers programs for cattle, sheep, goats, and swine.  It also sets the stage for the entire NAIS program to be mandated for everyone, including anyone who owns even one livestock animal, for example, a single chicken or a horse.

The USDA has been working for over five years to force NAIS onto American animal owners.  NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners across the country.
 
USDA claims that NAIS is a disease tracking program, but has refused to provide any support for its claims.  In reality, NAIS will:

    * Replace states' existing, well-functioning disease response and brand inspection programs with an unproven, expensive, and unreliable system;
    * Impose high costs and government surveillance on every farmer and animal owner for no significant benefits, and will likely force many small producers out of business.

NAIS does nothing to improve food safety for consumers or prevent animal diseases.  This program is a one-size-fits-all program developed by and for big Agribusiness.  NAIS will increase consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few large companies and put the brakes on the growing movement toward local food systems.
 
Despite promises to the contrary, the USDA's new proposed rule would make portions of the NAIS mandatory for thousands of people in every state.   Anyone who participates in federal disease control program for cattle, sheep, goats or swine will have their premises registered.  The NAIS Premises Identification Number (PIN) will become the only form of premises identification acceptable for USDA animal health purposes, with no opt-out provision. 
 
The proposed rule would also limit official Animal Identification Numbers to the NAIS-compliant 840-numbering system, laying the groundwork for future regulations that would limit people's options on the types of tags they could use.
 
The comment period for the proposed rule ended on March 16.  Over 18,000 people submitted comment online!  

The grassroots movement has already successfully stalled USDA's plans for NAIS, which originally called for the entire program - premises registration, animal identification, and tracking - to be mandatory by January 2009.   The proposed rule is an opportunity to get thousands of objections in the formal record, and have an even greater impact.  It is imperative that people speak up to protect our right to farm and our food supply!

Previous News

December 1 Action Alert: USDA Memo Mandating Premises Registration Creates Conflicting Reports!  Read more about it in the article below.

September 17, 2008: FARFA joined with fifty-four other organizations to send a letter to Congress opposing funding for NAIS and asking Congress to keep NAIS out of any food safety bills.  Read more here 

ARTICLE:  The Government’s Doublespeak on  the National Animal Identification System

The USDA’s implementation of the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS, has taken government doublespeak to a new level.  The USDA’s original plan for NAIS, released in May 2005, called for the program to become mandatory after an initial voluntary period. In fact, the first two stages – premises registration and animal identification – were supposed to become mandatory in January 2008, followed by animal tracking in January 2009.  When a public outcry ensued, the USDA changed the timeline and called for “100% voluntary participation,” an absurd concept.  Chastised yet again by animal owners, the USDA then stated, in November 2007, that NAIS was “voluntary at the federal level.”  At the same time, the USDA issued guidelines for funding states that implemented NAIS.  The USDA stated that it would fund mandatory state programs, data mining efforts, and other non-voluntary methods of getting people into NAIS.  Throughout this process, USDA officials have made statements along the lines of: “People are overreacting.  You shouldn’t rely on what the documents say, you should ask us what we meant.”

In the course of the last two years, the USDA’s mis-use of the word “voluntary” has been amply demonstrated.  Wisconsin and Indiana have openly mandated premises registration, while other states have used creative coercive tactics. Tennessee and North Carolina state agriculture departments denied drought-stricken farmers disaster relief if they were not registered in NAIS.  Children were kicked out of the Colorado state fair for not being registered.  Ranchers in Idaho found themselves registered in NAIS without their knowledge or consent after filling out paperwork to keep their rights to their brands, while horse owners in New York were similarly registered after taking their horses in for routine disease testing. 

The USDA took another step along its twisted path this fall, issuing a memo to its Veterinary Services Management Team that requires NAIS premises registration for various disease program activities.  The memo includes activities such as vaccinations, testing, and applying official ear tags, for programs for every livestock species, ranging from brucellosis to scrapies to equine infectious anemia.  Under this memo, people who refuse to have their farms registered would be registered against their will.  Animal owners who take government-required steps, such as testing and vaccinating their animals, would find themselves enrolled in the NAIS premises registration database with or without their consent.

USDA has failed to follow any of the administrative procedures required to create enforceable regulations when it issued this new step in NAIS.  And, indeed, even the proponents of NAIS have apparently realized the lack of authority for this latest step.  The U.S. Animal Health Association, while supporting a mandatory NAIS, has passed a resolution calling on the USDA to show its legal authority for the memo.  The American Horse Council, another NAIS proponent, has tried to reassure horse associations that the memo doesn’t really mean what it says.  The AHC claims the memo was about what would happen in the future – despite the clear, present tense of the memo’s language.  Some USDA field offices and state animal health authorities have claimed ignorance of the memo’s contents, while others have said that it will not be enforced.

Regardless of its implementation or enforceability, however, the memo reveals USDA’s plan for NAIS.  Here are some excerpts:

• USDA is requiring NAIS premises registration “as the sole and standard location identifier” for activities relating to any disease regulated through the Code of Federal Regulations, for emerging or re-emerging disease, and for foreign animal diseases (p.1);
• People who refuse to voluntarily register their properties in NAIS will be registered against their will: “If the person responsible for the premises chooses not to complete the form to register his/her premises, either the animal health official or an accredited veterinarian will collect the defined data fields.”  (p.2);
• The memo applies to federal animal health authorities, state animal health authorities, and private veterinarians who are accredited for federally regulated diseases (p.1);
• Any veterinarian who is accredited for a federally regulated disease is subject to the USDA’s edict to involuntarily register his or her clients: “A PIN is required for activities performed at a premises by a State or Federal animal health authority or an accredited veterinarian for any disease that is regulated through Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations.” (p.4);
• The listed disease programs for which a PIN will be required include programs that cover every species of animal, from tuberculosis and brucellosis programs in cattle to the scrapie program for sheep and goats to equine infectious anemia in horses (p.5); and
• The activities that will result in being registered in NAIS include vaccinations, diagnostic tests, certifications (other than certificates of veterinary inspection), and the application of official eartags or backtags (p.5).

As they have done throughout the implementation of NAIS, USDA officials and pro-NAIS industry groups are yet again saying: “We didn’t really mean what the document says.”  First it’s mandatory, then it’s voluntary, then it’s up to the states, then the states have to do what USDA says, then it’s mandatory again, then it’s voluntary.  Over and over, the USDA issues documents, and then claims that the public is overreacting to what those documents clearly state.  It is long past time for Congress and the President to rein in this agency.

Older News:    

Good news from the Senate Appropriations Committee!

The Senate Appropriations Committee's report has been released, and it does not include the provision linking the School Lunch program to NAIS, or any other provision for mandatory NAIS, as far as we can tell! 
 
The Committee did include some funding for NAIS: approximately $9.8 million for NAIS itself and $3.2 million for related programs (WLIC, FAIR, and RFID research).  Although we would have liked to see all funding stopped, this is still a significant improvement over last year's Senate recommendation of approximately $24 million for NAIS and NAIS-related programs!
 
Thank you to all those who called their Senators and made their voices heard!

July 2008: 81 organizations, including FARFA, signed a letter to the House Appropriations Committee asking them not to link NAIS to the School Lunch Program. 

US Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chairwoman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, has inserted pro-NAIS provisions into the Agriculture Appropriations bill for 2009.  According to her press release, the bill would require USDA to purchase meat products for the School Lunch Program from livestock premises registered with National Animal Identification System beginning in July 2009.  This is a back-door method for mandating NAIS through the power of the purse strings.  The bill also provides a total NAIS funding level of $14.5 million or about $4.8 million above 2008.  The House Agriculture Appropriations bill is stuck in Committee and is not expected to move ahead in 2008.

Talking Points

In addition to the message above, here are some more talking points about why the NAIS provisions in the Agriculture Appropriations bill should be taken out.  Pick one or two to focus on, and put them in your own words!
 
*  This bill uses the government's power to economically coerce farmers into NAIS. That is not a "voluntary" program.

*  This bill throws good money after bad, supporting a program that is not sound economically or scientifically. 
    *  USDA has presented no science to back up its claims that NAIS will address livestock diseases.
    *  The USDA has never completed a cost/benefit analysis to show that NAIS is worthwhile.
    *  NAIS will not improve food safety.  The massive Hallmark/Westland beef recall this past year was caused by the slaughterhouse employees' failure to follow existing regulations for handling "downer" cows.  Mandating NAIS on cattle producers will not make anybody obey the laws we already have.
    *  NAIS will not help Americans compete in the world market.  If it is mandatory, or even adopted by most producers, those who participate will not get premiums for their meat.

*  Pouring more money into the program is a waste of precious tax dollars that could be better spent on safety inspections at packing and processing plants, where most food contamination occurs.
 
* Using the school lunch program to force farmers into NAIS undermines the growing farm-to-school program, which helps children get fresh, local, and sustainably raised foods.  Local farmers should not be forced into an unpopular program that has nothing to do with food quality or safety in order to provide food for our children.
 
*  The claim that USDA has achieved 33% of its Premises Registration goal is wrong.  USDA computes its percentage of premises registered based on farmers who answer the agriculture census.  Hundreds of thousands of additional horse owners, families with a few chickens, suburbanites with a pet pot-bellied pig, and others like them are technically covered by NAIS, but USDA ignores them when it reports its supposed successes to Congress.  The vast majority of people who will be impacted by NAIS either oppose it or are still unaware of it!
 
* NAIS has never been specifically approved by Congress.  This massive program, which will impact millions of people, should be addressed through full and open debate, not snuck in through appropriations.

More Information

DeLauro's press release is posted at: http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/DeLauroSubMarkup06-19-08.pdf  See pages 6-7 for discussion of the NAIS provisions in the bill.
 
DeLauro has supported tracking farms for some time.  Her food safety bill from 2007 included tracking all food from its origin to consumer's plates.  Her press release on the school lunch initiative states, "We will also strengthen Animal ID and the National School Lunch Program including language to provide market-based incentives to strengthen both the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and the National School Lunch Program."
 
The press release makes it clear that DeLauro supports moving the entire NAIS program forward: "The bill's report details specific implementation milestones to shine the spotlight on APHIS's delivery of NAIS.  The Committee worked in consultation with the agency, and we largely derived these performance measures from the agency's own NAIS business plan.  We are going to move well beyond tracking the number of premises registered and follow more closely how APHIS is using the money. The NAIS milestones include (1) 48-hour traceability standards for specific species; and (2) program administration deliverables."

The actual bill language is not yet available.  We will send a follow up alert when it is.

This is going to be another hard fight to win.  Several key committee members in both the House and the Senate support a mandatory NAIS, and will be glad for anything that moves us towards that.  So we need everyone to call!  Tell your friends and neighbors what is happening, and ask them to call also.
 
Let your voice be heard!

Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
www.farmandranchfreedom.org
866-687-6452