A number of hot issues and interesting events have come up in the fight against USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The Senate version of the Farm Bill was issued in December. Various states are forcing implementation of NAIS. The legal defense fund, created to support farmers’ direct sales to consumers, is off and running. Below are some issues that may need your action early in 2008, and resources you may find useful.

Making Choices
The obvious ways to fight NAIS include writing letters, making phone calls, and joining organizations that oppose NAIS. Some farmers protest with their pocket books by leaving Farm Bureau or declining to purchase Nutrena brand feeds manufactured by Cargill—Farm Bureau and Cargill being but two ag industry giants in favor of NAIS.
These choices aren’t always possible. Residents of Louisiana, for instance, keep their Farm Bureau memberships because after Hurricane Katrina they have no other source for farm insurance. PBS Animal Health sells radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, but you might do business with them anyway if they are your only source of animal vaccines.
Many people fighting NAIS, and using the internet, buy and use computers running Microsoft operating systems and applications—even though Microsoft announced quite publicly it would help the United States Animal Identification Organization build its NAIS database. I just joined the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA), even though it backs NAIS, because it’s the central organization establishing herd names and IDs for tattooing. I certainly plan to let ADGA know I don’t agree with their stand on NAIS.
We must all search our consciences and make our own choices. Let’s be thankful for everyone who joins the fight against NAIS, and not judge others, or ourselves, harshly for the choices we make. These choices offer no perfect answers, and despite our decisions in making these choices, we are still opposing NAIS. A case in point is deciding whether or not to answer the National Agricultural Statistical Service’s census.

Agricultural Census
Some people have already received this year’s census sent out by the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS). This year’s mandatory census applies to anyone with a farm, which is defined as “any place that produced and sold, or normally would produce and sell, $1,000 or more of agricultural products during the census year” (7 USC section 2204g and 71 Fed. Reg. 7004; the Federal Register publishes the code created under statutes). The statute requires that you not only respond, but answer honestly.
Last year the USDA sent out a census questionnaire that was a screening survey to prepare for this year’s mandatory census. Many people refused to answer last year’s survey because they suspected the information would be used by USDA to enforce NAIS. The unfortunate result is that many small farms weren’t counted, which ultimately may have hurt the independent farmers’ fight against NAIS. Many of us have used the NASS data to show legislators how many small farms exist and the great impact they have on our economy. If small farmers refuse to answer the NASS census, this data will be lost. Legislators and bureaucrats will say, “Too few small farms remain for small farms to be important.”
Yes, it’s possible the data will be abused by USDA. Few of us trust USDA to handle our information properly. USDA already misused the data on premises registration in last year’s great snow storms in the West. The premises registrations are supposed to be used only in the event of a disease outbreak. But they were used to identify farms that might have animals stranded in the snow. Not only did the Colorado state agriculture department and USDA misuse the data, but they actually harmed the animals, and for no reason. The farmers knew perfectly well they had a snow emergency and their animals had probably left their farms. The flights sent out to drop hay frightened the animals and caused them to scatter.
The statute establishing this year’s NASS census specifically states the information gathered “may not be used for any purpose other than the statistical purposes for which the information is supplied” (7 USC Section 2204g(f)(3)). If the USDA complies with the statute, your information should not be placed into NAIS. If the USDA abuses the information, then many of us stand ready to bring action against them.
So if you decide to answer, what do you say? Many of the questions have little or no application to small producers. Last year some farmers chose to write responses such as, “for personal consumption only” or “does not apply” in many of the survey sections. You are required only to answer honestly, which doesn’t necessarily mean “checking the box.” If you have any concerns about how you should answer the census questions based on your own farming situation, obtain legal advice.

The Farm Bill
The Senate’s version of the Farm Bill was issued December 14, 2007. The major issue in the Farm Bill this year is subsidies. NAIS gets small attention in comparison.
As we pointed out in the Holiday 2007 issue of Rural Heritage, Senator Harkin of Iowa inserted Section 10305 in the Senate version of the Farm Bill. This section remains in the final Senate version of the Farm Bill. The most troubling part of the section is a definition of NAIS, as “a system for identifying or tracing animals that is established by the Secretary [of Agriculture].” Section 10305 is the first statutory reference to NAIS. It gives NAIS credence, which makes our battle against NAIS all the more difficult.
Most people, though, have focused on the provisions regarding release of information from the NAIS databases. Section 10305 makes the information in the NAIS database exempt from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. FOIA was passed to allow citizens to request information on government activities. From time to time Congress has decided some types of information should not be available to the general public. Because the ability to obtain information was created by Congress, Congress has the right to limit that ability.
Some people fighting NAIS think the information in the NAIS database should be provided to anyone submitting a FOIA request. They usually are thinking about large confinement operation producers. Their concern is that these operations will have diseased animals, and they want citizens along the distribution routes to know about shipments. Some small farmers, though, would prefer their information not to be available, because they fear organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its ally Animal Liberation Front (ALF) will attack farms and let animals loose.
These issues sidestep the main point: No central database of information should be created on farmers and their property. The USDA has proven it can’t protect information, having posted tens of thousands of farmers’ social security numbers on the internet. Hackers (people to who electronically break into databases) have breached other banking and government databases. The data isn’t secure. And, of course, NAIS serves no good purpose. Fussing over the FOIA provisions is like changing a broken light fixture when your house has termites in the wall and cracks in the foundation. We must keep the pressure on to rid ourselves of NAIS entirely.
The only way to stop Section 10305 will be if the conference committee on the Farm Bill removes it. The conference committee will likely convene in January. The conference committee is made up of significant members of the Agriculture Committees of the House and the Senate. They meet to work out a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill. We can pressure the conference committee to remove Section 10305. Call or write to the people listed below, and your own representative and senators, and tell them “remove the Senate Farm Bill Section 10305. I do not support NAIS or any other form of animal identification program.” If you write to a Washington, DC, office the mail is delayed due to the security process it goes through. So call Washington, or fax a letter, or mail your letter to your representative’s and senators’ local offices within your state.
As we go to press with this issue of Rural Heritage, we don’t yet know who all the members of the conference committee will be, but two senators and two representatives who should definitely be on the committee are the chair and ranking members of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees:
Senator Tom Harkin (chair), phone 202-224-3254, fax 202-224-9369; Senator Saxby Chambliss (ranking member), phone 202-224-3521, fax 202-224-0103; Congressman Collin Peterson (chair), phone 202-225-2165, fax 202-225-1593; Congressman Bob Goodlatte (ranking member), phone 202- 225-5431, fax 202-225-9681.

4-H and FFA Coercion
We have confirmed reports about 4-H and FFA youth being required to register their families’ farm property—premises registration under NAIS—in Colorado, North Carolina, and Illinois. Reports keep coming in on other states, including Michigan and Iowa, but we don’t yet have confirmations. The rapidly increasing number of states making these requirements is disturbing.
Colorado—The Colorado State University Cooperative Extension announced it would require all 4-H and FFA youth to provide an NAIS premises registration number when they attended the state fair this year. After great public outcry, the Extension said it would reconsider its position. In late November the premises registration requirement was reinstated. Youth have been encouraged to register their parents’ and neighbors’ farms, without the owners’ permission. The state fair’s newsletter contains the latest announcement. You may find it at www.coloradostatefair.com/index.php?page=newsletter
Illinois—On October 31, 2007, Illinois became the latest state to jump on the youth coercion bandwagon. Beginning in 2008 NAIS premises registration will be required for all state, county, 4-H, and FFA shows or fairs. Illinois specifically includes horses that will be shown or raced, and if the horses come from out of state, the premises registration must come from the state where the animal is housed. Illinois state officials admit that premises registration is only the beginning of NAIS implementation. The full press release may be found at www.agr.state.il.us/isf/press/p0710311.html

Massachusetts Works Backwards
Massachusetts managed to win the “doing it backwards” award for 2007. Just before Thanksgiving the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) sent letters to many farmers informing them MDAR was automatically registering farms in the NAIS premises registration database. The letter informed farmers they would be registered unless they wrote to the MDAR by December 14, 2007, stating they wanted to opt out.
Many farmers learned about the registrations and MDAR letter from the newspapers. The status of farmers who didn’t receive a letter is unclear—how can they opt out if MDAR didn’t inform them?
Pat Stewart, founder of the Massachusetts Small Holders Alliance, wrote the new commissioner of MDAR asking that these registrations be stopped. Both the Small Holders Alliance (smallholdersalliance.com) and the Liberty Ark Coalition (libertyark.net) advise farmers, even those who didn’t receive the letter, to write MDAR putting the agency on notice they do not want to be part of NAIS.

Karin Bergener of Ravenna, Ohio, is an attorney and co-founder of Liberty Ark Coalition. This article appeared in the Holiday 2007 issue of Rural Heritage.