At the end of summer, and after a couple recesses by Congress, little activity has recently occurred relative to implementation of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Here is an update on two state hot spots and the federal situation.

Michigan
Michigan’s implementation of NAIS under the guise of the tuberculosis program trundles forward. Cattle farmer Greg Niewendorp has protested the implementation by Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) of NAIS chipping and premises registration under the TB program. Greg chose not to put NAIS-compliant radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on his cattle, which MDA has required as of March 1, 2007.

MDA obtained a search warrant. On October 9, 2007, MDA officials arrived at Greg’s property and tagged his cattle, requiring six hours of chasing the bovines foraging loose on his property. All head were tested for TB. Although two cows tested positive with field tests, the final results were negative on all Greg’s cattle.

Greg chose to protest by civil disobedience, and did not contest the warrant in court. He has threatened to remove the RFID tags. Meanwhile, although most farmers in Michigan are outraged by the MDA’s institution of NAIS by way of the TB program, the MDA has continued to push the program—and, indeed, brag to other states that it is a good way to implement NAIS.

New York
In September an increasing number of New York farmers began receiving letters from the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets (DAM), “congratulating” them on registering their farms in the “Federal and State Premises Identification program.” Most of these farmers had not volunteered to be in NAIS. DAM had dumped their information from the scrapie program or Coggins test reports into the databases.

Citizens who have requested to be removed from the premises registration database under the opt-out program (see Unregistering Your Premises) have been rebuffed. Instead of complying with one woman’s request to be removed, DAM sent her a letter asking if she is sure she wants to be removed.

DAM’s failure to let people opt out is more onerous because the agency lies to entice people into the program. At the Country Folks Horse and Farm Expo in Fonda, New York, DAM encouraged people to register their farms, saying the purpose of NAIS is to notify horse owners in case of an outbreak of a contagious disease and that no tracking was involved. DAM failed to mention they’ve already purchased the tracking database.

The duplicity of those bound on implementing NAIS is going full-steam in New York. Many more New York farmers can soon expect to be congratulated on registering their farms, whether or not they agreed to that registration.

United States Congress
The House passed its form of the Farm Bill and the Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Neither bill includes NAIS.

The Senate has taken a different tack. As the Holiday issue of Rural Heritage went to press, Senator Harkin had inserted into the Farm Bill Section 10305, which protects information gathered under NAIS. This provision gives tacit approval of NAIS’s existence and implementation. By now the provision may have been deleted, or may still be alive, as the Farm Bill was supposed to be voted on by the whole Senate by November 9th. For an update feel free to contact the Liberty Ark Coalition (731-986-0099, ).

To send legislators a message about Section 10305 and NAIS generally, contact your own senator and any senator from your state on the Agriculture Committee, as well as the chair and ranking minority member of the Agriculture Committee:

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa (chair), phone 202-224-3254, fax 202-224-9369;

Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia (ranking member), phone 202-224-3521, fax 202-224-0103.

One way to stop NAIS is to deny funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee is offering $20 million to fund NAIS. Assuming the Senate accepts the Appropriations Committee’s recommendation, a conference committee will come together to iron out this difference, along with the many other differences, between the House and Senate legislation.

Keep heat on your senator and on the leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. And if your state has a senator or representative (not necessarily your local legislator) on one of these committees, tell him her you are against NAIS in all forms. The leaders to contact in the House and Senate Agriculture Subcommittees, part of the larger Appropriations Committees, are:

Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut (committee chair), phone 202-225-3661, fax 202-225-4890

Representative Jack Kingston of Georgia (ranking minority member), phone 202-225-5831, fax 202-226-2269

Senator Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin (chair), phone 202-224-5653, fax 202-224-9787

Senator Robert Bennett of Utah (ranking minority member), phone 202-224-5444, fax 202-228-1168.

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.