Battles are shaping up in Congress, and at least one state has legislation pending.

The Farm Bill is the major bill right now. It has been voted out of the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry with a provision giving USDA authority to establish NAIS. By the time this edition of {Rural Heritage} is in your hands, the full House Agriculture Committee should have voted on the bill. Chairman Collin Peterson wants NAIS, and put provisions for it in the Farm Bill.

Peterson also has decided NAIS is a requisite for applying country of origin labeling (COOL) to food. Linking the two programs together is nonsense, because they will cancel each other out. Consumers will buy American food, thinking they’re supporting farmers, while at the same time independent farmers are being run out of business.

You still have many opportunities to oppose NAIS’s inclusion in the Farm Bill. Call and write regularly to fight it, because one way or another a Farm Bill will be passed. Important things to tell your congressional representatives and senators about the Farm Bill:

• Remove Section 121, which establishes NAIS.
• NAIS is not needed to institute COOL.

The Safe Food Act of 2007 (HR1148/S654) would require, in Section 210, a new Food Safety Administration to “establish requirements for a national system for tracing food and food producing animals from point of origin to retail sale.” This bill is not moving quickly, but we must all keep an eye on it.

To establish a Livestock Identification Board to create and implement a national livestock identification system (HR2301), introduced by Representative Steven King is the same as his bill from the last Congress. It establishes an electronic tracing system for cattle, sheep and goats, swine, and poultry. We won’t bore you with the composition and workings of the Livestock Identification Board, but be assured it will represent large producers, not independent agriculture. The exclusion of horses should not be of comfort, as it would take a minor amendment to add them and other animals. The bill goes into great detail about premises registration, and animal registration and tracking.

To amend the Animal Health Protection Act (HR1018) sponsored by Representative Joanne Emerson, would stop a mandatory NAIS. It has exactly the same provisions as her bill from last year, although in each Congress, bills must be re-introduced and assigned new numbers.

Massachusetts has two anti-NAIS bills pending. House Docket 1324 blocks the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture (MDAR) from accepting NAIS monies for 2007, requires MDAR to stop uploading data to the federal premises database, and seeks removal for people who were involuntarily enrolled.

Senate Docket 1472, “An Act Relative to Farm Protection,” includes all of those provisions and adds other protections. SD1472 precludes MDAR from using other existing programs, such as the scrapie program for sheep and goats, as a means to implement NAIS. This provision is important because agriculture departments in other states have already used programs, such as the tuberculosis program, to establish NAIS.

The agency can still continue its existing programs, and the legislature can always decide to provide for a new disease-control program. SD1472 merely stops the agency from establishing a premises registration or animal identification program without legislative authorization. SD1472 also prohibits any person, whether private or governmental, from discriminating against anyone who does not participate in NAIS or programs like it. Hearings were set for early July.

• Return to: Lessons Learned, New Challenges

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