NIAA: PR versus Reality—Voluntary Registration
by Judith McGeary

USDA’s Guide for Small-Scale and Non-Commercial Producers repeatedly talks about how the NAIS is “voluntary” and “market-driven.” At the ID Expo, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns repeated this theme. A reporter asked him how the USDA can claim the program is voluntary when several states have already implemented, or proposed implementing, mandatory premises registration. How voluntary is it when you face $1,000 fine and the loss of your business license for not signing up? And what about states that are taking people’s information out of other programs, such as the scrapie or tuberculosis programs, and rolling it in batches into the national database? Johanns gave a long answer that boils down to this: The states can implement mandatory programs and “batch uploading” if they want to, and the USDA will put the information into the national database.

I asked a follow-up question: What about funding? Johanns proudly discussed how the USDA has provided millions of dollars to the states to implement NAIS. He completely avoided the issue that giving federal tax dollars to a cash-strapped state agriculture department might encourage it to implement a mandatory program.

And federal tax dollars are not all that encourages states to implement mandatory programs. The USDA’s April 2006 Strategies document stated that every animal owner in this country must participate. “To have a successful animal disease management program,” it says, “all producers and affected industry segments will have to participate eventually.” The USDA established a January 2009 deadline to have 100% of premises registered and 100% of all animals under the age of one year identified, with the remainder of the program to be phased in. The USDA also stated: “If participation rates are not adequate, the development of regulations through normal rulemaking procedures will be considered to require participation in certain aspects of the program.”

In other words, while no federal regulations exist at this time, USDA hangs the threat of such regulations over our heads. How many state officials are implementing mandatory programs or using unfair methods for registering people’s premises because of this federal threat?

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Judith McGeary is an attorney in Austin, Texas, and the executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, an organization representing independent farmers, ranchers, livestock owners, and homesteaders. This article appeared in the Holiday 2006 issue of Rural Heritage.