The USDA is planning to implement to National Animal Identification System by the fall of 2007. The Draft Strategic Plan will be written by July of 2006, with a short period for commentary to follow. This is a critical point for all homesteaders and small farming operations with livestock.

According to the requirements for registration and identification, every animal that could possibly be used for human consumption, from farmed fish to a pet horse, would have to be registered and accounted for through a government agency. Every time an animal leaves your property—for breeding, a show, slaughter, or just to ride your horse on a trail—you will be required by federal law to report it within 24 hours.

I am concerned about the ramification of such stringent guidelines for private ownership and use of livestock. As a small-scale beef rancher, I feel my livelihood is in serious jeopardy. Although there are real dangers of food source contamination, these exist primarily in feedlots, where thousands of animals are held in a confined area. The NAIS does not focus on these operations. Quite the contrary. Large-scale producers would be allowed to umbrella thousands of animals under one identification code, whereas small-scale owners will be required to register each individual animal, with large animals requiring an implant or tag containing a microchip. In addition, any property where an animal is raised must be registered by owner’s name, address, and phone number and keyed to GPS [global positioning system] coordinates for satellite assisted location of houses and farms, to be mandatory by January 2008.

The USDA has admitted there will be a cost to the producers. This means the small operator will bear the brunt of the expense, because each individual animal requires a registration code number. No justification can be strong enough to subject a family-run farm to these restrictions. The fees and bureaucratic red tape will make it impractical to continue raising livestock for personal use. Approval of the NAIS as written could signal the end of homesteading and the American family farm.

We need to organize and fight the obvious persecution of all small volume livestock owners by the large corporate producers, and the makers of high-tech animal ID equipment and their lobbyists, who endorse these unrealistic restrictions. If our way of life is to continue, we must revise the proposed guidelines being implemented in some states at this very moment. To hesitate now could mean the loss of the American family farm tradition forever. Let us unify to protect the most unquestionable human right, a tradition as old as civilization—raising animals to feed our families.

Steven J. Kamin lives in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. His letter appeared in The Evener 2006 issue of Rural Heritage.