Courtesy of Danielle Langloism, Wikipedia CCLFeds scrap NAIS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has halted plans to require every farm animal to have a identification number.
The National Animal Identification System, NAIS, was fiercely opposed by farmers — particularly homesteaders — who argued the plan could bankrupt them.
The program was intended to help authorities quickly identify and track livestock in the event of an animal disease outbreak.
In abandoning the plans, the USDA said it would start over in trying to devise a livestock tracing program with widespread support from farmers.
While this – on the surface – looks like a major victory, hold on to your hats! The government never does anything without a “back-up” plan. This isn’t a spur of the moment thing, it’s been in planning for months. We need to watch VERY closely – they will implement this a bit at a time until – 5-6 years from now – we wake up and find ourselves with NAIS. This is just a “foot in the door” item. We need to be diligent and prevent it from happening.
The slippery slope of a paternalistic government took a step back but you’re right Scrounger, we’ll see what the next step will be in order to keep us “safe” from ourselves although we’re doing just fine without their help. Thanks for the post, great blog!
When I wrote that post I had an Editor’s Note at the bottom suspicious about how soon and how awful the “next-generation” NAIS could be. I took it out because it seemed, at the time, so negative. But your comments tell me we’re all on the same page. Thank you.
I found your blog post while searching Google. Very informative, especially since this is not an issue a lot of people are familiar with…