Page 88 - Summer2008

ment came from a state ofcial whose NAIS plans for 4H youth have through “all industry organizations that
been attacked aggressively. provide services to horse owners/breeders”
(Plan, P. 55).
Anyone who has attended an NIAA conference over the last few years
will tell you that participants, including animal agriculture ofcials from THE AMS PLAN

multi-national corporations, state agriculture departments, and the United The same week as the NIAA conference,
States Department of Agriculture, (USDA), feel destined to bring forward USDA announced its Agricultural Marketing
NAIS. You might think this comes from some higher moral level, such as Service’s Business Plan to Advance National
creating a safe food supply. Instead, I heard things like, “It will make my Animal Identi cation System (the AMS Plan).
job easier. You have no idea how hard it is to deal with a disease outbreak.” The AMS Plan con rmed what many of us have
Back down we go on Kohlberg’s scale —level 2, perhaps? Why? Because known: participation in any agriculture program
there is no moral justication for NAIS. It is impossible to support it and will be predicated on participating in NAIS.

occupy that higher ground. Perhaps the most egregious of these instances
to date occurred when North Carolina farmers,
PROMOTING NAIS crippled from a drought were forced to register
So what do these pragmatists have up their sleeves? How are they their farms in order to obtain hay from the State

going to promote NAIS now? In a nal workshop, on the day devoted of North Carolina.
to NAIS, the attendees bemoaned some of the hurdles they’re facing in The AMS Plan outlines how the current
getting people to sign up for NAIS. The costs are a problem for some Source Veri cation and USDA Quality System

farmers who have found out from anti-NAIS ghters, of course, that it’s Assess Programs will have their identi cation
not just about a $2.50 tag. Or, in Wisconsin where registration of farms requirements converted to NAIS compliant
(“premises registration” in NAIS-terminology) is mandatory, that getting methods. The programs will be required to in-
animals registered and tagged (stage 2 of NAIS) and tracked (stage 3 of clude a “NAIS Recommendation” in their new
NAIS) will be a challenge because packers indicate the market for source- applications. The AMS Plan calls for the United
veried meat is already met. And, worst of all, said one attendee, there are Egg Producers to adopt NAIS premises registra-

those pesky “state statutes” blocking state mandatory animal identication tion as part of their animal welfare program. How
programs! tagging chickens improves their welfare is lost on
Make no mistake, these people intend to go forward, and aren’t going most farmers, but, of course, USDA found some
to let any minor setbacks like state statutes get in their way. What are they way to claim they’re connected!

going to do if people ghting NAIS continue to succeed? They all admitted The AMS Plan goes on to show other abuses
that they can get perhaps 70 percent participation voluntarily, but if they of agriculture programs in the name of NAIS
want 100 percent participation … something will have to be done. Their implementation. Check-off funds are to be used
newest tactic is one we’ve been predicting for some time: convert existing to fund premises registration. Feedlots that be-
disease programs into NAIS-compliant ones. Here are two examples: come part of NAIS will be listed as members of
the “National Disease Response Network” which
• Scrapie. Scrapie registrations have always had a farm-based registra- apparently is one of the new NAIS aliases. AMS
tion, usually a combination of letters that refers to the state and then staff attend meetings of the beef, dairy, egg and
the farm’s name. The animals’ tags were linked to the farms. Over pork promotion boards and are to “aggressively
time, the existing tags will be “converted” to electronic tags, and the educate and inform the Boards regarding NAIS”
farm registrations will be linked to 7-digit NAIS-compliant premises and “facilitate the Boards’ further promotion of
registration numbers. Then, eventually, the old numbering systems NAIS to producers.”
will be phased out. This is common knowledge among people in the The AMS Plan lists a variety of ways that
scrapie program. One of the major manufacturers of the current tags our tax dollars can be spent to “encourage” and
said at the NIAA conference, “I accept that all the tags will be elec- “ensure” NAIS participation by all livestock pro-
tronic eventually.” ducers. You can nd the plan, a mere two-pages

with a wealth of information, at www.ams.usda.
• Coggins. The USDA Business Plan to Advance Animal Disease Trace- gov/AMSv1.0/getle?dDocName=STELPRDC5

ability issued in December 2007 states that by January 2009, horses that 068314
require a Coggins test to detect Equine Infectious Anemia should be
using the NAIS standard RFID technology. This will be implemented
86 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2008