Nat'l Alert - Stop Electronic Animal ID Mandate - The Weston A. Price Foundation

Tell Congress to Stop the USDA’s Electronic Animal ID Mandate

Protect Small Farmers & Ranchers and Those Depending on Them for Food

Your action is vital to protect small farmers and ranchers and all those who depend on them for their food.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is at it yet again! Despite opposition from the vast majority of farmers and ranchers, the agency is moving ahead with finalizing a mandate for electronic animal identification, a move that could have a major impact on farmers and ranchers across the country.

Mandatory electronic animal identification DOES NOT address food safety or animal disease concerns, but instead, unreasonably burdens farmers and ranchers.

USDA even got the House to slip a provision into this week’s appropriations bill to provide $15 million for electronic tags and infrastructure. Of course, that’s just a fraction of the real cost of the program – leaving farmers and ranchers to pay for much, much more.

USDA has tried, unsuccessfully, in the past to push this mandate on farmers. For years, we fought this Big Meatpacker-driven program, including loss of privacy, cost, inefficiency, and the burdens on small-scale farmers and ranchers. In 2010, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) alongside hundreds of other farmers and organizations successfully stopped the USDA from imposing an Animal electronic ID mandate. We can do it again in 2024 but we need your help.

We urge you to take immediate action and voice your opposition to USDA’s electronic animal ID mandate. The agency has ignored the voices of the public, so now it’s time to take our concerns to our elected representatives and urge them to stand up for small farmers and ranchers! The funding provision shows that Congress doesn’t understand this issue at all, and it’s up to YOU to help us educate them!

ACTION TO TAKE

1. Call your Congresspeople: Call and/or email your legislators in the U.S. House and Senate, and express your concerns about the proposed electronic animal ID mandate. Calls are most effective, so be sure to follow up by phone to speak to your legislators or their staffers. Clearly state your opposition and ask for their support in stopping this mandate. See Talking Points and More Information below.

To find your U.S. Senators and Representative, enter your street address at https://www.congress.gov/members

2. Spread the word: Share this information with your friends, family, and fellow farmers. Encourage them to also call their Congresspeople and voice their opposition to the mandate. Click here to view a video posted by FARFA opposing the USDA’s proposed rule to mandate electronic ID for cattle and bison.

3. Stay Informed: Keep a close eye on updates from FARFA (farmandranchfreedom.org), R-CALF (r-calfusa.com) and other relevant organizations to stay informed about developments related to this mandate.

TALKING POINTS

1. USDA has failed to show a need to impose more expensive requirements: Prior to imposing new regulations and costs, an agency should conduct an analysis to determine the need and whether the new requirements actually address that need. Despite numerous requests, the USDA has failed to conduct such an analysis for mandatory electronic animal ID.

2. The proposed rule disproportionately harms small farmers and ranchers: Moving to a completely electronic ID system carries significant costs, not only from the cost of the tag itself but also associated infrastructure costs. This impacts not only farmers, but also sales barns and large-animal veterinarians. Large corporate-controlled operations will not only benefit from economies of scale, but could structure their operations to avoid individual ID requirements altogether.

3. It will be ineffective in improving animal traceability: Based on the agency’s own analysis, the proposed rule will be ineffective. The agency estimates that it will impact only 11% of cattle in the country. Yet an earlier congressional analysis concluded that 18% was too low of a participation rate to make traceability programs effective [see Summary, “Animal Identification and Traceability: Overview and Issues” (Nov 29, 2010) – https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R40832].

4. It ignores the extensive stakeholder work that went into the Animal Disease Traceability rule: The ADT rule, and in particular the decision to include low-tech traditional forms of ID, was the result of extensive work and negotiations among numerous stakeholders. In proposing to mandate electronic ID, the agency is acting contrary to the carefully negotiated consensus.

5. Mandating electronic ID undermines the goal of promoting a resilient food system: If we want to build resilient, diversified supply chains, the federal government needs to take steps to avoid regulations and policies that are prejudiced against small- and mid-scale producers, such as mandatory electronic Animal ID.

MORE INFORMATION

Consider this: The only state to mandate electronic ID provides evidence that imposing such requirements not only hurts small farms, but drives the whole industry towards consolidation into mega-sized operations!

In 2007, the State of Michigan began to require electronic ID tags on cattle for in-state movements. Based on the USDA Agricultural Census from 2007 and 2012, Michigan saw a significant loss of small farms and an increase in the consolidation of the industry, notably worse than national trends:

Michigan saw a 3% decrease in the number of very small cattle operations (fewer than 10 head), even though nationally the number of such farms increased by 4%.
Michigan saw a 35% increase in the number of very large cattle farms (over 1,000 head), even though the number of those operations decreased slightly nationally.
Plus, Michigan saw a 50% increase in the number of cattle on those large farms, even though the number of cattle in large operations remained about the same nationally.

[Note: This data is based on the USDA NASS Agricultural Census of 2007 and 2012.]

The impact of electronic Animal ID isn’t just the cost of the tags themselves. It’s all the infrastructure to support an electronic system, combined with the loopholes created for large corporate-controlled operations. This plan is bad for small farms, independent ranchers, and consumers who want to buy American beef!

WAPF will send out future alerts as events warrant.

LINKS

Find My Congress Members –

https://www.congress.gov/members

USDA proposed rule to mandate electronic ID for cattle and bison –

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2023-01-19/pdf/2023-00505.pdf

FARFA video opposing the proposed rule –

https://fb.watch/jgl1CweHyP/

FARFA action alert –