Page 90 - Summer 2019 Journal

Legislative Updates
FEDERAL POLICY UPDATE By Judith McGeary, Esq.
Our summer policy update covers develop- ments on animal ID, lawsuits against Monsanto, GMO labeling and highlights from state legis- latures around the country.
ANIMAL ID FIGHT TAKES A NEW TWIST Back in 2006, the USDA proposed the Na- tional Animal Identification System (NAIS), a plan developed by large agribusinesses to grease the wheels of international trade—and to make lots of money for tech-related businesses. NAIS would have required every person who owned any livestock or poultry animal, down to a pet pig or a backyard chicken, to register with the government, tag each animal (in most cases, with electronic ID) and report their movements to a database controlled by large agribusiness interests. This obscenely overreaching plan was withdrawn in 2010 in the face of widespread
organized grassroots opposition.
USDA replaced it with the “Animal Disease
Traceability Program,” which only applied to cattle and poultry, and only when they cross state lines. The grassroots coalition that had killed NAIS ensured that the ADT provided for multiple options for official identification; while electronic IDs were recognized, so were non-electronic forms of ID.
The ADT program was put in place through a formal rulemaking process, in which USDA proposed the rule, accepted comments from the public and included a response to all of the com- ments when it published the final rule. Changes to such a rule are supposed to be made through that same process.
The first signs of trouble came in 2017, when USDA held public meetings that made it clear that the agency and its agribusiness allies still wanted to move ahead with an all-electronic approach to animal ID. Small producers who attended those meetings again raised the prob- lems with electronic ID: the cost of the tags and,
even more, the cost of all of the infrastructure necessary to support such an electronic tracking system. Just as with NAIS, when we asked the agency for data and hard facts as to why elec- tronic ID would be needed, we were met with unsupported vague claims—and, ultimately, a focus on the export market for big agribusi- nesses.
Now, instead of going through the proper public process, USDA has announced that it will simply stop approving non-electronic forms of ID for cattle at the end of this year. As of January 2023, all adult cattle moving interstate will need to have an approved form of electronic ID. . .a significant change to the ADT rule, done without any of the normal rulemaking procedures.
Watch for future articles on how we will respond to this improper action by the agency.
LAWSUITS TAKING A BITE OUT OF MONSANTO-BAYER
In 2018, the Department of Justice ap- proved the merger of agribusiness giants Bayer and Monsanto over the objections of numerous farming and consumer interest groups. But Bayer may be starting to regret the merger.
In May, a California jury awarded a couple two billion dollars in punitive damages, after concluding that sustained exposure to Mon- santo’s Roundup weed killer led to their cancer. The couple had used Roundup for thirty years for landscaping their home and other properties. Both have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which has been linked to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
The internal documents disclosed during the trial revealed that Monsanto’s focus has been on attacking anyone who raises questions about glyphosate’s safety, rather than in deter- mining the level of risk of its product. (This is not a surprise to anyone who has looked at the scientific studies and the PR surrounding them.)
Judith McGeary is the Austin, Texas, chapter leader, an attorney and small farmer, and the executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance. She has a B.S. in biology from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She and her husband run a small grass-based farm with sheep, cattle, horses and poultry. For more information, go to farmandranch freedom.org or call (254) 697-2661.
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Wise Traditions
SUMMER 2019