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Link to share: https://www.westonaprice.org/natl-alert-congress-must-stop-electronic-animal-id-mandate/#gsc.tab=0
Tell Your U.S. Representative to Protect Traditional Forms of Cattle ID
alert from Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
When it comes to the Farm Bill, the status quo is what the massive meatpacking corporations want on a lot of fronts, especially mandatory electronic Animal ID. If Congress does nothing, then USDA’s new rule mandating electronic ID for cattle will go into effect later this year – burdening small farmers and undermining our already stretched thin infrastructure of local sale barns and vets willing to work with those farmers.
Mandatory electronic animal identification DOES NOT address food safety or animal disease concerns, but instead, unreasonably burdens farmers and ranchers.
You may have heard that the last omnibus funding bill included electronic ID, which is unfortunately true … but it still hinges on the USDA rule going into effect. So we can still stop it if Congress takes action in the Farm Bill!
We have fought this Big Meatpacker-driven program since 2006 because of the loss of privacy, cost, inefficiency, and the burdens on small-scale farmers and ranchers. We’ve stopped it multiple times before, and we can do so again — with YOUR help!
We urge you to take immediate action and voice your opposition to the USDA’s electronic animal ID mandate.
ACTION TO TAKE
- Call your U.S. Representative: Urge them to include a provision in the Farm Bill that protects farmers’ ability to use traditional forms of ID on their cattle. Calls are most effective, so be sure to follow up by phone. See Talking Points below.
To find your U.S. Representative, enter your street address at https://www.congress.gov/members
- 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 USDA’s proposed rule.
TALKING POINTS
- 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.
- 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.
Consider what happened when Michigan implemented mandatory electronic ID for cattle on an intrastate basis in 2007. Over the next five years, the number of very small cattle farms in Michigan declined by 3%, even though nationally the number of such farms increased. And the number of very large cattle farms in Michigan increased by 35%, even though the number of such operations decreased nationally. In other words, in the real-world example of the impact of mandatory electronic ID in this country, the results show that it hurts small farms and increases consolidation. [Note: This data is based on the USDA NASS Agricultural Census of 2007 and 2012.]
- The proposed rule will be ineffective improving animal traceability: Based on USDA’s own analysis, 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), p. 2 – https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R40832].
- 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. The solution is simple: Keep the 2013 Animal Disease Traceability Rule unchanged, allowing farmers and ranchers to identify their animal with traditional, low-tech forms of ID or electronic ID, depending on which works best for their operations.
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/
“Animal Identification and Traceability: Overview and Issues” (congress.gov) –
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R40832
FARFA et al. (2023, April 19). Letter: “Comments on Use of Electronic Identification Eartags as Official Identification in Cattle and Bison”. https://farmandranchfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Sign-on-letter-opposing-mandatory-electronic-ID-April-2023.pdf
It always happens. I get the newsletter all “done”, send out the email announcements, and then someone sends me something that I think really should go into the newsletter!
So here is a very important email I got from the Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance. I hope you will all take a moment to call your Representative. I just called Representative Defazio’s office at 800-944-9603 and left a message with the staff person. It only took one or two minutes.
Our Representative in this area (the 4th District) is:
Defazio, Peter – (D)
Washington, DC • 2134 Rayburn Office Building • Washington, DC • 20515 • p: 202.225.6416
Eugene • 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 • Eugene, OR 97401
p: 541.465.6732 • f: 541.465.6458 • Toll Free: 800.944.9603
Website: www.defazio.house.gov
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Call again to protect family farmers, ranchers, and poultry owners from burdensome new Animal ID regulation!
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| Quick Links |
| Find your U.S. RepresentativeMore information on Animal ID |
| About US |
FARFA is a national organization that supports independent family farmers and protects a healthy and productive food supply for American consumers. FARFA promotes common sense policies for local, diversified agricultural systems.
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| Dear Lisa,Please keep up the calls to your Representative to stop the looming animal ID rule! The Appropriations Committee is expected to take up the Agricultural Appropriations bill this Tuesday, June 19, so there’s no time to waste.We know that you get many emails, and we try not to overload you with alerts. With the Farm Bill being debated and the Animal ID regulation close to being issued, though, it’s a very busy time. We appreciate your patience with the multiple emails and, even more, your support of our farmers through your calls!The USDA is on track to issue a final rule on Animal ID this summer and has not indicated that any major changes have been made from the version it proposed last year. That rule as proposed by USDA would subject cattle and poultry owners — includingmany backyard poultry owners — to new tagging and paperwork requirements that could collectively cost millions of dollars, yet the agency has designated the final rule as “not economically significant.”
This animal ID rule is a solution in search of a problem. The USDA has failed to identify the specific problem or disease of concern. Instead, the real focus of the program is helping the export market for the benefit of a handful of large corporations.
The agency has also failed to account for the true cost to private individuals, businesses, and state and federal agencies, creating an unfunded mandate. The new rule will harm rural businesses while wasting taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on the real problems we face in controlling animal disease, food security, and food safety.
Please help protect our farms and our right to own animals by contacting your Representative today! |
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Take Action
Call your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to work to stop funding for the Animal ID rule until and unless the agency addresses the full costs of the proposal.If you don’t know who represents you, you can call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or find out online at www.house.govSAMPLE MESSAGE:Hi, my name is ____ and I am a constituent from (state). I urge Congressman ____ to work to eliminate funding for the USDA’s Animal Traceability rule. The agency has told the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that the rule is not “economically significant,” but that is simply not true. The rule as proposed by USDA would impose significant costs on independent ranchers, family farmers, backyard poultry owners and livestock businesses.
In a time of economic hardship, it makes no sense to spend our tax dollars on this program when USDA hasn’t even properly evaluated the costs or identified specific, concrete benefits. Please work to eliminate the funding for this unnecessary and burdensome program in the Agricultural Appropriations bill. |
More Information
Although we don’t know for certain what is in the final rule that USDA has sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final approval, we do know several things:1) The proposed rule had many problems (discussed more below).2) The USDA has not announced that it has made any major changes to the proposed rule. In fact, in informal statements, the USDA has indicated that the costly provisions for tagging feeder cattle are part of the final rule.3) The USDA has told OMB that the rule is “not economically significant,” putting it on the fast track for final approval without any serious evaluation of the true costs that it will impose.
Facts About the Proposed Rule
We have repeatedly asked USDA for data showing where the problems are in tracking animals currently. Rather than provide that data, USDA hand-picked a few anecdotes, out of the millions of animals in this country. But the agency’s unsupported claims do not justify imposing broad new tracking requirements. Small farms are not the source of most disease problems in this country, yet the proposed rule will burden them unfairly.
POULTRY: Small-scale, pastured, and backyard poultry would be particularly hard hit by the rule as proposed. While the large confinement operations will be able to use “group identification,” the definition of the term does not cover most independent operations. Since thousands of people order baby chicks from hatcheries in other states, these birds cross state lines the first day of their lives. Even if the farmer or backyard owner never takes the bird across state lines again, they will have to use individually sealed and numbered leg bands on each chicken, turkey, goose, or duck to comply with the language of the proposed rule.
Even if the definition of “group identification” were changed to cover small operations, the result would be new paperwork requirements on almost every person who owns chickens, turkeys, or other poultry. The agency has entirely failed to justify imposing these burdens on poultry owners.
CATTLE: Along with new identification requirements imposed on all breeding-age cattle, the proposed rule would require identification and paperwork on calves and young cattle (“feeder cattle”), even though there’s no evidence that such requirements will help disease control. In addition, veterinarians and sale barns will have to keep records for 5 years, even though many of these cattle will have been consumed years earlier, creating mountains of useless paperwork.
Producers will only be able to use brands or tattoos as identification if their States enter into special agreements. State agencies will have to build extensive database systems to handle all of the data, creating problems for States’ budgets.
HORSES: The proposed rule also requires that horse owners identify their animals before crossing state lines. Although most, if not all, horses that are shipped across state lines are already identified in some fashion, the proposed rule creates a new complication: Whether or not a physical description is sufficient identification will be determined by the health officials in the receiving state, leaving vets and horse owners struggling with significant uncertainty as they have to anticipate what will be allowed.
SHEEP, GOATS, and HOG: The proposed rule also covered sheep, goats, and hogs that cross state lines, essentially federalizing the existing programs which have been adopted state-by-state until now.
You can read the proposed rule at www.aphis.usda.gov/traceability/downloads/2011/Proposed%20Rule.pdf
FOR MORE INFORMATION, go to www.farmandranchfreedom.org/Animal-ID-2011 |
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Support Our Work 
Please support FARFA and donate now! This is a critical time for us to engage legislators and regulators to make sure that the voice of independent agriculture is heard loud and clear. We are very grateful for all that you do, and a donation of any amount will help make a difference.
You can donate online or download our membership form to mail. Thank you! |
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Working together, we can make our voices heard.
Sincerely,
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Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
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If you are not familiar with this issue please see more information on Animal ID. We have also covered this issue in the past. Please see: New Animal Identification Proposal
This comes to us from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA). I met Judith McGeary at the conference in Dallas. She worked tirelessly to stop the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), and continues to work to protect small family farms. Please take a few minutes to write a letter and support FARFA’s work to keep small-scale farms in business.
The deadline for comments is midnight on Friday, December 9!
Dear Lisa,
Small farmers and urban poultry owners alike are threatened by the USDA’s new proposal for animal identification. The agency has proposed a rule that imposes costs and paperwork burdens on farmers, ranchers, backyard poultry owners, sale barns, vets, and state agencies in order to track animals that cross state lines.
The proposed rule is a solution in search of a problem. The USDA has failed to identify the specific problem or disease of concern, and the real focus of the program is helping the export market for the benefit of a handful of large corporations. The agency has also failed to account for the full cost to both private individuals and state governments, creating an unfunded mandate. The new rule will harm rural businesses while wasting taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on the real problems we face in controlling animal disease, food security, and food safety.
Family farmers and ranchers cannot afford additional paperwork and unnecessary expenses. Please help protect our farms and our right to own animals by submitting your comments today — the deadline is midnight on Friday, December 9!
Take Action
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The government’s online system can be difficult to navigate and there is a time limit. We encourage you to write your comments and save them in a document on your computer, then copy and paste them into the online comment form. Also, although only some of the information fields are marked as being “required,” some people have experienced problems when they left fields blank. So for the fields that are not required, you may wish to put “NA” (not applicable) in them to avoid potential problems.
DEADLINE: Friday, December 9, 2011
Please also send a copy of your comments to your Congressman and Senators. If you don’t know who represents you, you can find out at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov
Here are talking points you can use for your comments, followed by sample comments and more detailed information.
TALKING POINTS:
1) The agency should withdraw the proposed rule. If the export market would benefit from the proposed rule, as the agency claims, then the agribusinesses that export meat should pay the costs and offer economic premiums to livestock producers to encourage them to participate in a voluntary system.
2) The agency needs to identify the specific diseases of concern and analyze how to best address those diseases – including prevention measures — rather than continuing to push a one-size-fits-all tracking program.
3) At the very least, significant changes need to be made:
* Do not impose any new requirements for identifying chickens and other poultry. Small farmers and backyard poultry owners should not be burdened with identifying and tracking birds, and the agency has not shown any need to impose these new requirements.
* Apply the requirements to breeding-age cattle only and exempt feeder cattle from all new requirements.
* Exempt all direct-to-slaughter cattle, both for custom and for retail sales.
* Recognize brands and tattoos as official forms of identification.
SAMPLE COMMENTS: Please personalize these sample comments rather than doing a form letter. The personalization can be just a few sentences at the beginning of the comments, but it does make a significant difference. And if you have time to write more detailed comments, that’s even better!
I am a __________________ (farmer, local foods consumer, backyard poultry owner, horse owner, etc.). I am very concerned that the proposed rule will __________ (not be workable for my farm; impose costs on my farmers that will then be passed on to me; make it prohibitively expensive for me to order baby chicks from out-of-state hatcheries; etc.)
I urge the USDA to withdraw the proposed rule. If the export market would benefit from the proposed rule, as the agency claims, then the meat packing companies that export meat should pay the costs and offer economic premiums to livestock producers to encourage them to participate in a voluntary system. For disease control, the agency needs to focus on preventative measures rather than after-the-fact tracking.
At the very least, significant changes need to be made:
* Do not impose any new requirements for identifying chickens and other poultry. Small farmers and backyard poultry owners should not be burdened with identifying and tracking birds, and the agency has not shown any need to impose these new requirements.
* Apply the requirements to breeding-age cattle only and exempt feeder cattle from all new requirements.
* Exempt all direct-to-slaughter cattle, both for custom and for retail sales.
* Recognize brands and tattoos as official forms of identification.
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More Information
The program is fundamentally flawed because it is not designed to address the real problems we face, and it imposes burdens on producers for the benefit of Big Agribusiness’ export markets.
We have asked USDA for data showing where the problems are in tracking animals currently. Rather than provide that data, USDA hand-picked a few anecdotes, out of the millions of animals in this country. But the agency’s unsupported claims do not justify imposing broad new tracking requirements. Small farms are not the source of most disease problems in this country, yet the proposed rule will burden them unfairly.
POULTRY: Small-scale, pastured, and backyard poultry will be particularly hard hit by the proposed rule. While the large confinement operations will be able to use “group identification,” the definition of the term does not cover most independent operations. Since thousands of people order baby chicks from hatcheries in other states, these birds cross state lines the first day of their lives. Even if the farmer or backyard owner never takes the bird across state lines again, they will have to use individually sealed and numbered leg bands on each chicken, turkey, goose, or duck to comply with the language of the proposed rule.
Even if the definition of “group identification” were changed to cover small operations, the result would be new paperwork requirements on almost every person who owns chickens, turkeys, or other poultry. The agency has entirely failed to justify imposing these burdens on poultry owners.
CATTLE: Along with new identification requirements imposed on all breeding-age cattle, the proposed rule would require identification and paperwork on calves and young cattle (“feeder cattle”), even though there’s no evidence that such requirements will help disease control. In addition, veterinarians and sale barns will have to keep records for 5 years, even though many of these cattle will have been consumed years earlier, creating mountains of useless paperwork.
Producers will only be able to use brands or tattoos as identification if their States enter into special agreements. State agencies will have to build extensive database systems to handle all of the data, creating problems for States’ budgets.
HORSES: The proposed rule also requires that horse owners identify their animals before crossing state lines. Although most, if not all, horses that are shipped across state lines are already identified in some fashion, the proposed rule creates a new complication: Whether or not a physical description is sufficient identification will be determined by the health officials in the receiving state, leaving vets and horse owners struggling with significant uncertainty as they have to anticipate what will be allowed.
SHEEP, GOATS, and HOGS: The draft rule also covers sheep, goats, and hogs that cross state lines, essentially federalizing the existing programs which have been adopted state-by-state until now.
You can read the proposed rule at
|
|
Support Our Work
Please support FARFA and donate now!
This is a critical time for us to engage legislators and regulators to make sure that the voice of independent agriculture is heard loud and clear. We are very grateful for all that you do, and a donation of any amount will help make a difference.
You can donate online or download our membership form to mail.
Thank you! |
|
|
Working together, we can make our voices heard.
Sincerely,
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Judith McGeary
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
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Thanks Judith!
Our Senators in Oregon are:
Merkley, Jeff – (D – OR) Class II
313 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3753
Web Form: www.merkley.senate.gov/contact/
Wyden, Ron – (D – OR) Class III
223 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5244
Web Form: www.wyden.senate.gov/contact/
And our Representive in this area (the 4th District) is:
Defazio, Peter – (D)
Washington, DC • 2134 Rayburn Office Building • Washington, DC • 20515 • p: 202.225.6416
Eugene • 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 • Eugene, OR 97401 • p: 541.465.6732 • f: 541.465.6458 • Toll Free: 800.944.9603
Website: http://www.defazio.house.gov/
You are commenting on Proposed Rule: Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate (Document ID APHIS-2009-0091-0001).
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