Government Program Seeks to Tag Every Livestock Animal in the United States

New USDA program seeks to have every single livestock animal in the United States identified, tagged and possibly implanted with a radio chip.

Tabitha Alterman
September/October 2006
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is embarking upon a new program that seeks to have every single livestock animal in the United States identified, tagged and possibly implanted with a radio chip. The highly controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would require anyone who owns even one livestock animal – such as a pigeon, rabbit, chicken or horse – to register that animal and its location in a federal database.

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The USDA maintains that the program could help track and contain disease outbreaks. But livestock owners criticize the USDA’s intentions, claiming that this is just another federally supported benefit for large-scale “factory farm” producers, whose animals are the most at risk for disease outbreaks. In addition, the NAIS will place a financial burden on small-scale livestock owners, and invade individual privacy, to boot. Currently, enrollment in NAIS is voluntary, but the program is scheduled to become mandatory by 2009.

View the details of the USDA’s implementation plan:
www.usda.gov/nais

Learn how small-livestock producers can take action against NAIS:
www.nonais.org

Read legal comments about NAIS:
www.organicconsumers.org/ofgu/ID060202.cfm

Tell your congressman what you think about NAIS:
www.congress.org

Write Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns:
1400 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20250.

Or to send an email go to www.usda.gov/nais and click on “Contact Us.”

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