|
There are several bills currently under discussion in the Missouri legislature which would prohibit participation in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) mandated by the USDA. Implementing NAIS would be crippling to many small and family farm operations, so we strongly support these bills. This article provides background on the issues, discusses the proposed legislation and summarizes our recent conversation with our district representative, Don Ruzicka. [Updated]
Background
For those of you who do not know, the National Animal Identification System, NAIS, or "Animal ID" is a USDA mandate requiring farmers at all levels to register with the government to obtain a "Premises ID". The farm must then tag and register all livestock, including horses, cows, rabbits, chickens, etc., individually with the state government and update the registration when new animals are born or obtained, when animals are sold, butchered, or die, and when animals enter or leave the premises. Large operations which deal with animals only in job lots may register in groups, but small farms must register animals individually. NAIS is an unfunded mandate, which means it must be paid for by the state governments and the individual farmers.
Some details, such as whether leg bands and ear tags are sufficient or microchips will be required have not been made clear by the USDA. It is also not clear whether taking an animal to the vet or merely riding a horse off of the property will require filings. The USDA claims that the program will help to track the spread of disease, deter terrorism, and help with the certification of meat for international export (of dubious value to small farmers). What is clear is that complying with these regulations will cost the state, be prejudicial to small/family farms and may bankrupt small operations.
Proposed Legislation
Previously, Missouri voted to censure the USDA for NAIS and recommended that participation in the program be made voluntary. Current bills go much further. Several bills would prohibit state participation in the NAIS program and two attempt to create broad protection for Missouri farmers against intrusive regulation and trade restraint while at the same time preserving the state's ability to pursue specific disease prevention programs.
There are two bills proposed in the Missouri Senate, SB538 and SB428, introduced by Senators Shoemeyer and Purgason, respectively. SB428 is a short bill which simply prohibits state participation in the NAIS program and is similar to House bills HB478 and HB422 introduced by Representatives Dethrow and Wharton. [Note that the Senate Committee Substitute (SCS) version of SB428 is different and is identical to HB747, described below.]
SB538 and its House counterpart, HB747 introduced by Representative Kelly, are more complete and carefully crafted attempts to forbid any program substantially similar to NAIS, thus preventing the USDA from simply making minor changes to the program in order to bypass state prohibitions or force farmers to comply with the program through other means. In so doing, the bills define a broad class of protections for the Missouri farmer against regulation-through-registration. Almost as important as what the bills prohibit, however, is what they specifically allow. The bills reserve the right to the state to continue certain cattle registration programs and create new programs focussed on tracking specific diseases affecting specific livestock. This escape hatch is critical to the state's ability to restrict the spread of dangerous infections.
A Conversation With Don Ruzicka (R-132)
Recently, we received a return call from our district representative, Don Ruzicka to discuss these issues. He admitted that he was not well informed on the NAIS requirements. We discussed the regulations briefly and he expressed his concern that an operation of "fifty chickens" would have a significant filing burden. He asked if a voluntary program would be acceptable in place of a mandated registration program. We replied that a voluntary program would certainly be preferable but would still cost the state to implement and that the USDA had used shady tactics such as "surveys" to capture "voluntary" registrations in some areas. The representative noted the bills in question and committed to further investigation of the matter.
We would like to thank Representative Ruzicka for his time and concern.
Updates
SB428 has now gone the rounds between the house and the Senate and has become a much larger general agricultural bill. The NAIS specific language is in section 267.165. See the text of the House Committee Substitute version [PDF] of the bill.
Copyright © 2007 The Misty Manor, Mercers
|
