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WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture said
Friday it has abandoned a program that was intended to trace the
movement of farm animals around the country but garnered little
support from farmers.
Instead, the department announced plans for a new, more flexible
program to be administered by states and tribes to strengthen
disease prevention and response. The program will only apply to
animals moved in interstate commerce and will encourage the use of
low-cost technology.
The decision came after Agriculture Department officials heard
widespread opposition to the national animal identification system (NAIS)
at 15 meetings around the country last year.
"They finally came to their senses," said Mack Birkmaire, a
cattleman in rural Joseph, Ore., laughing in a telephone interview.
R-CALF USA, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the U.S. Cattlemen's Association and the Western Organization of Resource Councils have all spoken again NAIS.
Implemented in 2004, the voluntary program was intended to
pinpoint an animal's location within 48 hours after a disease is
discovered, to better prevent and respond to outbreaks.
Last year, just 36 percent of farmers and ranchers were
participating.
Among the concerns: The cost is too high for small farmers; the
regulations amount to bureaucratic suffocation; the program neither
prevents nor controls disease; and what's in a farmer's pasture is
nobody's business.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the federal government
remains committed to working collaboratively with states, tribes
and the industry to build the new program.
"I've decided to revise the prior policy and offer a new
approach to animal disease traceability with changes that respond
directly to the feedback we heard," Vilsack said in a statement.
Paperwork follows all of his cattle to sale, Birkmaire said,
leaving no reason why the government can't find out in a very few
hours what ranch the cattle came from in the event of an emergency.
"It sounds a little better, if the states are to have a bigger
role," he said. "We still have to keep an eye on government,
whether it's the states or the fed, but it sounds like a step in
the right direction."
Dave Scott, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle
Raisers Association, said he was both surprised and pleased by the
decision. The association has always backed a voluntary program,
opposing a mandatory one because of the financial burden it places
on ranchers, Scott said.
Texas is the nation's leading cattle-producing state.
Under the previous program, farmers were to have voluntarily
registered their properties with their states by January 2008.
Mandatory reporting of livestock movements was to begin one year
later.
As of March 31, 2009, the USDA had obligated $119.4 million
toward the program, which it said would help ensure the safety of
the food supply, particularly for export markets that may refuse to
accept U.S. beef, pork or poultry during a disease outbreak.
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