NEWS: Vermont farmers resist NAIS registration - Christian ScienceMonitor 08/15/06

[Guest guest]

from the August 15, 2006 edition -

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0815/p04s01-ussc.html

 

 

In Vermont, farmers buck registration efforts

 

*A proposal would require farmers to disclose livestock data, raising

worries about Big Brother.*

 

*By Matt Bradley* | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

 

*BRATTLEBORO, VT.*

 

If authorities in Vermont have their way, farmers will have to tell them

more about their business. Or face a $1,000 fine.

 

Vermont is the latest state to consider requiring farmers to reveal data

on such things as their farms' livestock and size - laws veterinarians

say could help manage farm animal diseases like mad cow and foot and

mouth in the event of an outbreak.

 

But in a state where small farms of nursery-rhyme dimension persist even

in the face of burgeoning industrial agriculture, the proposal sounds to

some like government intrusion on an Orwellian scale: something akin to

"Animal Farm" meets "1984." Even though such livestock accounting

systems are voluntary - for now - throughout most of the country, the

emotional issue has small-time farmers worrying about Big Brother and

government intrusion.

 

"I frankly find this a great imposition on my freedoms," said Sloan

Armstrong last Thursday at a public hearing in Brattleboro, organized by

the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. Ms. Armstrong and her husband have a

farm in Glover. She opposes a proposed law on so-called premises

registration, which would require farmers to reveal the nature of their

farm business, their locations, and type of livestock to state

authorities every two years.

 

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture says the law will simplify efforts to

quickly trace diseases to their source, thereby avoiding the widespread

preventive slaughters left behind by scourges like avian influenza in

Asia and foot-and-mouth disease in Britain.

 

The Vermont proposal is similar to a voluntary federal effort to compile

a nationwide database of animal identification tag numbers. But even as

calls by US meat consumers grow louder for more stalwart government

safety regulations, many small farmers are railing against what they see

as collusion between large agribusiness and federal farm authorities to

crowd out the little guy.

 

In Vermont, a state known as much for its progressive politics as for

its pastoral provincialism, the number of organic farmers has more than

tripled from 90 in 1994 to 332 in 2004, according to the Vermont Public

Interest Research Group, based in Montpelier. While the

premises-registration program is free, many here see it as a first step

toward the kind of labor-intensive bureaucratic regulations that could

pose huge challenges for small farms.

 

At public hearings on premises registration, a common refrain from small

farmers is that the program is simply a veiled attempt to cover up the

dangers of industrial farming.

 

"Mad-cow disease is the result of these cows being fed parts of other

cows. Cows that eat grass don't get mad-cow disease," says Amy

Shollenberger, director of Rural Vermont, a small-farms advocacy group

based in Montpelier.

 

"The whole point of the animal ID system and the premises registration

program is to respond to these diseases," she says. "And that's where

the corporations win.... They get to make money off running the program,

the databases, and making the tags."

 

State and federal agriculture officials, on the other hand, say the

program benefits everybody. Disease trace-back programs like premises

registration help reassure consumers and foreign importers of the safety

of American beef, they say.

 

Vermont's voluntary premises registration program - a precursor to what

may someday become the law of the land - is separate from a larger

federal program managed by the US Department of Agriculture. The federal

plan, called the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), is also

voluntary and covers three separate elements.

 

The first is premises registration. As of March, some 235,000 farms had

registered nationwide, making up about 10 percent of America's

producers. State-run versions of premises registration are already

required by law in Wisconsin and will be on the books in Indiana by

September.

 

A further stage of the NAIS plan is animal identification. While most

farmers already use tags and numbers to identify livestock, the NAIS's

animal identification component would establish a standardized, national

livestock registry.

 

The third element of the plan, animal tracking, would provide

investigators with a full history of each animal's movements in case of

an emergency.

 

Ultimately, the NAIS's designers hope the program will allow

investigators to trace diseases back to their origins within 48 hours of

discovery.

 

"If my cow is nosing your cow across the fence line, and my cow is

giving your cow a disease, we need to be able to control it, because

then it becomes of public interest." says Allen Bright, an animal

identification coordinator for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

 

As for resistance from farmers, Mr. Bright blames a lack of information

and misinformed speculation. The state-run identification programs, as

well as the national NAIS program, are committed to confidentiality. He

emphasizes that no other government agency - the Internal Revenue

Service being of particular concern to farmers - or agriculture

corporation will have access to livestock or premises registration data.

 

While the federal program remains voluntary, USDA officials acknowledge

that an effective database will require widespread compliance.

 

"We're implementing the program on a voluntary basis and in phases to

ensure that the program that ultimately evolves will be cost-effective

and practical," says Doré Mobley, a public-affairs specialist for the

USDA. But just in case, Ms. Mobley adds, "We do include a contingency

plan.... If the participation levels aren't adequate, we will consider

developing regulations."

 

But some small farmers are holding their ground. "Agribusiness wants to

control the food supply," says Jay Bailey, who owns a 40-acre farm near

Brattleboro. "Small independent farmers are a thorn in their side. We

think independently."

 

Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and