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Meeting Educates, Informs 100-Plus Cattle Producers

Mountain View, Ark. (October 8, 2008) – Many of the 100-plus attendees at a Saturday meeting on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) National Animal Identification System (NAIS) left reconsidering everything they had been told about NAIS by USDA and other proponents of the flawed program, according to one of the event’s organizers. 

The meeting was put together by R-CALF USA Arkansas Membership Chair Bill Adams and his wife Patti, Sam Gill and Marsha Dodson. The master of ceremonies was Russell Wood, who is president of the Ozarks Property Rights Congress, an R-CALF USA affiliate organization. Also hosting was the Stone County Cattlemen’s Association. The delicious meal was sponsored by Caldwell Feeds. Larry Hill is an R-CALF USA regional chair for Arkansas and drove four hours to attend. Hill has formulated a workable process so concerned producers can get their premises registration number removed from one’s farm or ranch. The featured speaker was R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian who also chairs the group’s animal health committee, who spoke on NAIS and its relationship to the recently implemented mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. 

“Marsha and I have been trying to get the word out, and Dr. Thornsberry nailed it and hit a homerun with these people,” Gill said. “He can explain NAIS in a way producers can understand, and now many more people in this area know the truth about NAIS. That’s fantastic. Several producers walked out rethinking the whole idea of NAIS and what they’ve been told. 

“We became members of R-CALF because we get the chance to vote (on policies),” he continued. “With other organizations, you don’t have that opportunity. They start out as grassroots, but as the policies get to the top, the top decides what is best for you as a producer, so it ends up just all being from the top down.” 

“We were pleased with all the interest in R-CALF in that part of the state and we appreciate all the support from cattle producers from that area,” said Bill Adams. “For some people, this was their first exposure to    R-CALF, and they were pleased to find it’s an organization working on issues specific to them – independent U.S. cattle producers.” 

“These folks are putting together a bill they can submit to the Arkansas State Legislature, just like the one we passed in Missouri last year,” Thornsberry said. “It will prohibit USDA from mandating NAIS unless the state legislature says it’s absolutely necessary. It also would prohibit USDA from taking money to promote NAIS. We need to get something like this passed in as many states as possible.

“I was told that Arkansas has 1.8 million cows, so that would make it a very substantial cattle-producer state where we’d like to see our membership grow,” he continued. “My presentation was focused on demonstrating what NAIS is, the different tags and technologies used, and why USDA is working so aggressively to push it on cattle producers, and that’s to be compliant with OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) standards by the year 2010. R-CALF USA does not support USDA’s efforts. 

“I thought the meeting was excellent,” said Thornsberry. “Almost everyone got a door prize. Bill and Patti gave away lots of R-CALF USA mugs, hats and vests. The meal provided by Caldwell Feeds was superb. People brought desserts to share. It was a beautiful feed.” 

Thornsberry distributed a hand-out listing R-CALF USA’s top 10 reasons to oppose USDA’s NAIS premises registration program. The handout reads: 

R-CALF USA’s TOP 10 REASONS to OPPOSE NAIS’ PREMISES REGISTRATION 

  1. Registering a premises with the Federal government without receiving just compensation constitutes a voluntary surrender of any constitutional rights – right of property and freedom from unreasonable governmental searches – associated with registered premises.
     
  1. Registering a premises with the Federal government without receiving just compensation constitutes a voluntary submission to any invasion of private property rights and government intrusion into private business operations associated registered premises. 
     
  1. Registering a premises without entering into a contract that expressly limits the Federal government’s authority over the premises may result in subjecting the premises and its registrant to any and all future rules, regulations and policies that the Federal government may later decide to impose on such registrants.
     
  1. Registering a premises under the guise of protecting against the spread of Foreign Animal Diseases effectively gives the Federal government a license to abandon the most effective means of preventing Foreign Animal Diseases in the first place – disallowing imports from disease-affected countries.
     
  1. Registering a premises without entering into a contract that expressly prohibits the Federal government from allowing access to premises information could subject the registrant to unwanted exposure to other Federal and state agencies and animal rights extremists.
     
  1. Registering a premises could result in greater legal exposure of cattle producers for events that occur after the registrant’s cattle leave the farm or ranch.
     
  1. Registering a premises would result in the voluntary inclusion of the registrant’s farm, ranch, home and cattle to a general system of permanent registration of personal property that currently is only applicable to items that could be highly dangerous if misused – automobiles and guns.
     
  1. A registered premises alone provides no greater disease traceback potential than simply knowing the owner of the animal or animals in question, unless there is far more to the Federal government’s plan than to simply obtain registered premises.
     
  1. Premises registration is the foundational building block needed by the Federal government to immediately implement a full-scale, mandatory national animal identification system, with little to no input from cattle producers.
     
  1. Voluntary premises registration sends a strong signal to the Federal government that U.S. cattle producers give USDA a high approval rating for all the agency’s policies and actions that impact U.S. cattle producers. It demonstrates that U.S. cattle producers have the utmost faith and trust in the USDA’s past, present and future actions.

Note: This handout is available in a printable version under the “Animal ID” link at www.r-calfusa.com. 

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA has dozens of affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com  or, call 406-252-2516.   

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                            This page was last updated on Wednesday, December 24, 2008.