Massachusetts Farmers Say No to N.A.I.S.

The purpose of NAIS is to provide 48-hour traceback of all animal movements. NAIS will not prevent diseases from occurring. It does not address animal management, such as feeding cow parts to other cows or the other practices of factory farms that lead to animal health problems. It does not prevent wild animals and insects from spreading diseases, nor does it protect against foreign animal diseases from being brought into this country through lax inspection of agricultural shipments. All it does is provide after-the-fact information on where a sick animal has been. So what does the government plan to do with this information?

Call it mature capitalism or call it something else, but the fact is that we have been steadily, inexorably moving to an industrialized, centralized food production system. It is a terrible plan, that could really discourage small farms while it encourages corporate factory farming methods.

There is not much time left. The animal tracking, logging, and reporting components of NAIS will come into effect nationwide in January 2009. The USDA has been authorized to engage in tough enforcement measures -- fines, inspections of properties, and confiscation or redistribution of livestock without trial or legal hearings and with no compensation to the owner of the animals. Failure to register your home or farm with a Premise ID already faces a $1,000 fine in some states.

Once fully implemented, the NAIS program would require every person who owns even one livestock or poultry animal (a single chicken or a pet pony) to register their property with the state and federal government, to tag each animal, and to report “events” to a database within 24 hours. Reportable events would include such things as a private sale, a state fair, or a horse show.

There was some doubt that this was a state issue, as the mandates are coming down from the federal level. Here in Massachusetts, N.O.F.A. has been active in helping friendly state legislators draft and propose legislation to stop state compliance with this program.

N.A.I.S. is currently voluntary at the federal level, which means that state agricultural Departments will be charged with implementing the NAIS, and the USDA has already allocated over $60 million to them to do it.

Clearly, the ball is in our park, at least for now. Other states such as VT have managed to pass legislation stopping state participation in the program, at least temporarily.

What can you do as a consumer? Patronize farmers who raise meat, milk and eggs in a way you support.

If you are interested in learning more, go to:

MA legislation regarding N.A.I.S.

List of Massachusetts Legislators who sponsored and co-sponsored legislation to stop N.A.I.S.

Here is N.A.I.S. First Step PDF and N.A.I.S. Fact Sheet

"It is difficult to imagine any acceptable basis for the (USDA) to subject the owner of a chicken to more intrusive surveillance than the owner of a gun." -Mary Zanoni