According to our friends at the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, the USDA has issued a final rule that mandates electronic tagging for cattle crossing state lines.  In six months, cattle and bison crossing state lines will not be able to use visual-only ear tags, but must have electronic ID. And USDA’s press release signaled what we have known all along – this is just the first step to an all-encompassing electronic ID mandate from “birth to slaughter.”

 Solution: SB4282

The good news is that Senator Mike Rounds has introduced a bill to block USDA from mandating electronic ID for cattle or bison through this or any future rule: S.4282. On May 8, this bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

 National Animal Identification System

This USDA action is just the first step towards an all-encompassing electronic ID mandate.  In the early 2000s, USDA proposed a comprehensive plan for birth-to-death electronic tracking of all livestock and poultry animals, known as the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).  After years of protests from conventional ranchers, organic farmers, homesteaders, property rights advocates, privacy watchdogs, and local food consumers, the agency withdrew the NAIS plan. In its place, USDA adopted a rule that addressed interstate cattle movements and explicitly provided for a range of types of identification – including low-tech, traditional methods – to be used.

 Expensive, Intrusive, and Unreliable

Mandatory electronic Animal ID is expensive, intrusive, and unreliable. The plan benefits two groups: the large meatpacking corporations, and the technology companies that produce electronic tags, readers, and software.

Mandating electronic ID undermines the goal of promoting a resilient food system: If we want to build resilient, diversified supply chains, the federal government must take steps to avoid regulations and policies that are prejudiced AGAINST small- and mid-scale producers, such as mandatory electronic Animal ID.

Under Senator Rounds’ simple bill: “The Secretary of Agriculture shall not implement any rule or regulation requiring the mandatory use of electronic identification ear tags on cattle or bison.”

Tell your Senators and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
to support SB4282: