More federal controls on agriculture
Agricultural expert Doreen Hannes said government intrusion in America’s food supply is rising to new heights.
She recently attended the National Institute of Animal Agriculture ID Expo in Kansas City. She has been a staunch opponent of NAIS for years. She was invited to speak.
“Since I spoke as the representative of small producers engaged in direct sales, I stayed within that niche,” Hanne said. “I differentiated the philosophies and operations of small growers from those of industrialized agriculture, and drew the distinction between agribusiness and agriculture, explaining that we are not interested in the corporate agribusiness model.
“We have considered it and find it destructive to the well being of life overall.”
The NAIS began as the National Food Animal Identification Plan, then became the United States Animal Identification Plan, and finally the National Animal Identification System.
“It will not continue to be called NAIS, but instead dubbed ‘animal identification.’ all about ‘food safety,’ ’social responsibility’ and ‘farm to fork’ initiatives,” Hannes said. “The hammers for enforcement will be big guns and constrain the ability to market and sell one’s products, and, should they get their way, attached to indemnity payments, ag subsidies, conservation programs and access to movement certificates or health papers.
“In other words, ‘market forces will force compliance on those who wish to stay out of this onerous system. There will still be ‘premise id’, but it may be changed to ‘unique location identifier.’
“There will still be electronic and group ID consisting of 15-character numbers, but it won’t be to ‘NAIS’ standards. And there will still be tracking, but it will be referenced as the ‘historical pedigree’ or some similar nonsense. It won’t be called NAIS anymore, but it will be NAIS by a different name.
“Be prepared for a chorus from the disinformationalists proclaiming the death of the dreaded NAIS. A little twist on what Mark Twain said is appropriate, rumors of NAIS’ death have been greatly exaggerated.”
All of the food safety bills in Congress, and particularly, HR 2749 which passed the
House by an overwhelming margin, will codify international standards under obligations to international agreements.
“That means NAIS for everything,” Hannes said.
“ It will do nothing to improve food safety and everything to put the kiibosh on the fastest growing segment of agriculture, the local food movement. We must assail the Senate and the House with the message that real food safety lies in decentralized, unconsolidated and diverse food production and distribution.
“As I told the attendees of the NIAA ID Expo, ‘There are two kinds of people, those who want to be left alone and those who won’t leave them alone.’
“Small producers and their customers definitely want to be left alone.”