[AlpacaTalk] NAIS legality questioned! No joke!
Here's some interesting reading for you all!
Heather
Heather Zeleny
White Lotus Alpacas
(formerly West Wind Alpacas)
Eugene, OR
541.895.0964
Holistic Farm and Elite Fleece
http://www.alpacana
http://tech.
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Legal Defense Fund Files Suit to Stop Animal ID Program
MarketWatch - USA
... alpaca or other livestock animal in a national database--more than
120 million animals. It's a program that only a bureaucrat could love,"
she added. ...
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[entire article]
Legal Defense Fund Files Suit to Stop Animal ID Program
Suit Targets USDA and Michigan Department of Agriculture
Last update: 4:27 p.m. EDT July 14, 2008
FALLS CHURCH, Va., Jul 14, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Attorneys for the
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund today filed suit in the U.S.
District Court - District of Columbia to stop the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Michigan Department of
Agriculture (MDA) from implementing the National Animal Identification
System (NAIS), a plan to electronically track every livestock animal in
the country.
The MDA has implemented the first two stages of NAIS - property
registration and animal identification - for all cattle and farmers
across the state as part of a mandatory bovine tuberculosis disease
control program required by a grant from the USDA.
The suit asks the court to issue an injunction to stop the
implementation of NAIS at either the state or federal levels by any
state or federal agency. If successful, the suit would halt the program
nationwide.
"We think that current disease reporting procedures and animal
tracking methods provide the kind of information health officials need
to respond to animal disease events," explained Fund President Taaron
Meikle.
"At a time when the job of protecting our food safety is woefully
underfunded, the USDA has spent over $118 million on just the beginning
stages of a so-called voluntary program that ultimately seeks to
register every horse, chicken, cow, goat, sheep, pig, llama, alpaca or
other livestock animal in a national database--more than 120 million
animals. It's a program that only a bureaucrat could love," she added.
Meikle noted that existing programs for diseases such as tuberculosis,
brucellosis and scrapie together with state laws on branding and the
existing record keeping by sales barns and livestock shows provide the
mechanisms needed for tracking any disease outbreaks.
She said the suit charges that USDA has never published rules
regarding NAIS, in violation of the Federal Administrative Procedures
Act; has never performed an Environmental Impact Statement or an
Environmental Assessment as required by the National Environmental
Policy Act; is in violation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act that
requires the USDA to analyze proposed rules for their impact on small
entities and local governments; and violates religious freedoms
guaranteed by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
"Other mandatory implementations, which weave NAIS into existing
regulatory fabric and programs, have occurred in the States of
Wisconsin and Indiana where premises registration has been made
mandatory; in drought-stricken North Carolina and Tennessee, where
farmers have been required to register their premises in order to
obtain hay relief; and in Colorado where state fairs are requiring
participants to register their premises under NAIS," explained Judith
McGeary, a member of the Farm-to-Consumer Fund board and the executive
director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.
"We are asking the court to immediately halt implementation of the
program nationwide before more farmers and ranchers are strong-armed
into participating in a program that the USDA has called voluntary."
McGeary also questioned the accuracy of the existing database noting
that an attempt by the USDA to make the information in the NAIS
database subject to Privacy Act safeguards thereby removing them from
public scrutiny was suspended indefinitely in a ruling last month by
the same federal court that will hear arguments in the current suit.
That suit had been filed by a journalist seeking access to the database
to determine its accuracy.
About The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund: The Fund defends the
rights and broadens the freedoms of sustainable farmers, and protects
consumer access to local, nutrient-dense foods. Concerned citizens can
support the Fund by joining at www.farmtoconsumer.
the Fund at 703-208-FARM. The Fund's sister organization, the
Farm-to-Consumer Foundation ( www.farmtoconsumerf
to support farmers engaged in sustainable farm stewardship and promote
consumer access to local, nutrient-dense food.
Editor's Note: A copy of the suit filed against the USDA and MDA is
available at www.farmtoconsumer.
SOURCE: Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Taaron G. Meikle, 703-537-8372
President, Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
and Farm-to-Consumer Foundation
tgmeikle@aol.
or
Cummings & Company LLC
Brian Cummings, 214-295-7463
brian@cummingspr.
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posted by Chaddo at 7:06 PM
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