This doesn't disclose the entire story. NAIS involves far more than tracking cattle. It includes tracking horses, sheep, poultry, etc. It involves premises registration, every site where animals are kept must be registered and inspected. Animals that are moved between sites or are commingled with other animals at locations such as auctions, feedlots, fairs, etc. must be tracked. Large producers can get group IDs where they only have to ID lots of animals, small producers must ID every animal. This puts the load of the work on the small/backyard producer and not the large businesses. Big agribusiness has been on board for this. It has the potential to cut competition.
The purpose of NAIS is to allow tracking of diseased animals. But first the animal must be identified as diseased. There will be no increase in testing of animals or meat due to NAIS. It will only allow the USDA to go back and find any animals who were associated with the diseased animal throughout it's life. The direction most countries have chosen is to increase inspection on animals and meat to remove the diseased animals from the chain before they are visibly ill and not wait until they have the chance to infect much larger numbers of animals that then have to be tracked back through contact records. From what I have seen this is indeed more about improving the bottom line for large business than the safety of the nation.
Slashdot Mirror
This doesn't disclose the entire story. NAIS involves far more than tracking cattle. It includes tracking horses, sheep, poultry, etc. It involves premises registration, every site where animals are kept must be registered and inspected. Animals that are moved between sites or are commingled with other animals at locations such as auctions, feedlots, fairs, etc. must be tracked. Large producers can get group IDs where they only have to ID lots of animals, small producers must ID every animal. This puts the load of the work on the small/backyard producer and not the large businesses. Big agribusiness has been on board for this. It has the potential to cut competition. The purpose of NAIS is to allow tracking of diseased animals. But first the animal must be identified as diseased. There will be no increase in testing of animals or meat due to NAIS. It will only allow the USDA to go back and find any animals who were associated with the diseased animal throughout it's life. The direction most countries have chosen is to increase inspection on animals and meat to remove the diseased animals from the chain before they are visibly ill and not wait until they have the chance to infect much larger numbers of animals that then have to be tracked back through contact records. From what I have seen this is indeed more about improving the bottom line for large business than the safety of the nation.