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If not mandatory, NAIS funding at risk

The chair of the House Appropriations Ag Subcommittee is threatening to drop funding for the National Animal Identification System – NAIS – unless the program is made mandatory.

According to farmfutures.com, Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro has told USDA and the livestock industry to agree to a mandatory animal ID program or NAIS will be zeroed out in the 2010 fiscal year budget. DeLauro charged that USDA has mismanaged the program while spending millions. She says a mandatory program is needed to provide assurance against economic calamity and to protect export markets.

In March, however, De Lauro told National Farmers Union members at their annual convention in DC that her proposed Food Safety and Modernization Act was not targeted at small farms and would NOT include mandatory animal identification. But, while praising then-Farmers Union president Tom Buis for his work on getting mandatory Country of Origin Labeling in the 2008 Farm Bill, she indicated the importance she places on tracing food to its source, “While the COOL provision is by no means a panacea, it does represent an important tool and an important first step in tracing food to its origin – a fundamental element in any of our efforts to empower consumers and transform our food safety system,” De Lauro said.

To date only 35 percent of animal premises across the nation have been registered. USDA is finding almost no support for a mandatory program as it holds listening sessions across the U.S.

 Brownfield reporter Julie Harker also contributed to this story