Today, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was confirmed to be this nation’s next Agriculture Secretary, and R-CALF USA wasted no time in sending Vilsack a formal letter not only to congratulate him on his confirmation, but also to seek his immediate assistance in redressing three fundamental rulemaking-related blunders made by the previous Administration and the previous U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). R-CALF USA members have literally expended millions of dollars over the past several years to fund our intense, heated fight against the previous Administration’s efforts to: 1) willfully expose U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd to an unnecessary and avoidable risk of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease); 2) prevent U.S. cattle producers from distinguishing beef produced exclusively from their cattle – born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; and, 3) dismantle historically successful disease prevention and control programs and to substitute them with an unproven, intrusive and ill-conceived National Animal Identification System (NAIS) scheme that constitutes a national premises registration for private property, both personal (i.e., livestock) and real (i.e., land). Specifically, R-CALF USA urged Vilsack to take the following actions within the first few days of President Barack Obama’s Administration....I predict 1) The only changes to the trade policy will be to require additional labor and environmental standards, 2)Vilsack will support the already approved definitions in COOL, and 3) Vilsack was pro-NAIS as Governor and will remain so. Obama may shutdown GITMO, but he will let NAIS stand.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Group Urges Vilsack To Immediately Redress 3 Rulemaking Blunders
Today, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack was confirmed to be this nation’s next Agriculture Secretary, and R-CALF USA wasted no time in sending Vilsack a formal letter not only to congratulate him on his confirmation, but also to seek his immediate assistance in redressing three fundamental rulemaking-related blunders made by the previous Administration and the previous U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). R-CALF USA members have literally expended millions of dollars over the past several years to fund our intense, heated fight against the previous Administration’s efforts to: 1) willfully expose U.S. consumers and the U.S. cattle herd to an unnecessary and avoidable risk of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease); 2) prevent U.S. cattle producers from distinguishing beef produced exclusively from their cattle – born, raised and slaughtered in the United States; and, 3) dismantle historically successful disease prevention and control programs and to substitute them with an unproven, intrusive and ill-conceived National Animal Identification System (NAIS) scheme that constitutes a national premises registration for private property, both personal (i.e., livestock) and real (i.e., land). Specifically, R-CALF USA urged Vilsack to take the following actions within the first few days of President Barack Obama’s Administration....I predict 1) The only changes to the trade policy will be to require additional labor and environmental standards, 2)Vilsack will support the already approved definitions in COOL, and 3) Vilsack was pro-NAIS as Governor and will remain so. Obama may shutdown GITMO, but he will let NAIS stand.
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This USDA recently published this on the Federal Register:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2007-0096
It is a back-door attempt at making NAIS mandatory. To add comments click on the yellow icon on the first line. It may take a day or two before your comment appears.
The NoNAIS.org site has some preliminary analysis of the rule change: http://nonais.org/2009/01/15/usda-moves-on-ids/
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