Producers oppose animal-tracking plan

Several southern Missouri livestock farmers voiced concerns Tuesday about a proposed National Animal Identification System at a U.S. Department of Agriculture listening session. Critics said the federal government wants to control the food system and regulate how they raise animals. Many at the hearing expressed anti-government sentiments and said they want to be left alone to live off the land, like generations before them, without bureaucratic meddling. "It is entirely too dangerous to freedom, to the God-given rights that we hold, to have anyone to espouse total control of the food system," said Doreen Hannes, a Mountain Grove livestock farmer. "There is no way I will comply. I will die before I comply." Some dairy farmers use the devices for herd management, Wiemers said. But many producers at Tuesday's forum said they don't want the government to have access to their proprietary information. USDA officials have no exact estimate on the cost to tag and track every animal raised for commercial consumption, but some estimates put it as much as a $65 per newborn calf. Each farm would have to purchase tagging equipment and expensive tracking devices, critics said. "It's going to be a cost greater than any cattleman can bear," said Bill Stancer, 70, a semi-retired rancher from Cabool. "That cost is not going to be recovered at the marketplace." Small producers who often raise 30 to 40 head of cattle and a few other animals to live off of accuse the nation's largest meat companies of pushing for NAIS. They say electronic microchips with biometric technology -- which could track health history of any given animal -- would give producers a financial advantage at the marketplace. It would allow them to pick and choose among a herd based on information from a federal database, potentially lowering the price for some animals, critics say...News-Leader