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Dear Ridecamp,



Again I have been following the discussions with much interest as well as
involvement.  I would like to give you a different perspective as I am also
involved in the cattle industry.  While the issues of registering and IDing
our horses appear more remote and further down the line in the
implementation of the NAIS, the overall concern of disease,health issues and
tracking of exposed animals will ultimately cross over into all of the
animal world whether we like it or not---remember that monkey and the
original AIDS virus?



As most of you have noticed, the price of your beef has been going up almost
as much as the price of your gasoline.  One of the reasons is the effect on
our market when the consuming public---at a world level---becomes fearful of
the risks in our meat supply.  



It has taken a couple of years to get Japan to reopen its borders to our
beef because of the last Mad Cow scare and now after only a few shipments,
they have closed their trade with us again.  THEIR consuming public demands
a level of testing that our government does not demand for you.  One year
ago, many ranchers in the beef industry wanted to test their cows so they
could sell again to foreign markets.  The USDA refused to let us do that
claiming that it would needlessly frighten the American Consumer---which I
believe is probably true.  True or not, however, the rest of the world
insists that the meat meet their standards.  We Americans have enjoyed a
level of safety in our food supply that the rest of the world has not
enjoyed and the rest of the world has had to adapt by identifying, tracking
and testing at a much higher level.  This is normal for many of our foreign
customers.  



As a livestock producer, it will increase my costs to "voluntarily" comply
with the National ID system and premises registration.  Right now the
methodology for tagging is highly questionable.  Those producers who are
testing various tagging systems are finding it difficult to permanently "tag
an animal---it is not just a matter of keeping a tag in a living animal
(which is no easy task)---but also continuing to identify the meat once the
animal is butchered.



BUT---You are the consuming public---although not as picky a consuming
public as much of the rest of the world!  If you opened a can and found a
finger in it---you want to know where it came from and how it got there! 
Current manufacturing requirements could track that can back to its producer
in a very short time.  When there is an outbreak of contamination from
rodents in cereal boxes, you expect that producer to pull all boxes produced
in the contaminated plant ---or at least that batch.  The drug producers
have to recall medicines frequently.  I can just imagine what you would say
if you had been injured by a drug but the manufacturer could not tell you
where it was made, how it was prepared or where it went in the system.  



SO---Do you want to know where the meat you are eating has been and what
risks you may be taking if you eat it?  Do you want to know if it really is 
Range Raised" or "Certified Angus Beef" or "Organically Grown"?   If you don
t want to hold us to our advertising, if you don't expect the producers to
stand behind their product, and if you don't care what may have happened to
that animal after it left my "organically grown" program, then no
identification is necessary for you.  But the rest of the world, and a whole
bunch of increasingly informed consumers in this country, are DEMANDING that
we meet those requirements. 



When buyers like McDonalds, Walmart, and Sam's Club say they want a tracking
system demonstrating the safety of the USA beef market, the beef market has
very little choice but to give them what they want as they control a huge
percentage of daily purchase of beef in this country.  



Since our horses, as well as other animals, are in frequent contact with
each other not only when they are alive but also because they are part of
each other's food chain, it should be apparent that tracking not only
disease but also contamination is going to be more critical from a consumer
safety point of view in an increasingly overpopulated world.



Like Joe, I share concerns about the abuses that can occur with any
centralization of information like this---but like Truman, I believe that it
is our role as citizens to compel our government to use it properly.



Joane Pappas White

AERC 18027

Attorney at Law

President of the Eastern Utah Cattleman's Association---in her spare time



Lyoness@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

www.Ladyjlivestock.com 



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