Dear Friend,

USDA has slipped in mandatory electronic animal ID into an appropriations bill. Please let your voice be heard on implementation of mandatory RFID tags!

Some time ago, FTCLDF let our readers know that the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) proposed a rule that would require that animal traceability regulations require “official” animal eartags to be both visually and electronically readable. In other words, ranchers and farmers would be required to use electronic identification on any livestock crossing state lines. This particularly burdens smaller ranchers and farmers and USDA has not been able to show that it would address food safety or animal disease concerns.

This is a measure driven by the large meatpackers, who will require electronic tags if their cattle stay are managed together as a group from birth to death, in which case they only need one “Group / Lot identification number (GIN)” that does not need to attached to each animal.

This proposal places a disproportionate burden on small producers, who will incur costs not only of the tags but the infrastructure needed to read such tags. It does not improve traceability, and of course raises serious privacy concerns. When the state of Michigan implemented electronic ID, the number of small cattle operations decreased while the number of larger operations increased. We have learned that rather than more policy to support large producers, we need a decentralized food system that supports small producers, and local direct-to-consumer transactions.