Animal Farm

Everyone remembers reading George Orwell's famous story "Animal Farm." The animals took over and began running their farm as a collective. The story was a critique on communism and the ways of Big Brother. Are we now getting Big Brother coming to our farms? The proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) may be doing so according to its opponents. NAIS will require every animal (excluding household pets) to carry a microchip and for farmers and everyone else with livestock on their property to file frequent reports to the government.

Every time an animal is moved off a farm, whether it be a large agricultural operation, a "gentleman's farm" with a few goats, or someone with a hobby farm boarding horses, the owner must notify the federal government about every detail involved. Opposition to this program is intense. One citizen made this comment at a forum in Berks County Monday sponsored by County Commissioner Judith Schwank and the Berks County Equine Council:

“I have a real problem with this,” said Barbara Steever of Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County. “You're sitting here giving us all the nitty-gritty of this program when it shouldn't even be allowed.

“I board horses for a living. What am I supposed to do be spying on people I'm trying to do business with?

“Under this, I have to watch when they come and go with their horses and then report their movements to the federal government. That's not my job.”

This is a very disturbing program. It will turn citizens against each other, spying on each other's movements and reporting thos eto the government. It forces people to make sometimes frequent reports which could be very time intensive. What would prohibit the government from combining this data with other it collects in another massive data mining operation?

Who profits from NAIS? Large agribusiness and microchip processors and programmers. Microsoft is said to be pushing the program. Imagine a chicken farmer having to put a microchip in each of his 50,000 birds? I really don't see much upside to NAIS, especially in light of the downside dangers.

A lawyer triggered this exchange at the forum:

The audience also heard from Dr. Mary Zanoni, a New York attorney and founder of Farm for Life, a group that advocates organic farming and growing a healthy personal food supply.

Zanoni warned the small farmers to watch out for what she called “microchip pushers.”

She said the NAIS was created by a committee of National Institute of Animal Agriculture, which was composed of large international meat packers and microchip and software companies, including Microsoft.

Hammerschmidt acknowledged he was formerly a director of the National Institute of Animal Agriculture before agreeing to head the national animal identification system for the USDA.

It's only unusual for this Administration. This government is run by those who served in the industries they now regulate. Only in this Administartion are there balatant conflicts of interests between the public and private sectors. Only in this Administration are the concerns of big business completely prioritized over those of the citizenry. NAIS is simply one more example of this.