You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave, says a song from the seventies sung by the Eagles. Could those words also be true for the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS?
NAIS is being promoted and encouraged by an agency that has had to recall millions of pounds of ground beef tainted with eColi bacteria.
The same agency has pried open the Canadian border to allow cattle to "moove" south into America's food supply, complete with the proven risk of disease.
The same agency tells the public that NAIS will provide "traceback" and protection against disease in our meat supply. America already has laws in place and inspection facilities to stem the threat of disease and trace back to the animal's origin, without NAIS.
If the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or USDA-APHIS, were not so flush with taxpayer dollars to "award" to the extension offices of various universities, perhaps NAIS would not be viewed as the golden goose. As long as dollars are greasing the skids, NAIS will look like the neatest thing since sliced bread, but don't look too closely or the view will change.
This is an information-gathering tool that renders property and its legal clout extinct and invents/substitutes a new category: Premises.
A premises is "a physical location that represents a unique and describable geographic entity where activity affecting the health and/or traceability of animals may occur." That is the definition of premises in the "National Animal Identification System (NAIS) A User Guide And Additional Information Resources Draft Version November 2006."
Note that this is the draft version. What new and exciting things await property owners in the final version are yet to come.
Property is "something that is owned or possessed. Property may be real (land), personal, tangible (touchable), or intangible (such as the interest in a play or other creative work)." That is the definition of property according to the U.S. Treasury. If any federal agency knows the meaning of property, it is the agency charged with our national wealth.
The touted "opt-out" provision sounds fine, in theory, but in practice? Most computer aficionados know that you can delete things from your computer, but they're still lurking in there somewhere. A massive database, run by a federal agency (The USDA-APHIS), has undeniable economic potential. This fact already has major radio-frequency identification (RFID) manufacturers courting the favor of APHIS. Most state veterinarians also see economic potential and are pushing for NAIS. "The more, the merrier," seems to be the unspoken phrase when it comes to this "voluntary" system that is slated to become mandatory in a matter of months.
If you have not yet registered your "premises," now's the time to consider that, once in the system, you can 'opt out,' but you may never be able to officially leave.
With the brouhaha about identity theft, this should be an easy "No!"
There's no need for NAIS -- and no rooms rented at the Hotel California.
