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Group sues Michigan Ag, USDA to halt national animal ID system

By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FCLDF) sent a letter last week to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the USDA indicating it plans to sue over implementation of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Michigan is the state that has gone the furthest in implementing NAIS, which involves the mandatory tagging of livestock with radio frequency ID tags.

The Notice of Intent to Sue was sent to the state and federal governments May 15, and made several charges, including that the USDA has never published rules regarding NAIS; is in violation of the Federal Administrative Procedures Act; has never performed an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment as required by the National Environmental Policy Act; is in violation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act – which requires the USDA to analyze proposed rules for their impact on small businesses and local governments – and violates religious freedoms.

“Unfortunately, NAIS is affecting all of the farms in Michigan, and I think it’s starting to happen in Wisconsin,” said Taaron Meikle, president of the FCLDF and its sister organization, the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation.

The group charges that NAIS will allow government officials to pull over trucks that have livestock on board to check for tags without a warrant or probable cause.

It also charges that NAIS will violate the religious freedoms of people who believe that electronic tagging is, in effect, the work of the devil.

Jennifer Quimby-Holton, a spokeswoman for the MDA, said the department had received the letter and that it would be reviewed by the department’s legal team, but she would not comment more specifically.

“We stand behind Michigan’s cattle ID industry program,” she said. “We believe it’s well within the Animal Industry Act.”

According to the MDA, the electronic livestock ID pilot project was launched in Michigan in November 2001 as part of the state’s bovine tuberculosis (TB) eradication plan. Michigan is one of only a handful of states to use electronic animal ID on a regular basis.
The MDA believes the technology is increasingly important in light of emerging diseases such as avian influenza and BSE, or Mad Cow disease, as well as bovine TB. The MDA believes the need to track livestock – from farm to market – as quickly as possible is essential to protect both animal and human health and ensure the safety of the country’s food supply. Meikle said her group believes that the government shouldn’t force people to accept this system.
“We just want the USDA to follow procedure, and respect the religious beliefs of our religious farmers,” she said. “We would like individuals and states to be able to decline to participate. Let people opt out of this if they don’t wish to comply.

“We are not against the government. We just want them to go by the rules and regulations that they themselves set in place.”
In another NAIS-related case, last year a Pennsylvania Mennonite, James Landis, sued the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for its attempts to require Landis to submit to having a federal premises identification number in order to continue to do business.
Landis raises ducks and sells them to live markets in New York City.

An Alliance Defense Fund attorney filed the lawsuit against the department, claiming that the number requirement violated Landis’ religious beliefs.

Meikle said the USDA and MDA have 30 days to respond to the letter and meet the organization’s demands in order to avoid a lawsuit.

Her group, which is a nonprofit, gets its funding from farmers and consumers.

The group was incorporated in December 2006 and a major membership drive was conducted last summer, she said.

This farm news was published in the May 21, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.
5/21/2008