Dear Editor,
I was extremely disturbed by the recent article
extolling the virtues of RFID chips in the WI State
Farmer (3/14/08), especially when the sponsoring
entities (WLIC, DATCP, UW) all have financial
interests in creating demand for this expensive
technology. The global RFID market is growing by an
estimated 30% annually and will top $7 billion in
2008, so one can only imagine the bonanza once
Wisconsin goes beyond premises ID to mandate animal
ID.
Worse yet, the various "experts" quoted in the article
continue to perpetuate myths about the necessity and
capacity of the National Animal Identification System
(NAIS) to prevent animal disease. This is simply not
true, and creates a false sense of food security for
farmers and consumers alike. Ironically enough, RFID
chips themselves are well known to cause tumors, but
let's not let scientific facts get in the way of
political agendas!
If the government was truly serious about safeguarding
our nation's food supply, they would have implemented
Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), banned Mad Cow
material, and cracked down on filthy confinement
operations and sloppy corporate slaughterhouses long
ago. Instead, we are stuck with a "feel good" NAIS
program that only serves to take away farmers' rights
while creating a privatized database prone to abuse
and which allows corporate agribusiness to shift
liability onto whomever they choose to target without
any democratic oversight.
Just last week the former president of the Australian
Beef Association, John Carter, spoke at the R-CALF
meeting in Billings, MT about the disastrous
consequences of mandated RFID chipping in that
country. Back in 2003 Australian ranchers were told
that they would have to have RFID chips in order to
access overseas markets. Of course, this was a lie
and Australian ranchers are now saddled with expensive
RFID chipping, while their competitors in the Brazil,
U.S., and Argentina are not.
In Michigan where RFID chipping of cattle is also
mandatory, it costs $7 to tag each animal, plus
another $3 for data entry. If you refuse to
cooperate, the state will send in a SWAT team to
ensure your compliance. This is what happened last
Oct. to Greg Niewendorp near East Jordan, MI when
state vets showed up to impose TB testing even though
all his beef is direct marketed. An even worse
experience happened in 2001 to the Faillace family in
East Warren, VT who had all their flock of supposed
"mad" sheep confiscated at gunpoint by paranoid USDA
officials.
As for actually tracking livestock, the lacklustre
performance of the United Kingdom should be even more
sobering for farmers (and taxpayers!) in the U.S. As
early as 2003 the UK Auditor's General Report on
Livestock Tracking revealed that there were 700
technocrats whose job was to "track" 10 million cattle
at a cost of $60 per cow sold with 20% "missing " at
any one time. The European Union's own recent
fieldtrial found livestock RFID tracking to be totally
infeasible.
Here in WI we are already dealing with the ugly
consequences of premises registration. In order to
meet their quota and to continue to receive federal
NAIS funding, DATCP officials and their WLIC partners
are registering farmers against their permission and
without their knowledge. This is tantamount to
identity theft and would be found illegal if
challenged in court. And, of course, there is the
fundamental violation of religious freedom which the
Amish and others face when they are put unwillingly
into such a state controlled database.
A hundred years ago the public response to Upton
Sinclair's "The Jungle" was NOT to clamor for creation
of George Orwell's "1984." Yet, today, our government
is hellbent to "solve" our food/farm crisis with a
form of creeping facism that would have made Hitler
proud. If we do not wish our government to slip
further down this slope, then now is the time to speak
out against NAIS before the basic human right to
engage in any form of agriculture is taken away
altogether.
Sincerely,
John E. Peck
Family Farm Defenders
