“Who would not want a home where the buffalo roam?  In Southern Missouri, we are home to a great variety of family ranches and many value-added livestock operations.  These ranches are part of our history and our heritage, and they are also an important part of our economy.

 

When the federal government suggested a national animal identification system, I was skeptical.  When they actually put forth a plan to make the system mandatory, I was disappointed.  And when I discovered what that plan would do to our Southern Missouri ranching operations, I was furious.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a national animal identification system (NAIS) that would require ranches to register their premises, tag their animals, and regularly report the movement of their animals to a government agency.  Worse, if one of these animals were to get sick, at any point in the journey from field to sale barn to stockyard to slaughter, the trace-back mechanisms in this program would point a finger at the rancher, regardless of what happened in between. 

 

The monetary burdens of the mandatory program, and the liability for sick animals, would undoubtedly fall at the feet of the rancher, who is sure to assume the costs of implementing the NAIS.  Those costs would be passed along each level in the supply chain, reflected only when the rancher sells his or her cattle and when the consumer goes to the supermarket to buy a steak.  The middlemen look to get off scot-free.

 

Finally, USDA proposed that this program be made mandatory by 2009, meaning every rancher in America would be forced to comply with these rules.

 

At that point I, and the ranchers I represent, have had enough.  I introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to stop the mandatory NAIS, and our U.S. Senator from Missouri, Jim Talent, introduced a similar bill in the Senate.  Rather than crush our ranchers beneath the wheel of big government, I want a sound, but completely voluntary program to let ranchers who wish to track their cattle do so.  They will undoubtedly get a premium for their products at market, and that is only fair considering the risk they are taking to purchase the equipment to participate and comply. 

 

Our bill will not speed up or create the NAIS.  Simply put, it says that if USDA ever decides to create an animal identification program, the program cannot be mandatory.

 

It is also important to remember that American beef and other animal products are known the world over for their quality and safety.  That fact has not changed, and I doubt it ever will.  I do not believe the onerous and dangerous costs of a mandatory system are worth the considerable risks of cost, privacy and liability our ranchers are being asked to bear.

 

Anyone skeptical of an animal identification program, however, who does not want information on their cattle stored in any database or subject to any trace-back provision should not be forced to participate in an NAIS program.  The Talent-Emerson bill would ensure this would be the case.  Our bill also would prevent any information in such a database from becoming publicly available under any potential Freedom of Information Act request, an important safeguard for producers’ privacy.

 

At the end of the day, our charge is to make this process open, deliberate, transparent, voluntary and in the best interests of our producers.  Our private property rights are of paramount importance.  Furthermore, the viability of our ranches, on which Southern Missourians work hard from sunup to sundown, depends on the ability of these families to make the best decisions for their own cattle, dairy, and livestock operations.

 

I am proud to stand with them, I visit them every year in August on my annual Farm Tour, and I am grateful for the hard work these individuals put into making a difficult – but extremely rewarding – living.

 

The last thing we should do as Americans and as Missourians is disparage, or politicize, this important issue.”