http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/6536696p-7487331c.html
Relevant Scripture: Rev. 13 (Preliminary lead-up) Ridge favors national ID system for livestock By Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, April 29, 2003 WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's homeland security czar on Monday endorsed an ambitious concept for nationwide identification of all commercial livestock. "Some of these thoughts are certainly preliminary in nature, but given the economic significance of the livestock industry ... it seems to us to be a very good initiative to undertake," said Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Ridge's support is the latest, vivid signal of progress toward a national animal identification plan. Spurred partly by post-Sept. 11 fears of bioterrorism, industry and government officials are speeding up work on the proposals. "Eventually, something is going to get mandated," predicted Bob Frost, a Placer County llama rancher. "There is movement in the past year that has exceeded all the movement in the past five years combined." Frost is president of the U.S. Animal Health Association, which has been intimately involved with animal identification planning. Proponents speak of a "gate-to-plate" system tagging individual swine, cattle and dairy cows from their birth to their ultimate culinary destination. Ideally, the system would enable tracking of a specific animal within 48 hours of a public health problem. Useful even in peacetime, this proposal has gained special resonance because of what Ridge described Monday as "references that we pick up in the intelligence community" that the U.S. food supply could be a terrorist target. Agriculture Department officials are meeting with livestock industry representatives in hopes of completing specific plans and timetables to present at October's convention of the U.S. Animal Health Association. "We have been looking at all facets of the food chain to see where our vulnerabilities are," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Monday while joining Ridge at a National Association of Farm Broadcasters conference. The costs and complications, though, can boggle the mind. In California alone, roughly 1 million head of cattle and 2.3 million head of swine were slaughtered in 1999. That same year, California dairy farms held 1.4 million dairy cows, while the state claims a sheep and lamb inventory of about 800,000 head. "It's a very difficult thing," Frost said of the livestock identification proposals, "and it gets us back to some of the age-old wars of the producers ... (including) who bears the cost along the way." Such crucial decisions as who would maintain the records, and for how long, have yet to be made. The possible tagging system, too, remains a work in progress, with some suggesting ear tags and others proposing the planting of electronic chips inside the animals. "From our perspective, we're somewhat concerned about the cost and potential liability," said Ben Higgins, executive vice president of the California Cattlemen's Association. Higgins predicted it could still be "two to five years" before any system took effect. Ridge's endorsement of the concept, though, raised at least some hopes that the federal government could shoulder some of the burden once it's billed to homeland defense. "Everybody agrees that a national identification program is an excellent idea," said Steve Lyle, director of public affairs for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. "Our concern all along has been how to put the infrastructure into place, and how do you fund it." ________________________________ Changes to your subscription (unsubs, nomail, digest) can be made by going to http://sandboxmail.net/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
