National animal ID

The federal National Animal Identification System requires anyone owning livestock to register their property and their animals with the federal government. Animals will have to have a federal ID number and will likely be bio-chipped. The requirements, initially voluntary, eventually will be mandatory.

Advocates say the identification system will protect against disease outbreaks and threats of bio-terrorism. Opponents believe the cost of complying favor large livestock producers and will drive small operations out of business.

I am on the Missouri House Appropriations Committee for Agriculture, and our committee has not accepted the federal money for participating in this program. We feel that if we take the federal money then the federal government will have authority to require Missouri to participate in the program.

I have voted to stop the system because it could eliminate the family farm and replace them with corporate farms that are increasingly foreign-owned.

Missouri has 106,000 farms and only 440 are the extra-large facilities called CAFOs. The other 105,560 are small operations averaging 36 cows, and the identification system could very well put them out of business.

We need to protect these small operations, which have made Missouri No. 2 in the nation in cattle production and are a major economic resource for our state.

Rep. Belinda Harris
Democrat, District 110
Hillsboro, Mo.

Comments

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

What about reducing taxation on these smal businesses?