Odd bedfellows in anti-identification battle

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

At first glance it is an unlikely alliance. The Cornucopia Institute, based in Wisconsin, which bills itself as "promoting economic justice for family scale farming," has aligned itself with R-CALF USA in fighting mandatory livestock identification for livestock that crosses state lines.

Or maybe that alliance isn't so surprising after all, considering the widespread opposition to animal identification. A joint release from 49 advocacy groups "representing the interests of family farmers, ranchers and consumers" published on the Cornucopia website, asked USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to extend the comment period on a mandatory ID proposal by another 60 days. The comment period was scheduled to end Nov. 9.

"Once a government sanctioned traceability program is implemented, our export customers will rely on that for verifying the origins of U.S. beef and the premiums many U.S. producers are now receiving from export-oriented packers will evaporate," says animal ID committee chair Kenny Fox on The R-CALF website.

On the other side of the issue is a study touted by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. The study, funded by the USDA's market Access Program, found that the U.S. beef and pork industries would lose $1.8 billion and $518 million respectively over 10 years if domestic traceability isn't expanded. The study was conducted by researchers at Kansas State University, Colorado State University and Montana State University. The study says the United States and India are the only two major beef exporters in the world without a mandatory ID program. Argentina, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Uruguay already do that. BF