Missouri Farm Bureau Opposes Mandatory NAIS Registration for School Lunch Program Purchases
Missouri Farm Bureau President Charles Kruse sent a letter to the Missouri's members of the U.S. House of Representatives expressing the organization's opposition to a current provision of the 2009 agriculture spending bill approved by the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. As written, the legislation would require USDA to purchase School Lunch Program meat products from premises registered with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The letter reads as follows:
"The fiscal year 2009 agriculture spending bill to be marked up by the House Appropriations Committee contains a provision of concern to our organization pertaining to the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Specifically, USDA would be required to purchase for the School Lunch Program meat products from livestock and poultry premises registered with the NAIS beginning in July 2009. We oppose such a requirement.
Proponents of the language point to the incidents that occurred at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company facility in Chino, California and the subsequent recall of more than 143 million pounds of ground beef that entered the retail and school lunch supply chains as reasons to implement this requirement since Hallmark/Westland was a top supplier for the National School Lunch Program at the time. Linking the NAIS to food safety exacerbates the concerns of farmers and ranchers regarding the protection of information in the NAIS and exposure to undue liability- issues that have yet to be satisfactorily vetted and addressed by USDA or Congress.
Furthermore, requiring USDA to procure meat sourced from livestock and poultry premises registered under the NAIS moves the program toward becoming mandatory, which we oppose. Missouri Farm Bureau supports a voluntary, not a state or USDA mandatory, program as specified in the policy approved by farmer and rancher voting delegates at our annual meeting last December:
In light of past events and the elevated threat of agri-terrorism, we favor a voluntary (not a USDA or state mandatory) national animal identification system that will provide support for animal disease control and eradication and enable 48-hour traceback of the movements of any diseased or exposed animal. We do have concerns related to the following issues:
1. Producer confidentiality is of utmost concern. Confidentiality should be protected to the greatest extent possible.
2. The cost of the identification program should be distributed on a fair and equitable basis without undue financial burden on the producers.
3. Producers should have liability protection from the actions of others after the animal has been sold by the producer.
If the provision becomes law, facilities approved as suppliers for the School Lunch Program will either have to implement changes in their current processing lines and/or shifts to segregate product from NAIS registered premises and product from premises that are not registered or change their buying requirements- the more likely of the two- if they desire to maintain contracts with USDA.
A change in buying requirements, particularly in the beef industry, will ultimately affect all members of the supply chain. USDA procures product from several plants in states bordering Missouri and some of our state's cattle are likely processed at these facilities. If the plants move to source cattle from NAIS registered premises only, NAIS participation will be required throughout the supply chain, including the cow-calf producer, and may become the de facto industry standard but as a result of Congress' action."
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