National Animal Identification System

The National Animal Identification System, (naisG) is a government-run program in the United States intended to extend government animal health surveillance by identifying and tracking specific animals.[1] Administered at the federal level by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, NAIS will also be overseen by state animal health boards. While the federal program is voluntary, money received by some states,[2] tribes, and non-profit entities[3] from the USDA through cooperative agreements has been used to make parts or all of the program mandatory.[4][5][6]

Critics claim the system will put small farmers out of business, by requiring that farmers pay the cost of registration devices of between $1 and $20 for each animal. Large, corporate factory farms which are connected to vertically integrated, birth-to-death factory ID systems, pay by the herd (and not the individual animal), while small farmers must pay it for each animal.[7]

  1. ^ "NAIS - About NAIS". Archived from the original on July 10, 2007. Retrieved January 7, 2006.
  2. ^ "2007 ARKANSAS COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH USDA". Arkansasanimalproducers.8k.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  3. ^ "Release No. 0212.07". Usda.gov. August 8, 2007. Archived from the original on March 21, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  4. ^ "Wisconsin Livestock Identification Consortium (WLIC) | Our greatest asset is the cooperation of many". Wiid.org. September 23, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  5. ^ [1] Archived November 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Title 345 Indiana State Board of Animal Health" (PDF). Indiana Administrative Code. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 1, 2019. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  7. ^ Sterling, Bruce (March 15, 2009). "Arphid Watch: Activists ticked off over RFID in food chain". Wired Magazine Blogs. Archived from the original on March 19, 2009. Retrieved March 17, 2009.