Animal id and pig blogging

Mention animal identification and you are sure to get some reaction.  This is an issue the Brownfield news team has been covering for months, and the public outcry in support of National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is comparable only to the public outcry in opposition to NAIS.  It's a hot button!  I receive a lot of email (and snail mail) on this particular topic.  A pig farmer in Vermont emailed his thoughts.

NAIS is a disaster for small farmers and homesteaders. In the end it will hurt consumers as they have less choice and higher prices when our national food supply is consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer large corporations.

On our small farm we raise pigs on pasture. We sell several hundred piglets per year to 4-Hers, homesteaders and other small farmers who raise them up as summer pigs. If NAIS goes through it is going to be so expensive and time consuming that we will stop supplying people with piglets. It just won't be worth the cost. We'll keep all our piglets and raise them to market size where we get several hundred dollars instead of $65 per piglet. Adding this kind of cost to a low priced animal just isn't worth it. It is even worse for chickens.

There is already a very limited supply of piglets for summer pigs. 
This will just make the tight supply even worse. The result will be fewer people able to raise their own food. People will become more and more dependent on the government and corporations for the essencial supplies. Perhaps that is what the USDA really wants.

- Walter Jeffries

Mr. Jeffries blogs about Sugar Mountain Farm in West Topsham, Vermont. 

Comments

[Sarpy Sam]

You make the statement, "public outcry in support of National Animal Identification System (NAIS)." I was wondering if you can support this statement with facts. I have never seen anywhere where there is public support for this. The government would lead us to believe there is but I have never actually seen it. I would appreciate the facts to back up your statement.