Hightower Lowdown

IN ITS 2005 DOCUMENT that first made the animal ID scheme public, USDA flatly declared on page one, "There is broad support for NAIS among government, industry, and public stakeholders." Hmmm...how would the officials know that public "stakeholders" approved the plan when most didn't even know about it? Well, says USDA, we held NAIS "listening sessions" from June to November of 2004. Really? Yes, boasts the ag agency, adding that 60 people made comments, with 59 applauding the system. Sixty comments!That's the public? But, wait, says USDA--the NIAA agribusiness/computer consortium conducted a survey and found overwhelming support for NAIS, so there. Well sure it found support--since the survey was of its own members! These outfits are the very ones that created this piece of lunacy and stand to profit from it. Indeed, several of the private interests in NIAA have formed the U.S. Animal Identification Organization that is expected to get a massive contract from USDA to manage the even more massive database that the government will assemble for them. In short, the handful of profiteers behind NAIS listened to themselves, surveyed themselves, and then proclaimed themselves to be the public will. Real public support for NAIS is negligible--and opposition to it is both widespread and white hot. USDA officials know this, which is why they've tried to tiptoe it past the public.