Today is the last scheduled USDA listening session for their proposed mandatory National Animal Identification System (NAIS):
June 30
Embassy Suites Omaha – LaVista
12520 Westport Parkway
La Vista, NE 68128I have not yet found the times. 8 am registration? Be early, bring a book.
Stakeholders may pre-register for a session here NAISSessions@aphis.usda.gov.
Comments can also be submitted electronically.
Be there or be tagged.
I was reading through the comments at the USDA site and of course, they are overwhelmingly against NAIS. Someone made this interesting point—- “Consider one beef animal - with one ID marker. How is that going to carry through the processing to ensure that a specific cut of meat actually did come from a
specific animal ID. Animal ID is not a logical means to improve food safety”
this statement got me thinking….After an animal is processed, the body sans head (which means the ear which held the tag that individually id’ed the cow is no longer there) is hung along with hundreds of sides of beef, all in one big room…when the side is pulled down and cut into steaks of different kinds, who puts the individual id tag on those cuts of meat coming from that particular cow and how much time would that take to do? I know, as my husband once worked cutting chickens into parts, that there are quotas and speed is of the essence.
Comment esbee — June 30, 2009 @ 8:42 am