This is the letter to the editor which I sent to our local paper in the fall of 2005. It appeared in the Forum section and garnered a tremendous response. Feel free to borrow liberally from this letter or even use it if you like for your local paper. We must spread the word so that people know about the freight train that is bearing down upon us.

I am concerned that the national animal ID system is too invasive into people’s lives. If the real purpose of NAIS is to track the food supply for instances like mad cow disease then:

1) NAIS is not necessary for horses, donkeys, guardian animals or other non-food animals - these animals are not going to enter the human food chain in our country and should NOT be tracked by the government.

2) NAIS is not necessary for sales direct to the consumer from the farm. In these cases there is already far better tracking of the food chain. I breed and raise my own pigs and sheep. I sell directly to the consumer. The consumer, my customer, knows me. I know the consumer. I know my animals. My customer knows exactly where their food came from - me.

3) NAIS should not be at all involved with people who are raising livestock for their own family consumption. They know exactly where the food came from - they raised it. There is no need to have any government involved in our own kitchens and backyard food raising.

NAIS is being implemented too broadly. To include the above three groups suggests the government has ulterior motives and is trying to invade people’s privacy. There should be exemptions for the above three groups.

Thank you,

Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
in Vermont