Do you keep up with your cat or dog’s shots, keep him in a collar at all times, feed him, bathe him, take him to the vet, and generally treat him as a part of your family? If you do, you already know how much work goes into caring for a single animal. Now imagine doing that with dozens, or even hundreds, of pets—which is what a farmer has to do.

OK, so it’s not a perfect analogy; farmers don’t necessarily let cows sleep in their beds, or pigs drink from their cereal bowls after they’ve had breakfast. (And though some of us are guilty of doing that with our kitties, we really shouldn’t—it can really irritate their stomachs!) But they do have enough on their plates already, especially while trying to keep up with the big factory farms that can produce more at cheaper prices, though not necessarily as ethically.

The USDA has been maintaining a National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which many people—especially hundreds of small farm owners and growers—feel is very flawed and biased in favor of these factory farms. (In case you haven’t heard of the NAIS, its purpose is to track livestock in order to identify disease outbreaks quickly to prevent human harm.)

Factory farms can pay for the expensive process, as well as afford resources and labor spent on it; smaller farmers, who are often struggling as it is, cannot allocate these resources without losing valuable time and money. In fact, the USDA’s own cost analysis even reported that the cost is higher for family farmers than for factory farmers.

In addition to being an unfair burden on small farms, the NAIS also simply doesn’t work. It’s great that the USDA has tried it out in order to really try to track animals and create a safer farming practice, but its had issues since its infancy. Since the NAIS cannot track animals any further than the slaughterhouse, it’s not an effective measure against tracking a large portion of the time during which contamination can occur. Following slaughter, meat is sent to thousands of smaller stores and plants for processing, during which any number of things could happen to result in unsafe food that is unfit for consumption.  

By signing this letter (or adding your own comments), you can acknowledge the problems listed above, and request that the USDA stop expending valuable time and money on the ineffective and unfair NAIS and instead devote more attention toward preventing animal diseases and meat contamination.