Tomac: Let’s identify imported beef, not just US cattle
Ranchers and fellow cattlemen and women:
Please be aware of the recent MANDATORY Electronic Identification (EID) Rule being implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). If you’ve read the recent article in the April 27th 2024 issue of the Tri-State Livestock News, you need to read it, read it again, and then analyze what’s all being said! (editor’s note: you can find this story re-printed in this week’s edition, on page ??)
Current rules, in North Dakota anyway, already mandate all imported cattle into the state be identified, so it’s really nothing new. Other than the fact that NOW it has to be with electronically readable tags and it will be nationwide. Now the USDA will provide the tags ‘free of charge’ to jumpstart the efforts. Well how long will that ‘free of charge’ last? And when will that money run out for the ‘free of charge’? And MOST importantly, who will PAY for that when the USDA no longer pays for it? In all reality, we’re already paying for those tags and readers, except now it’ll be forced down our throats, just like the mask mandate and quarantine during COVID. How well did that fare??? And what about the cattle producers that live along the border and transport cattle between states EVERY year? Who’s gonna pay for those tags and readers? If they’re taking the same cattle back and forth, why do they even have to have a health certificate every year?
Why are the American cattle producers being forced to identify OUR cattle, and not the imported beef? If the USDA wants traceability during a disease outbreak, (after all, that’s exactly where any major disease outbreak will come from) they need to start with the imports, and that’s called Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (MCOOL)!!! Oh wait, the National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA) and all of their affiliates, don’t want government intervention in the cattle/beef industry, in particular MCOOL. BUT the NCBA and all their affiliates lobbied USDA for these mandated EID rules by asking for $15 million for EID tags. The NCBA is talking out of both sides of their mouth. NCBA and all their affiliates; if ya don’t want Government intervention, why do you have an office in Washington DC???
Rapid traceability is one of the proponents’ selling points on this MANDATED rule. Regionalization and rapid traceability isn’t gonna matter if a major disease outbreak happens, cause our whole industry will be shut down for infinity in the US, and it won’t open back up by regions, because most of our producers will be broke and out of business before any region is opened. We US cattle producers don’t need traceability for OUR cattle. We need traceability for our IMPORTED beef. MCOOL!!!
Frank Tomac
President
Independent Beef Association of ND (IBAND)