Animal ID plan angers some farmers

Animal ID plan angers some farmers
System aims to track livestock during outbreak

By Mimi Hall
USA TODAY

SWOOPE, Va. — A thousand turkeys, 500 cattle, 300 pigs, 1,900 chickens and
four generations of the Salatin family share the grassland on this 550-acre
farm in the Shenandoah Mountains.

Now, Joel Salatin is worried the government will make it impossible for his
25-year-old son and his two young grandsons to keep the family business
going for the generations to come.

He has joined a growing national grass-roots movement against an ambitious
new government disease-fighting program that asks every farm in the nation
to register its animals. The aim of the program, called the National Animal
Identification System (NAIS), is to make it easier to track down animals
during a disease outbreak that threatens humans and livestock.

For complee text, see http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20061027/a_animals27.art.htm