April 1, 2009

US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday (March 31) he wants to meet with those who oppose mandatory livestock identification and tracking programme and try to address their concerns.

Vilsack said he agreed with lawmakers like Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who believe the current voluntary system created under the Bush administration is not effective, but he also said he needs to work with those who oppose changing it in order to improve the system.

"Right now there is a division and what I don't want is a circumstance where this is mandated and then people spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how to get around it," Vilsack said.

Testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture earlier Tuesday, Vilsack said he needed to get ranchers "around the table" to discuss their concerns so the USDA won't "have problems with a mandatory system once it is implemented."

That does not necessarily mean Vilsack is now advocating mandatory participation in the livestock identification programme, USDA spokeswoman Nayyera Haq said.

And Vilsack, when asked directly if he supported moving from a voluntary system to a mandatory one, would only say he was concentrating now on the immediate task before him of addressing the concerns of those opposed to a mandatory system.

John Clifford, a deputy administrator at the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told lawmakers earlier this month that only 35 percent of US livestock producers are participating in what is now a voluntary programme and the situation is "not acceptable."

The goal is to be able to track a livestock disease outbreak to its source in 48 hours, Clifford said, but so far the USDA has spent US$119 million and it is nowhere near reaching that goal.

"This system, currently as it is ... is not effective," Clifford said.

One vocal opponent of mandatory livestock identification is the rancher group R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, which predicts the change would increase costs on the industry.

"We do not oppose animal identification, but we do oppose it being mandatory, R-CALF President Max Thornsberry said in a recent statement."Our policy is very simple: if you want to participate, fine, and if you don't, fine."