Grassley: Mad cow cases may mandate tracking

Des Moines Register
March 15, 2006
By PHILIP BRASHER

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Washington, D.C. - Sen. Charles Grassley says Congress may have to require farmers to participate in a national program for tracking livestock.

Under pressure from producers, federal officials backed away from making the identification system mandatory, but the recent discovery of a third case of mad cow disease has brought new attention to the issue.

"Either you have somebody in the U.S. Department of Agriculture with guts enough to make a decision that we're moving forward or else Congress is going to have to act," said Grassley, R-Ia.

An ID system similar to one already in operation in Canada for cattle would allow investigators to quickly track everywhere an animal had been, from birth to slaughter.

Grassley said Congress had been waiting on the Agriculture Department to set up the ID system.

He said he hasn't made up his own mind whether it should be mandatory and called it a "divisive issue."

"I'm already having some agricultural interests coming to town meetings, saying that certain small farmers should be exempted," he said. "I don't know where you end that approach, if you do it."

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said the system should be mandatory, but he hasn't taken a stance on whether Congress should get involved, spokesman Dave Townsend said. "Clearly, USDA has the authority to do that," Townsend said.

Congress would have to deal with privacy and liability concerns being raised by livestock producers, Grassley said. Farmers fear that they will be sued when tainted meat is traced back to them.

The Agriculture Department is allowing the livestock industry to develop multiple databases that would be linked electronically into a national system. Government investigators could check for ID records when necessary.

More than a year ago, states started issuing premise ID numbers to farms, feedlots and packers, the first step toward developing the databases. About 10 percent of the 2 million premises nationwide have been registered.

"Give us some more time and I think we're going to be able" to create a national system, said Jay Truitt, a lobbyist with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

His group plans to ask Congress to enact a tax credit that would help offset the cost to producers, livestock markets and feedlots.

NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for research and educational purposes.

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