Tagging livestock for food safety
06.jul.06
todaysthv.com (Colorado)
Melissa Dunbar
The Government is trying to make it easier to trace the source of the meat you are eating. With recent outbreaks of diseases like Mad Cow, federal officials want all meat to be traceable to its sources within 48 hours.
Farmer Phil Wyrick, also the head of the state's Livestock and Poultry Commission, keeps 100 head of cattle in a field in Little Rock. All 100 would have to be chipped and their histories kept forever in a database accessible to the government.
Wyrick says, "people in America have a lot of confidence in the American food supply and farmers. This is another stage to enhance that confidence and to ensure the buying public we have disease under control."
The program is called the National Animal Identification System, and would affect everyone with all types of livestock. It was in part created to protect our food sources from terrorist threats.
Wyrick says, "To spread disease among our production on purpose, we have to be able to neutralize that and counteract it and have the opportunity to trace the animals."
The tag that would be attached to a cow's ear has a 15 digit number visible to the naked eye. You can also hold up a hand held scanner and scan the radio frequency chip inside. You can then plug the scanner into a computer, download the chip information and get the animal's history.
Wyrick says the program is also a good way to ensure the future of the business. He cites an example where Japan, one of their bigger customers stopped buying from the U.S. after Mad Cow Disease was found.
Wyrick says, "We had no way of tracing that animal in 48 hours or less. It took us many weeks to trace that animal, what it was exposed to, and the other animals it commingled with."
Today's THV tried several times to contact an organized group that opposes this program called Arkansas Animal Producerís Association. According to its website, it's having a meeting this Sunday at 4:00pm at the Agora Event Center in Conway.
