Ranchers Have Beef With USDA Program To ID Cattle 376
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The NY Times reports that farmers and ranchers oppose a government program to identify livestock with microchip tags that would allow the computerized recording of livestock movements from birth to the slaughterhouse. Proponents of the USDA's National Animal Identification System say that computer records of cattle movements mean that when a cow is discovered with bovine tuberculosis or mad cow disease, its prior contacts can be swiftly traced. Ranchers say the extra cost of the electronic tags places an onerous burden on a teetering industry. Small groups of cattle are often rounded up in distant spots and herded into a truck by a single person who could not simultaneously wield the hand-held scanner needed to record individual animal identities. The ranchers also note that there is no Internet connection on many ranches for filing to a regional database. 'Lobbyists from corporate mega-agribusiness designed this program to destroy traditional small sustainable agriculture,' says Genell Pridgen, an owner of Rainbow Meadow Farms. The notion of centralized data banks, even for animals, has also set off alarms among libertarians who oppose NAIS. One group has issued a bumper sticker that reads, 'Tracking cattle now, tracking you soon.' 'They can't comprehend the vastness of a ranch like this,' says Jay Platt, the third-generation owner of a 22,000 acre New Mexico ranch. 'This plan is expensive, it's intrusive, and there's no need for it.'"
A "teetering industry"? (Score:3, Funny)
Well... (Score:3, Funny)
I think the ranchers oppose having their animals chipped because then it becomes too easy for the government to abuse its power and round their cattle up like cattle.
Re:Let it collapse (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dear Slashdot Editors, (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ridiculous paranoia (Score:4, Funny)
There are so many ways you are being tracked already, the 'Tracking cattle now, tracking you soon" fear isn't paranoia, it's whistling in the dark.
Well there's only one thing that I know how to do well, and I've often been told that you can only do what you know how to do well -- and that's be you! Be what you're like. Be like yourself. And so I'm having a wonderful time but I'd rather be whistling in the dark.
Cattle Liberties (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dear Slashdot Editors, (Score:2, Funny)
Quick .. get that domain name! (Score:1, Funny)
cowfax.com - ask your butcher "Show me the CowFax"!
Re:A "teetering industry"? (Score:5, Funny)
How much is one supposed to tip a cow when served milk? Does is the usual 15% sufficient?
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To err is human, to muu, bovine.
Re:CAN WE HAVE MORE FP STORIES (Score:2, Funny)
Sound like he should have submitted the paper on "Subject/Object Ambiguation."
Day 12, still compulsively masturbating to the mental image of a tenured academic figuratively raping the Regents and Trustees. It appears that momentary respite from this condition is possible through the conscious recollection of the aroma of sauerkraut, as served in the cantine."
Re:Let it collapse (Score:5, Funny)
Plus, if you don't like it you can choose not to support the slave industry...
Well, as long as nobody is forced to support it, there isn't a slave industry.
And if the cows weren't forced to support it, there wouldn't be a meat industry either.
I tried to free my cow. She just stood there going "mooo". So I ate her.
Finally a solid reason why we need IPv6 (Score:3, Funny)
cause every cow needs its own IP address. And cows don't like NAT. No bull.
Re: worst that can happen (Score:1, Funny)
If the bovine has done nothing wrong, surely it has nothing to fear from being tracked. After what's the worst that can happen to it?
You mean like...
[ Source: Cows with guns [cowswithguns.com] ]