MDAR Moves on Premises ID, Suggests Bird Flu Threat from Backyard Flocks

From June-July-August NOFA Massachusetts News
Ben Grosscup
NOFA NAIS Response Coordinator

The Massachusetts commissioner of Agricultural Resources, Doug Gillespie, recently made some troubling remarks about avian influenza and national animal identification. His comments reflect the position of USDA and meat industry spokespeople and indicate what is to come politically for Massachusetts.

In the April/May edition of Farm & Market Report, Gillespie wrote, "as bird flu spreads into the US, we can expect residents to become concerned about neighboring farms keeping poultry, or hobbyists with birds in their backyards. Tolerance for outdoor poultry will become zero, as folks worry about human health risks" (www.mass.gov/agr/news/fmr/2006/06_april_may.htm).

Suggesting that bird flu is a threat that emanates from uncontrolled backyard poultry serves the public poorly. Compared to factory-farmed birds, flocks of wild fowl and domestic backyard flocks actually limit AI transmission, and therefore the disease’s chance to evolve into a more virulent form. Normally, the more virulent a virus is, the more likely it is to kill its host and thus end its chance to reproduce and infect other hosts. Thus viruses tend to make hosts sick, rather than kill them. The highly concentrated environment of factory farms, however, provides the perfect conditions for a virus to successfully mutate into a more highly pathogenic form. Thousands of hosts (chickens) with near identical genetic makeup, all the same age and size, crowded in close conditions, allow a virus to kill its host and still move on to the next victim.

The real solution to avian flu is to improve the conditions on factory farms and promote backyard poultry as an alternative to factory farming"not to outlaw it.

Gillespie also reported, "We’ve had great success in integrating the records of municipal animal inspectors (who complete the annual animal census, and submit these records to DAR) into a database for premise registration. While you may not know your premise ID number yet, if you were visited by your animal inspector, you should be in our database. We’ve been adding other related premises, such as veterinary hospitals, fairgrounds and auction facilities to complete the premises involved in animal agriculture in Massachusetts."

Using data from animal inspectors for statistical or taxation purposes is one thing, but using it to track premises is another. MDAR’s actions show that the rhetoric that NAIS is a "voluntary" program is misleading, because people may not even know for what purpose data collected on their farm is being used. When asked about how MDAR is using animal inspection data, Brad Mitchell, Director of Biosecurity and Regulatory Services at MDAR, said, "The data is ours and we can use it how we want." Since MDAR is already reporting livestock information to the USDA for the long-term purpose of building up the NAIS, people may stop cooperating with animal inspections.

Gillespie continues, "Our understanding from USDA is that"any animal that moves off the homestead, or comes in contact with other livestock, really needs to be tracked! The effort is huge, and expensive, but think of the devastating effects if consumers stop buying meat products, or lose confidence in animal health protocols."

Animal tracking will reinforce reliance on a centralized system of food production, but it will not make us safer. The factory farming system is inherently prone to crises like disease outbreaks and resource scarcity. No tracking system will correct a system that relies on so many external inputs, so much antibiotics and such unbelievable animal concentration—but it will push small farmers out of business.

NOFA/Mass has recently published an official position statement on NAIS (www.nofamass.org/news/nais_position .php), and is initiating a letter writing campaign to state officials to stop NAIS. You can get involved by contacting me as NAIS response coordinator, ben.grosscup@nofamass.org, 413 658-5374.

You can contact Gillespie’s office to say you don’t want arbitrary rules prohibiting outdoor poultry, which will undermine a key part of organic food production, or a program that consigns people’s personal information into a "voluntary" database without their knowledge. Phone: 617 626-1701 e-mail: doug.gillespie@state.ma.us

To get involved with the ongoing work of NOFA/Mass on NAIS, contact Ben Grosscup, ben.grosscup@nofamass.org, 413 658-5374.

This page was last modified on January 20, 2008 at 9:12:44 AM.