Lobby group condemns proposed agriculture licensing program

The USDA proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would require micro-chipping with radio frequency identification and mandatory government registration of all poultry, hogs, and cattle, and other livestock.

VICFA says this licensing program's protocol discriminates against small producers and many fear it will be used by industrial agriculture to further destroy local and home-grown food production.

VICFA, a statewide group of farmers and consumers established five years ago to protect consumer food choice from government intrusion, has created the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Advocates (NICFA) Fund to represent the numerous anti-NAIS constituency groups. This fund creates a national political presence to protect food security in America.

"Real food security comes from community-based, bio-regional food commerce, not from transnational concentrations of production, processing, and long distance marketing," said VICFA spokesperson Joel Salatin.

"The USDA already has the authority and information to deal with disease outbreaks; this is just a smokescreen to further harass people with backyard poultry flocks and a 4-H steer so the big producers can have it all," he said.