Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) broke its promise to our nation’s cattle producers. After pushing back against the agency’s persistent efforts to mandate electronic identification (EID) eartags on all cattle of all ages for 13 years, the agency offered a compromise to the cattle industry in 2013. The agency promised to implement a system of disease traceability that gave cattle producers flexibility in determining which type of individual animal identification device would best fit their operations. Producers could choose a low-cost metal or plastic eartag or they could choose the highest-cost eartag – the EID eartag. The agency’s promise to cattle producers was that they would be given the right to choose.
But the USDA soon reneged on its promise when, in 2019, it issued a policy paper mandating the exclusive use of EID eartags beginning January 1, 2023. When the agency did this, and with the help of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, we sued the USDA over that broken promise. And within a matter of weeks, the agency withdrew its mandate.
But the agency came right back with a notice the very next year stating it was still going to mandate the exclusive use of EID eartags, again by January 1, 2023. Again, we pushed back, not in the courts this time but within the Administration, and we succeeded again – the agency withdrew its mandate.
Now, and despite overwhelming opposition from cattle producers, the USDA has bowed its neck and issued a final rule to mandate the exclusive use of EID eartags for certain adult cattle shipped across state lines.
The agency states that EID eartags will improve its disease traceback capabilities. But this is just a pretext for its true objective of appeasing multinational beef packers and eartag manufacturers, both of whom expect to benefit from the mandate. The final rule does not accomplish the USDA’s disease traceback goals because, as the USDA itself admits, the infrastructure for reading EID tags and digitally recording tag numbers must also be in place in order to achieve the benefits of the EID technology. But that costly infrastructure is not in place and the final rule doesn’t even require it to be.
So, the only mandate within the rule is to require cows to wear EID eartags. There’s no requirement that the eartags be electronically read, and no requirement that the electronic data contained in the eartag be exported electronically to a database. In other words, the new rule will function just like the 2013 rule, except that cattle producers will no longer be afforded the right to choose what type of animal identification device best fits their operations.
And so, for that reason – that the rule can’t accomplish what the USDA said it would, and because Congress never authorized the USDA to burden U.S. cattle producers with an EID mandate, we’re challenging this final rule in court, again with the New Civil Liberties Alliance as our legal representative.
R-CALF USA is the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge against the final rule and the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance have joined us as co-organizational plaintiffs. There are also three husband and wife co-individual plaintiffs.
The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court in Rapid City, South Dakota, on October 30, but the date the final rule begins having the force and effect of law is November 5.
In an effort to postpone the November 5 effective date of the final rule, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, on our behalf, has formally requested the Secretary of Agriculture to postpone the effective date of the final rule while it is under judicial review. In the alternative, the NCLA asks the USDA to delay the final rule for 180 days.
And here’s where we would appreciate your help, and I’m going to give you two phone numbers in just a bit. First, it would be great if you’d call Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to urge him to postpone the EID rule until the lawsuit is finished. You can reach Secretary Vilsack’s office by calling 202-720-3631.
Next, it would be great if you called your two Senators and your Representative to tell them a lawsuit has been filed against the USDA’s unlawful EID mandate and that you want them to contact the Secretary of Agriculture’s office to urge the Secretary to postpone the mandate until the lawsuit is finished. You can reach your members of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard and asking for them by name. The number is 202-224-3121.
And if you’re in another occupation, It would be great if you’d make calls too because this draconian rule is a classic example of unlawful government overreach, which is bad government, and everyone should want it to stop.