Our tax dollars at work: NAIS

NAIS stands for National Animal Identification System and if you think that Homeland Security and the FBI are doing invasive domestic surveillance, just wait until you see what the United States Department of Agriculture is proposing... From the web page describing Goal and Vision: (and why do I have this faint puckering sensation by my nether regions -- after all, this is the US Government and they are here to help us)

National Animal Identification System: Goal and Vision
The goal of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is to be able to identify all animals and premises that have had contact with a foreign or domestic animal disease of concern within 48 hours after discovery. As an information system that provides for rapid tracing of infected and exposed animals during an outbreak situation, the NAIS will help limit the scope of such outbreaks and ensure that they are contained and eradicated as quickly as possible.

Sounds noble and good so far but scope creep enters in:

The integration of animal identification technology standards (electronic identification, retinal scan, DNA, etc.) will be determined by industry to ensure the most practical options are implemented and that new ones can easily be incorporated into the NAIS.

And these toys will be paid for by whom? For another look -- here is the Draft Program Standard (PDF) for the database. A couple of things jump out. Only on Page 16 do we see any reference to mixed breeds. They have codes for Dairy and Beef, Swine, Goat and finally, they offer the option for Sheep: Crossbreed - Large, Crossbreed - Medium and Crossbreed - Small. We have two Black Welsh Mountain/Cheviot cross sheep and sure, these can be in the database as Crossbreed - Mediums. But we also have a Goat who is part Cashmere and part (we are guessing) Saanen. There is no option for mixed Goat. There is no option for mixed Dairy. There is no option for mixed Beef. There is no option for mixed Swine. There is no option for mixed Bison. There is no option for mixed Horse. Finally, the database seems to lack any method for tracking an animal from birth through several owners -- not much thought was put into its creation. It will do a wonderful job of tracking an animal from a first place to a second place but nothing beyond that without another record in the database and I do not see a field where that can be entered. Finally, the database spec was developed in the Java Language (not JavaScript) which is a good academic training ground but would be hell for someone to use on a slow machine on dialup. Which covers most farmers... Scott Queen (the developer) needs to find other employment; I would like to find out what he was paid for this... UPDATE: Jen just walked in and commented that this is a good system for finding out where a bad animal came from but it does nothing to find that animal before it enters the food supply. This is just a feel-good namby-pamby "Look at What We Are Doing" thing rather than having inspectors that do their jobs in the first place.