Truck and Barter

RFID + Genetic Tagging = Cattle Slavery!

Pretty soon, the federal government will require every single cow to have a unique, trackable ID number:

The USDA says it will be "technology neutral" about the tracking system. Farmers can use any of a variety of tracking methods -- from physical tags to biometrics and DNA tracking -- as long as it provides critical data about animals' movements...

RFID, or radio frequency identification, is now leading the herd among tracking technologies. These radio ID tags are now widely used in everything from tracking merchandise at Wal-Mart to tracking children at an amusement park in Denmark.

Several countries already have mandatory tracking systems. Australia's National Livestock Identification, which uses RFID tags, has reported virtually no malfunctions since it began in January.

Did I mention that the cow has to be trackable even after being butchered?:

While RFID and eye scans work until the animal is slaughtered, DNA analysis can be tracked all the way to the grocery store, said Dr. Brendan Fox of Pyxis Genomics.

"The traceability of live animals is important, but we want to go beyond live animals, we want to go to the meat because that's where the consumer meets the system," said Fox.

At some supermarkets in Japan, for example, a shopper can take a package of meat to a scanner and trace the product back to the farm the cow or pig came from. Fox says this could help shoppers who are looking for meat without hormones, or meat that is deemed "organic."

Neat stuff. This is the type of government program that many farmers willingly or actively participate in. The first phase of this system cost the Department of Agriculture about $19 million. I could not find the estimated marginal costs to state goverments and famers.

Posted at May 28, 2004 10:19 AM

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