'Why Don't We Just Tag the Farmer?'

You can find some of the best, most entertaining and sometimes the most informative reporting in places you might not expect. Sure, we tend to focus on our industry's trade magazines and the elite media. We think what they say matters most. But no one should overlook the value and power of good local journalism and the major impact it can have on real people.

Here, for example, is an editorial from The Pueblo Chieftain out of Pueblo, Colorado. It's about the impact on average farmers of the Federal initiative to gain voluntary compliance for livestock RFID tagging and tracking. Lest you think this is a one-sided, anti-RFID, anti-government rant, note the balance writer Hal Walter brings to his viewpoint. After quoting a Doug Wiley of Avondale as saying, “Why don’t they just tag the farmer while they’re at it? How far are we away from that?” Walter goes on to say:

My local veterinarian, Scott Gillespie of Westcliffe, is a proponent of the national animal ID system. While he fully understands the hesitation of many independent farmers and ranchers to go along, he says the program makes sense in the face of global diseases and the threat of bioterrorism. “My heart is with the small producer,” says Gillespie, who likens the program to buying insurance for his house. “We could go 100 years and not need the NAIS, but we do know there is a likelihood of an animal disease outbreak. From an animal health standpoint it really does make a lot of sense.”

Really, for a very good sense of how RFID is playing out among real people in real places, scan this editorial.