A Hope and a Prayer

There's such a thing as "biting off more than you can chew". The key is in figuring out how much is too much before you take that huge bite. The federal government obviously figured out its plan for imposing a mandatory National Animal Identification System on every farmer and rancher in the nation was just too big a bite for them to swallow. But the feds may decide to shove this particular plate full off onto state governments. The plan for a national animal ID system in order to trace sources of disease outbreaks is a good one; a large majority of meat and dairy producers already have such a system in place. How to create a well working and cost effective plan for tracking every single farm and ranch animal is the conundrum. With most state government coffers being on the empty side right now where are they supposed to come up with the finances to create let alone maintain such an identification system? The USDA is promising to provide funds to states for running the new system, but as U.S. taxpayers are fully aware federal government promises tend to blow away in the breeze like so much dandelion fuzz. So far Vilsack's proposal and USDA promises have U.S. farmers and ranchers relying on a hope and a prayer.