01/30/07 CPoW wants prohibition on mandatory ID

Washington Ag January 30, 2007 The Cattle Producers of Washington is requesting the state House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee hold a hearing and pass out legislation that would prohibit the establishment of a mandatory National Animal Identification System in Washington state. That's what House Bill 1151 would do. USDA has emphasized recently that it only wants a voluntary identification system. But the Cattle Producers of Washington says USDA is conditioning federal funding on reaching "measurable goals," which creates incentives for states to implement mandatory programs. Cattle producer and CPoW President Ted Wishon, says his association is 100% supportive of gathering the information available now and putting it in a database accessible to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Wishon: "Through brand inspection, your brand registry, we've got our health inspection papers, we've got our bangs inspection records, if we could incorporate all those into one database with easy accessibility we feel that we could address quite a few of the concerns that face us in today's ID situation." Wishon says CPoW still wants the ability to have mandatory country of origin labeling and also to have a Washington branded beef program. I'm Bob Hoff.