Some bright soul in Washington has decided that our government needs a national animal identification system. They're using the recent BSE scare to push this forward. It's going before the house as H.R. 3787. Anyhow, they want to be able to identify within 48 hours where a sick animal came from and what other livestock it's been in contact with. Now, how they're going to accomplish this what what I don't understand.

Maybe they're going to implant a GPS device in every cow in the nation?

From what I've read the USDA is throwing about 200 million dollars at this.

They're also wanting to do this with sheep, goats, pigs and horses... along with just about every other kind of domestic critter in the country. I can understand WHY they're wanting to this, but this has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. They couldn't even get Country of Origin labeling (which I favor) passed, so they have to come up with something has the makings of being a clusterf%*k of epic proportions?

I forsee an expanded USDA to oversee this... a lot of excess paperwork for small operators... a lot of small operators getting out of the cattle business... worst of all, I see the cattle business going to vertical integration, much like poultry. That bothers me more than anything...