No escape from NAIS

By Donna Schwieder, September 16, 2006

Guess what? If you have VOLUNTEERED to receive a Premises ID # from the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission, you are not allowed at this time to "un-volunteer" or retract your decision. You volunteered for a mandatory program.

I wrote first to the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission to see how someone who volunteered could retract. The office e-mailed me that it does not know how to take names off the list of "volunteers" at this time, but would check with the USDA on how to do it. The one thing the office can do, however, is to put your name on an "inactive list."

Next, I wrote to the USDA and received a reply which stated, "The individual States and Tribal Nations are responsible for registering under NAIS. Accordingly, you would need to contact the appropriate State officials to retract or otherwise change your registration information. Mr. Phil Wyrick of the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission (ARLPC) is the current NAIS contact for your State. The mailing address is ARLPC, #1 Natural Resources Drive . Little Rock , Arkansas 72205 . The telephone number is (501) 907-2400. Mr. Wyrick's e-mail address is pwyrivk@arlpc.org.

This morning, September 14th, I called the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission to ask why they couldn't remove names, since the USDA told me the ball was in their hands. I spoke with Cindy Taylor who said the Little Rock office does not know how to remove any names. The software used in setting up the list doesn't have a way to delete names. She said she had requested information from the USDA about how to delete names and is still awaiting its reply.

After the conversation with her, I called Senator Blanche Lincoln's office, and the office referred me to Cynthia Edwards who is Lincoln 's USDA contact. I asked her if she could please tell me the correct procedure to be removed from the list at the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission's office. She didn't know, but said she would check with the USDA and the ALPC, and call me back. About an hour later she called and said that AT THIS TIME the USDA does NOT have a way to remove any volunteers but "is working on it". She said for me to call back the first of the year, 2007, and check again. I do not think the USDA plans to let anyone "un-volunteer" or retract his Premises ID #. I will be very surprised if the USDA actually comes up with a way to delete names from its list.

All the more reason to fight this monstrous NAIS plan. If "we the people" do not get it stopped, it will be just like "voluntary" Social Security and the "voluntary" income tax. By law, both are still "voluntary", but just try not to participate!

I also asked Cindy Taylor at the ALPC office how many Arkansans have volunteered for a Premises ID # and she said she had a list of close to 6,000. I asked how many have requested a retraction. She said, "three."

Too bad a few thousand would not ask to be removed!

Donna Schwieder
For an NAIS free Arkansas!