USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), has backed off its July 5, 2020, Federal Register Notice that would have required the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) ear tags on all adult cattle and bison moved in interstate commerce by Jan. 1, 2023.
This means that the original
Continue Reading USDA starts formal rulemaking process for RFID ear tags
Cattlemen and ranchers have three national organizations vying for their loyalty and support, and they don’t always agree on policy.
That’s apparently going to be true for something as simple as whether the interstate movement of cattle should require the use of radio-frequency ear-tags for traceability purposes. Commonly referred to
Continue Reading National cattlemen’s organizations split on RFID for traceability
Later this week, the ranchers who belong to that group with the long name are holding their annual convention in Deadwood, SD. One major item on their agenda is to decide whether to continue to slow the use of RFID technology to keep track of livestock.
R-CALF USA represents
Continue Reading Letter from the Editor: Time to put the branding irons in the museum
Animal disease, not human food safety, is the purpose of traceability in the United States. It means that if there is an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease, tracing it to impacted herds might be possible.
But if you think traceability should make it possible to trace the hamburger from
Continue Reading APHIS still wants USA to adopt RFID based traceability
Pretend you’re an inspector for the Hawaiian Department of Agriculture and you’ve just arrived to examine several pallets full of produce — bagged spinach, for example.
You know that the ideal temperature for transporting spinach, a particularly fragile green, is 32° F. You also know this spinach has been sitting
Continue Reading RFID Knows Where a Product Is and What It's Doing
On today’s grocery shelves, it’s commonplace for produce from all over the world to be displayed side by side, regardless of the season. It’s not unusual, in fact it’s expected, to see lettuce or tomatoes from California in New England grocery stores even as the snow begins to fall.
With
