I could write about the farm bill from now until I'm old and gray(er) and not generate the feedback or ire I get when I type in "mandatory animal ID."

If I use the name of a politician, and animal ID, the hostility increases. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson both advocated a mandatory program in the last week. Harkin commented first so he drew most of the arrows.

Here is a small sampling:

"Tom Harkins should be tagged and tracked because he is an --- (a member of the equine species).
There would be NO meat recall if Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co had followed the rules and if USDA was doing their job.
It is also useless to try to track which cow the meat came from after the cow is slaughtered as Animal ID stops at that point. The whole concept of Animal ID is to place the blame on the small producer instead of where it really belongs at the packing plant.
I am disgusted how they are twisting what happened into an excuse to impose a boondoggle system like NAIS. USDA can no longer be trusted to protect real farmers and the American consumer."

"Obviously Sen. Harkin hasn't been monitoring the Animal Id program in Australia."

"Senator Harkin is very typical of one who allows emotions to over-power reason. Every time someone breaks a law, the frail minded want to stack more laws on. That is a mind absolutely unfit for any office. The liberal press has immense control over that sort of mind. In that sort of mind, if one fails, punish them all!

Senator Harkin, at least in your article, never once comments on the fact that there were already laws in place prohibiting such conduct. The key words of your article were... 'in violation of USDA regulations.'

If that plant was shut down permanently or the guilty parties were subject to stiff prison sentences, how many others would try that? Every reasonable mind knows that the severity of the penalty determines the frequency of violation. In your article, Harkin doesn't even suggest such a remedy; but rather, he wants to enslave all American livestock producers for an act they had nothing to do with. Are we to believe that company doesn't keep records as to who bought their beef?

I akin the liberal press and Senator Harkin to a young boy with a hot shot and a cow in a chute; It doesn't take the boy long to realize that every time he shocks the cow it kicks. What a pathetic mind to have in politics."

Despite the obvious angst in the countryside, the National Farmers Union delegates did hold the line on NFU's policy to support a mandatory animal ID program at the group's convention on Tuesday. There was a lot of debate and delegates were divided. Still, the group remains supportive of a mandatory program.

Notes From Sin City

You might not believe this, but stuff happens at conventions here that just don't happen elsewhere. However, I have sworn to National Farmers Union public relations staff that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

In his speech Sunday, National Farmers Union President Tom Buis defended the commodity market that has so many people now pointing fingers at farmers.

"You will never hear me apologize for farmers receiving a profit from the marketplace," Buis said.

Buis lashed out at self-proclaimed reformers of commodity programs who criticize the benefits producers receive. Buis said such critics are "pencil plowers" who complain when subsidies are high because farm prices are low, then change tactics when subsidies are low and prices are high.

"I don't think we will ever win that argument," Buis said.