Judge Rejects Farmers' RFID Lawsuit

For a period of time, the state subsidized farmers in some counties, but since June 2009, most have had to pay for the RFID tags themselves. The greatest concern among small farmers, Kirk indicates, seems to be the expense of the tags, which cost approximately $2.25 apiece. Thus far, he says, Michigan users have purchased about $2 million worth of tags.

"It's a small cost," Kirk says of the tag expense, noting that a small farmer purchases a correspondingly low quantity of tags. "But it's important in protecting the health of that farm."

According to Kirk, the average Michigan cattle farm has 65 animals. "I think the next step is [to follow] the improving quality of readers in the market," he says, adding that many of the state's cattle owners have begun using the tags as a management tool. "It's become a vital tool on the farm" to track animals, he explains, as well as their health and vaccination history.

For some, Kennedy counters, the benefits are not worth the expense. "We still think the economic impact on small farmers is going to be significant," he says.

Judge Collyer seemed to agree. "Living a pastoral life in the 21st century is clearly a struggle," she wrote, "and plaintiffs' complaints about forced electronic tagging and forced inclusion in a national database are understandable."

The plaintiffs' lawsuit contained 11 separate counts: five directed at the USDA, five at the MDA and one at both. Specifically, the parties alleged that in the USDA's establishment of the National Animal Identification System, the agency violated the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), as well as procedural and substantive due process under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs further alleged that Michigan's implementation of NAIS violated procedural and substantive due process under the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, as well as NEPA, RFRA, the requirements of Michigan's Administrative Procedure Act and the free-exercise clause of the state's constitution.