Cows? What, you aren’t in the moooo-d? Can’t be helped. I was just reading in The Nation magazine that our government — the one dominated by that political party that says it is opposed to big government — is tormenting American cattle farmers. A new edict insists that 1.4 million farms with “approximately 95 million cattle, 1.8 billion chickens, 60 million pigs, 93 million turkeys, 6.3 million sheep, 2.5 million goats and every other livestock species, including bison, camelids, cervids, horses and llamas. In all, more than 29 species and more than two billion animals” are going to have to, essentially, get dog collars. Every one of them is required to get some kind of ID tags or be injected with transponders” that will keep the gov informed about details like their health, age and DNA.

Great, you say. No more mad cow outbreaks. Not so fast. First of all, the gov doesn’t have a very good track record at administering large systems like this. Second, it’s a terrible burden for small farmers who just want to raise clean animals and feed all of us locavores and organic purists.

If you like organic meat and dairy products, this is a great time to support those farmers at the grocery store and farmers’ markets. And if you’d like to write a complaint letter?

Send it to the USDA at http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/contact_us/general.shtml.