A federal judge has quashed a lawsuit instituted by the Farm-to-Consumer legal Defense Fund, which had argued that the USDA's National Animal Identification System violated federal laws, and that the Michigan Department of Agriculture's cattle-tracking program-which requires all Michigan cattle farmers to identify every animal by means of an RFID tag-is a financial burden to small farmers.
The national nonprofit organization, representing small farmers, filed the suit in 2008. The group also had maintained that the animal identification system violates the religious freedoms of cattle owners who believe God prohibits their participation in any sort of governmental regulatory system that imposes upon them a "mark of the beast," as described in the Bible's Book of Revelations.
