It is being made mandatory. Iowa has a protocal for the system also. I have a few neighbors who are very concerned about it. They have taught their own children. {very well educated i might add} It is a family of four who have lived in these family farms for ages. one of the parents is a veternarian. They were telling me about the notices they had recieved one day while we were trying to figure out property boundries.

One of their concerns was if they send some of their herd in to the market and their cows are not marked the marketplace can literally steal their cows. or even though their cows have tags or are branded even if someone else stole the cows that has verisign tags can remark their cows and they can do nothing about it. The other concern is they are Believers and they will in no way take any "mark of the beast" even for their animals.

you cannot even own a few chickens without excepting these "chips".