As I was researching the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for my new BusinessWeek.com column, I had this uneasy feeling I was missing data. It seemed that each time I tried to figure out what a particular state like Texas or Indiana was up to with regard to implementing NAIS, I couldn’t uncover too much explicit at the state web site about what was going on. Was I missing important pages on the sites? Or were the states trying to avoid saying too much?

I suspect the latter.

I know bureaucrats can be sloppy in explaining procedures to citizens. But they can also intentionally obfuscate and obliterate to hide their true intentions, especially if they know their intentions will not be well received by their targets.

There is something dangerously amorphous about the NAIS. The U.S. Department of Agriculture uses soothing words like “voluntary” and “flexible” to suggest it’s all nebulous…while leaving it to the states to do the dirty work of making it involuntary and rigid.

In the case of NAIS, the real business at hand is to get those RFID tags with numbers attached to cattle, goats, pigs, chickens and horses. Even if the tags don’t initially contain much information or aren’t broadcast to satellites, the key goal is to get the equipment into the user’s hands—establish the precedent. It’s not unlike what cell phone companies or credit card issuers have long done. Get the cell phone or the credit card into people’s hands and accustomed to using them. Then you can change the rules.

The Michigan farmers I wrote about are highly suspicious of what’s going on, and rightfully so. They’ll likely find more visitors coming around with this introduction: “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”