Some good news - some bad for food. Our company had an appointment today with a couple of large farmers here in NC to help them look into Y2K impact on them. One farm has 10,000 acre seed operation that supplies major agribusiness here in South with seed to plant next years crops of wheat and corn. Second farmer raises corn and soybeans for human and animal consumption. (3000 + acres) Both operations were completely non-complaint at first scan. Computer systems would have been rendered completely useless at date change. And if you think that farmers don't need computers (i.e. an old fashioned business), both these farmers not only depend on multi-million dollar computer controlled equipment to control and process these products; they also both use GPS sat. system soil anaylsis to determine what the land needs to grow a decent crop.

Well, that's the bad news. The good news is, we talked both of them into going ahead and taking care of the problem now. Oh, some more bad news though. Within 10 miles around these guys, I quit counting the number of other similar operations which do the same thing; except according to these two, their neighbors think they are spending money on a problem that doesn't exist. Oh well, plant your garden.

-- Greg Sugg (gregsugg@bbnp.com), October 07, 1998

Answers

Yeah, I know. There is nothing like talking to someone who thinks they are 'independant' of the rest of society. I just love listening to someone who is just really full of how he is finally free of depending on others - and I know he has a bank note, is wearing Levis, has a digital watch, uses the Internet, has computers, uses the public highways - etc. ad nauseum.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 07, 1998.

Greg - that IS true. Our farmers here are actually ALWAYS talking about this - the last big thing I overheard (as a non-farming woman I have to eavesdrop at this table) was their serious concern about the embedded chips. Seems that the grain dryers that dry the corn and beans down to marketable and storable levels all have them, and that they are date sensitive. (Taking their word for it) Also, has anyone been inside a big dairy, hog or chicken production facility lately? All the feeding, dosing (antibiotics, etc), milking, lighting (for egg laying chickens) is mechanized, and in really sophisticated set-ups, they are automated by computers in many areas. We're not talking straw-chewing yokels, here.

-- Melissa (financed@forbin.com), October 08, 1998.

Go for it Greg. I'm proud of you. I'm gonna try to tackle a city...you take on the farmers. As my baby sister says: "Grab a helmet honey, and strap in.!!!!!"

Awareness is Everything!

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 08, 1998.

Our food supplies are not only threatened by Y2K, but also from the reality (it's happening right now!) that crop seed will be controlled by patented sterilzed seeds being produced by Monsanto! Our tax money has helped in the research and development and the USDA is in the process of granting Monsanto the licensing for the patents. There is a web site you can get more information from and can send an automatic e-mail to several USDA officials and members to congress. The list of letter writers is from around the world.

PLEASE...PLEASE...go to web site: http://www.rafi.org/usda.html

Texas Terri

-- Terri Symington (TjSYM@AOL.com), October 08, 1998.

You know, I was reading the "Earth First!" newspaper the other day, and those people are really self-righteous and annoying. Part of why they're so annoying is that they're right about at least two things: decentralization of production, and sustainability. Monsanto's perversion of nature is going to result in massive famine. They are willing to make that gamble in pursuit of profit, and they will lose. Look around at other profit-grubbing systems that cannot be sustained indefinitely. Their logical conclusion will be that, in time, we will realize their non-sustainability and transition to a sustainable system, or these non-sustainable systems will be pushed to the last penny of profit before they collapse. It is only a matter of time. I'm not a socialist. We know that state control is not the answer. The answer is local COMMUNITY control: the people who are directly affected not only having a say about where these multinationals drop a load, but having the absolute, final word on what happens in their neighborhood. Q: How far do you think multinationals will go to prevent that? A: How far did they go in Latin America, and the rest of the Third World, politically? What techniques did they use? Do some research. That's what they're about to do here.

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), October 08, 1998.

I know something about chicken houses. Not a single dang piece of silicon in 'em (unless you count sand or the occasional diode). There are timers, but they are mechanical & are only concerned about the hour & minute, not the day.

It's the second-tier effects -- suppliers -- that are the wildcard here. If the electricity stays up, or even mostly stays up, the chickens will be fine. A backup generator is available, but I'm not sure how much fuel is available. Heat comes from propane, stored in on-site tanks -- but once again, I'm not sure how long they go between fill-ups.

E Coli, I agree with you about Monsanto et al. But once again, if there's a general collapse, the big corps go down with everyone else.

-- Larry Kollar (lekollar@nyx.net), October 08, 1998.

The big corps go down, but the big money (and I'm not talking about Bill Gates) doesn't. They've been "up" for 600 years plus, and they have no intention of going anywhere.

E.

-- E. Coli (nunayo@beeswax.com), October 14, 1998.

The motive for terminator seed technology...not hard to see only two reasons. 1) profit 2)control...can't have all those folks all over the world saving seed every year and cutting into our profits.

Then in nightmare times I remember quote from "Requiem"

"In the end", says the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky's parable, "in the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'"

I hate nightmares like that. Buy all the non-hybrid seed you can and save, save, save.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 14, 1998.