Information is free for now
The doctor was baffled. His patient, my great uncle, had spent the first days of April undergoing a series of painful diagnostic tests, yet the cause of the ailment remained unknown. As the mystery deepened, my uncle's anxious son plugged his laptop into a phone line and jumped on the Internet.
Dialed into the home page of Rochester, Minnesota's Mayo Clinic, cousin John electronically darted and dashed via hyperlinks among the best doctors in the world. After a few minutes of information swapping, Mayo supplied him with the two most likely causes of his father's ailment.
Two days later, the local doctor 'discovered' the problem: it was one of the suggestions the Mayo doctors had diagnosed electronically for the price of a phone call.
According to a recent Neilsen Internet Survey, John is but one of 37 million computer users linked though the World Wide Web on the Internet in the U.S. and Canada. That number, released last October, is surely outdated because information delivery on the Web grows at the incredible rate of one per cent per day.
Agriculture is partly responsible for this explosion. Farmers are climbing on the Internet's Web even faster than they are adopting new technology like global positioning.
For example, Texas A&M's Extension Service Web site, called Leviathan, logged 525,000 'hits' - computer link-ups - in March, according to its director, Paul Sittler. To diskette jockeys, that means Leviathan received 17,000 hits and modemed out 100 megabytes of files per day.
Those hits, Sittler notes, originated from 58,355 different computers in 83 countries; 17,887 of the hits came from 2,997 machines in Canada alone.
Mainline farm magazines have witnessed a similar tidal wave of farmer interest on home pages, most started less than 18 months ago.
Successful Farming, recognized as one of the most popular commercial agriculture sites on the Web, gets hit "well above 500,000 times per month," reckons Dan Looker, SF's Business Editor.
"In a large sense, we see the rise of Web among farmers as the building of a grassroots informal USDA," Looker explains. That view is common among agriculture editors who are being forced to rethink their mission, rapidly.
"Are we in the magazine business or in the information business?" Farm Journal's Bob Coffman offers rhetorically. "Magazine business? Wrong answer. We are in the information business and how we distribute that information is simply a mechanical process; ink on paper or by modem."
A&M's Sittler concurs as Texas Extension Service's Web weaver. "We are rapidly moving away from delivering atoms - ink on paper - to delivering just electrons.
"Look," he adds, "Leviathan is a $900, 486 computer without a screen or a keyboard that runs on free software and contains just a network card and large hard drive. Yet it is a global college."
Wow, but should the Texas Legislature fund its Extension Service for the entire world's benefit?
"Great question," sighs Sittler.
Agricultural publishers sit at the same crossroads. Now that they know farmers will play hyper tag in the Web's silicon sandbox, they desire users to pay an admission fee for the privilege. How, though, is a million-dollar quandary, admits Coffman.
"The Internet was built by what most people describe as freeloaders," he explains. "Converting free users to paying customers will likely entail some entirely new way not yet developed, but it will happen."
Perhaps just as important as the when and how, is the who. If
Texas A&M can construct a necessary, popular Web site for
under a grand, why can't that computer wonk teenager who
empties your refrigerator every day become the next big
agricultural publisher?
He or she can. And will.
Alan Guebert is a farm writer from the Corn Belt.
Lots of food jobs lost
Hugh Zimmer's perceptive survey of the U.K.'s little local difficulty with mad cows (April 9) said all that needs to be said. And now, as the clamour gradually dies down, the stock farmer must carry on as best he can until the next horror story hits the fan.
But there is one lesson that everyone should have learnt: Our livestock industry is far more important to the national economy than most of use had realized.
For the average citizen in our urban society, almost the only contact with cattle is being held up on a country lane by an unhurried stockman driving his cows in for the afternoon milking. Urbanites never see the milkman, who arrives while they are still in bed, and now that the butcher has been replaced by the supermarket meat counter, the nitty-gritty of farming is largely out of sight and out of mind. What a shock it has been for everyone to learn that cattle represent one of our largest wealth-creative industries and that Britain is now the fifth biggest food and drink exporter in the world.
For every farmer in green wellies, there are four or five whose living depends on our national herd of some eight million cattle. There's the marketers, slaughterers, hauliers, the dairy industry, the meat industry, the pharmaceutical manufacturers, pie makers, tanners, sausage makers, the ready-cooked food industry; the list is almost endless. Already, it is estimated that some 10,000 have lost their jobs.
Have they all been guilty of infecting their customers with a deadly disease? No one knows for sure, but I hope we shall soon find out and can then take steps to eliminate the problem. That is, of course, until those enterprising little mutant microbes evolve a new method to attack an easy target, the ever-increasing population of the higher anthropoid apes. Let us hope that the next attack will not generate quite so much hysteria in the media; that, I guess, has driven more of us crazy than the mad cows.
When Chancellor Kohl visited London last month, he chose
English beef for his main course at an official luncheon. Such
a gesture of solidarity was indeed welcome to our beleaguered
farmers. It is a comforting thought, one of my neighbours
remarked, that under the new united states of Europe we can
all go bonkers together.
Ken Richards raises sheep and crayfish in Dorset, U.K.
Summer jobs. The Ontario government will spend $1.25 million
to support 1,500 jobs for Ontario youth this summer. The
Summer Experience Wage Assistance Program (SEWAP) offers
eligible farmers $3 per hour in wage assistance for a maximum
period of seven weeks to a maximum of $840. Eligible farmers
must create a new job that lasts at least six weeks and
provides 30 to 40 hours of work a week. SEWAP jobs are open to
young people, hired after May 27, 1996, aged 15 to 24, or 15
to 29 if the person has a disability. Immediate family members
are not eligible for the program. Applications are available
throughout Ontario at ministry offices. Information can also
be obtained by calling the Farm Assistance Programs Branch,
(416) 326-3492. All applications must be submitted with the
employer's valid Farm Business Registration Number and the $25
application fee, and must be received by July 22, 1996.
Farmers are encouraged to apply early as funds are limited.
Schneider profits down. Kitchener-based processor Schneider has reported net earnings of $206,000 for the first quarter of fiscal 1996 compared to earnings of $2.3 million for the same period in 1995. The corporation attributed the decline to low margins in its fresh pork operations, a significant reversal from the exceptional performance of the same sector during the same period in 1995. Sales for the quarter dropped marginally, from $240 million in 1995 to $238 million this year. The corporation says the sales decline resulted from the sale of its processed cheese and 'cut and wrap' operations to Ault Foods Ltd.
Grape grower chairman returns. Niagara-on-the-Lake's John Neufeld was elected to his second term as chairman of the Ontario Grape Growers' Marketing Board last month. Thorold's Wayne Lockey takes over the vice-chair position from Tom Greensides, who did not seek re-election. Other grape growers elected to the seven-member board include Albrecht Seeger and Ray Duc of Niagara-on-the-Lake; Arthur Moyer, Grimsby; and Dieter Guttler and Bill George Jr, both of Beamsville. The marketing board negotiates prices and terms of sale for all grapes grown in Ontario. In 1995 sales of grapes for processing from Ontario's 15,000 acres of vineyards exceeded $27 million. There are 600 grape growing operations in the province.
Merger under microscope. The planned merger of chemical giants Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, which would create the world's largest pesticide maker and number two seed supplier, is being investigated by the European Commission. The commission, the executive body of the European Union (EU), has the power to review major takeovers and mergers, despite the fact that Switzerland, the base for both companies, is not an EU member. The new company, Novartis, would be twice as large as its next competitor in crop protection, and enjoy high-market shares in many EU countries, the commission says. The deal could conflict with EU merger regulations which prohibit companies from creating or strengthening dominant market positions. The commission has blocked five mergers since it began scrutinizing corporate deals in 1990.
Britons can't get enough of ostrich meat, especially since the BSE frenzy hit the papers. Two large supermarket chains, Sainsburys and Tesco, which only recently started carrying the alternative red meat, are having trouble keeping the shelves stocked - even with a fillet selling for $12.25 a pound.
The supermarkets are looking to U.S. and other suppliers to cover the shortfall, while specialty meat suppliers are looking to France, which has the only European Union-approved abattoir for slaughtering ostriches.
But ostrich is not expected to become an everyday alternative to beef. As one specialty meat firm director says, there is a niche market for ostrich meat but it is too expensive for the mass market. "It will never be a licence to print money, " she says.
Durham Region pick-your-own grower Dave Barry must think the
transport ministry is out to get him.
Two years ago, the ministry and region gave Barry all of one
week's notice before digging up the major southern road into
his operation in Zephyr. Construction was at the height of
strawberry-picking season, and Barry believes the detour
deterred prospective pickers, costing an estimated $10,000 in
lost business.
This year, they're planning to widen and pave the road to the
north - you guessed it, right at the height of berry season.
The only bright side for Barry is that he got more notice this
time, and is calling any politician he can think of.
"There's no doubt work has to be done," says the exasperated
grower. "When it's only going to take two months, why not the
other 10 months? I get a month to make my money."
Haldimand-Norfolk MP Bob Speller, who lost his job as chairman
of the federal agriculture committee due to his opposition to
the Liberal's new gun control law, continues to be a thorn in
the side of Justice Minister Allan Rock.
Earlier this month, when regulations for the new Firearms Act
were tabled, Speller was quickly on his feet in the House of
Commons seeking changes to the new rules.
"Is the minister prepared to listen to representations and
make changes to the regulations which we feel will make it
less burdensome on legitimate gun owners?" Speller asked.
Before answering the question with a simple "yes", Rock said
"I have a strong sense of déjà vu."
Will it be Coke or Pepsi? That's the question soybean growers
will have to answer as the cola war reaches the bean fields.
According to University of Wisconsin nutrient management
specialist Kevin Erb, using Coke or Pepsi or other soda when
inoculating soybeans is one of the easiest ways to get better
soybean yields, the Wisconsin State Farmer reports.
Erb says "one of the big problems with using powdered
inoculants on soybeans is getting it to stick to the bean and
not fall to the bottom of the planter box." He says "liquids
like sugared sodas or milk that are a little sticky when dry
are much more effective than water.