Paris, 9 February 2004
EFITA newsletter / 146 / European Federation for Information
Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment
Thought of the day
If you think yourself too wise to involve yourself in government, you will
be governed by those too foolish to govern -- Plato
From Bill PARLETTE
mailto:BillParlette@compuserve.com
Integration and Data Integrity + several other topics
25 th Conference of GIL, the German Society for Informatics in Agriculture,
Forestry and Nutrition
September 8-10 2004 - Bonn/Germany
See: http://www.uf.uni-bonn.de/GIL2004
Contact: Anne Catharina KREUDER
mailto:a.kreuder@uni-bonn.de
AgriStar (1): Press release - AgriStar to FCC: "Internet Plus Satellite
Broadband Will Change Way Ag Business Is Done"
Washington, D.C., February 3, 2004. AgriStar Global Networks' chairman Cliff
Ganschow told the Federal Communications Commission last week that satellite
broadband connectivity now enables the agricultural industry to fully utilize
the Internet in the many ways originally anticipated, but which until now could
not be realized because of extremely slow connectivity speeds over rural phone
lines.
AgriStar's presentation was part of the FCC's "Making the Rural Connection"
forum held on January 27, which explored innovative approaches for utilizing
satellite broadband in agriculture, education, telemedicine, public safety and
entertainment. AgriStar was selected to discuss the opportunities now available
for farmers and agribusiness to use its two-way satellite network to deliver
high speed information and business services.
"The Internet has always had enormous potential in agriculture," Ganschow
said "because of the industry's size, its complexity and fragmentation,
and the steadily increasing need to move large amounts of information fast.
But rural geography, where deployment of cable and DSL lines is not economically
feasible and phone lines are terribly slow, has kept a heavy lid on this potential
until now."
Ganschow told the FCC audience that a lot of money was initially invested in
Internet platforms by both traditional agribusinesses and new dot com companies
with little, if any, thought given to connectivity speed. "The only solution
at that stage was to dumb down Internet sites in terms of graphics and applications,
and then only limited amounts of data could be sent," he said. "AgriStar's
satellite broadband, with download speeds that are 20 to 30 times faster than
rural dial-up, has opened up a vast new arena for effectively using the Internet."
AgriStar's satellite technology partner is Hughes Network Systems, the world's
largest satellite services company.
Ganschow ended his presentation to the FCC staff and audience by listing a variety
of ways AgriStar already is being successfully utilized throughout the country
by farmers, agribusiness and rural non-farm users. "In my 40 years in communications,"
he said, "there has never been anything close to the potential of the Internet
combined with 2-way satellite broadband to impact how business is done in agriculture
and to open new opportunities for rural America overall."
AgriStar (2): presentation by Cliff Ganschow - Chairman, AgriStar Global
Networks - Rural Satellite Forum - Federal Communications Commission - Washington,
D.C., January 27, 2004
AgriStar's Role in Connecting Agriculture and Rural America
I want to thank the Federal Communications Commission for inviting me to participate
in today's Rural Satellite Forum, and for having the vision to sponsor discussion
about the many opportunities now available with satellite broadband.
AgriStar's core focus is to provide broadband connectivity and agricultural
information to the country's top farms and ranches and the companies with
which they do business. I should mention here that we define a top farm
not just by size, but by overall efficiency, because a producer can be highly
efficient on several hundred acres just as he can on many thousands. AgriStar
also plans to provide broadband connectivity to other rural sectors,
including the rest of the farm universe and non-farm businesses and residences.
AgriStar is the only nationwide provider of broadband connectivity exclusively
dedicated to agriculture. We differentiate ourselves from consumer oriented
companies by including a wide range of information and business services along
with high speed connectivity. A subscriber to AgriStar receives, at no additional
cost, extensive daily agricultural news summaries along with detailed market
information, 10-minute delay price quotes and access to extensive commodity
graph libraries. Because of the time sensitivity of today's commodity information,
AgriStar's screen reports are updated throughout the day with streamed audio.
Our basic information package also includes high‑resolution weather maps with
full motion radar and satellite imagery. And there is daily audio commentary
on major ag issues by Orion Samuelson, agriculture's best-known media spokesman.
- In addition, AgriStar is developing a broad menu of premium services.
These will include virtual seminars with streamed audio and video, multicasts
of business and financial topics, distance learning, production input sourcing,
value-added marketing opportunities and a number of others.
- Over the past half century, AgriStar's forerunner entities were closely
involved in many stages of the constant evolution toward faster delivery of
agricultural information:
- In the 1950's the Ford Farm Almanac started as an annual roundup of
new production ideas, sent to every member of the Future Farmers of America.
Once a year was deemed sufficient.
- In the 1960's our Top Farmers of America Association, the country's
first organization of leading farmers and ranchers, provided members with business
and financial information through monthly publications and live seminars. That
was state-of-the art timeliness back then, and we never had a complaint about
the mailman not driving fast enough down his rural routes.
- In the 1970's we started Farm Futures, agriculture's first risk management
magazine. Because of the time-sensitive nature of market information we soon
supplemented the monthly magazine with weekly newsletters and then later with
watts lines and daily recorded tapes.
- In the 1980's we launched AgriData Resources which established the
first national computer network of leading farmers and ranches, using modems
and phone lines. This was years before public Internet use, but the top producers
already were rapidly integrating computers into their businesses.
- In the 1990's we established our own initial Internet web sites, recognizing
as did many others the enormous potential power of the new medium. I said then
that once this spectacular technology was utilized properly, it would
have more importance for agriculture and the people it serves than any other
industry.
There are several reasons for this:
Agriculture, from farm field to consumer table, is the world's largest industry
and it is the most vital. People have to eat.
It is a highly complex and fragmented industry. There are tens of thousands
of seed, chemical and other input companies and their field people at one end
of the food and fiber chain. At the other end of the chain are equally large
numbers of elevators, processors, transporters, packagers and retailers. And
at the epicenter are hundreds of thousands of commercial farms and ranches
producing more than 300 commodities, who need to communicate with the rest of
the industry as fast and effectively as possible.
The volume of agricultural production and food related information needing to
be transmitted has increased exponentially in recent years.
The fourth reason for the Internet's importance to agriculture is simply that
most of the huge industry is rural based. But it is this same geography that,
until now, has kept the heavy lid on truly effective Internet use in
rural America, where deployment of cable and DSL lines is not economically feasible
and rural phone connectivity is terribly slow.
A lot of money was initially invested in Internet platforms by both traditional
agribusinesses and new dot com startups with little – if any – thought given
to connectivity. One Internet-based company specializing in remote mapping of
fields approached AgriStar a year before we were operational because they had
discovered that sending their GPS field maps to a farmer tied up his phone line
for 7 or 8 hours, so they had to print the maps and send them by FedEx.
There were many examples like that. The only solution was to dumb down
Internet sites in terms of graphics and applications, and then only limited
amounts of data could be sent. Satellite broadband, with download speeds that
are 20 to 30 times faster than rural dial-up, thus opens up a vast new arena
for utilizing the Internet in agriculture and throughout rural America.
AgriStar began its formal national market rollout late last year with Hughes
Network Systems as our technology partner. Hughes is the world's largest satellite
services company. More than 4 years of AgriStar research and development, culminating
with the successful completion of an 18-month networking program in 40 states,
preceded our launch.
We are introducing AgriStar the same way we have marketed all of our other communication
efforts over the decades, starting with the group I defined earlier as America's
top farms and ranches.
AgriStar's proprietary database profiles 250,000 of these operations, which
we update annually.
This elite group makes up only 10% to 15% of all U.S. farm operations, but operates
70% of the land, produces 80% of the output and earns 90% of all net farm income.
These producers and the entities with whom they do business are today's
commercial agriculture.
A top producer's need for high-speed information and business services is drastically
different from only a few years ago. In addition to daily ag news, markets and
weather, producers want everything from the latest prices on inputs to the newest
value-added market opportunities related to biotechnology, and they want it
all delivered at high-speed for instant decision making.
The industry also now needs instant warnings about the negative developments
which can happen overnight in our global economy. The recent news of just one
mad cow imported from Canada caused more than 30 countries to ban all U.S. beef
imports in less than a week. Beef prices plunged the maximum amount allowed
by the commodity exchanges for several days in a row.
Disease scares, consumers uneasiness with biotechnology and other modern day
issues have indelibly burned food safety into the public's consciousness. I
saw a cartoon the other day showing a McDonald's outlet with the golden arch
and a big "Mc" sign in the middle. Hanging from the Mc sign was a
makeshift sign saying: "Mc does not stand for Mad Cow." That
is public awareness.
So we are entering a brand new era where identity preservation and tracking
food from field to table will require highly sophisticated traceability systems,
massive databases and high-speed communications that electronically integrate
the production/marketing channel from one end to the other. AgriStar intends
to play an important role as the communications hub to make this possible.
In addition to running their own efficient businesses, America's top producers
also are one of AgriStar's keys to reaching other farmers and ranchers as well
as the rest of the rural community. Many of these influential thought leaders
serve as presidents of their county and state farm organizations. They sit on
school boards and bank boards and are active in their communities in many other
ways. People listen to them. They watch what they are doing.
Over the years we have worked closely with many of the leading producers, as
well as the agribusiness companies they deal with, and we have gained their
trust. This is the essence of what our adoptive use/diffusion marketing is all
about. We start with the innovators and early adopters, and solicit their ideas
and suggestions. Then we move on through the rest of the industry. We are finding
it works the same with AgriStar as it did with everything else we've done in
prior years.
I will end with some examples of how AgriStar is being successfully utilized.
First by farmers:
- A 5,000 acre Illinois farmer who produces corn for Frito Lay, this year is
chairman of the board of the U.S. Grains Council, devoting more than half his
time to building America's grain exports. Shortly before subscribing to AgriStar,
he downloaded a board meeting package that was graphic intensive. It took 2
hours. With AgriStar, as a test he downloaded the same package again. It
took less than 4 minutes. His wife also runs an accounting business for
other farmers and local businesses and also relies heavily on AgriStar in her
work.
- Another Midwest producer who operates 10,000 acres and has an agricultural
investment in Ukraine says AgriStar has significantly improved both his U.S.
and global communications significantly. It also is wonderful for his wife,
a paraplegic. Her connection to the outside world is her computer with voice
recognition software and AgriStar's high-speed delivery which enables her to
maintain an active role in their family businesses.
- A 400-acre Wisconsin farmer says AgriStar levels the playing field
so he's on a more even keel with much bigger operations.
- A Georgia farmer participates in live cattle auctions via AgriStar rather
than traveling hours or days to be there in person.
- A Colorado grain producer used to access the Internet only a day or two a
week. With AgriStar he utilizes it several times a day, and he says his wait
time for downloading material is so dramatically reduced compared to dial-up
it is "almost unbelievable." An added bonus: His wife now does
her shopping over the Internet because they are a long way from any city.
- Equally important in rural areas is how much satellite broadband has opened
up new educational and entertainment experiences for entire families. One mother
describes AgriStar's streamed audio and video as "so incredibly smooth
it's just like watching TV." She says the entire family now uses the Internet
constantly.
Some examples of what agricultural companies are accomplishing with satellite
broadband:
- One of the industry's largest ag chemical distributors last year installed
AgriStar pilot units with a half dozen dealers who could not access cable or
DSL, and now is ready to order another 100 units for the rest of their outlying
locations. The next step is to develop product sales incentives to encourage
each dealer's farmer customers to join the AgriStar network.
- A global seed company has started to use AgriStar to connect its dealers and
fieldmen and will use it for dealer training and many other purposes.
- A North Dakota company that provides grain storage and pressure cure drying
systems uses AgriStar to communicate with its global sales force and customers.
They are now testing the possibility of using AgriStar to network a farm with
its remote storage facilities so a farmer can monitor heat and moisture conditions
while sitting in his home office.
- Agricultural universities in the South and Midwest have connected their research
farms via AgriStar and now can transmit large databases and graphic-intensive
material that was impossible to do with dial-up.
- The National Corn Growers Association, with more than 30,000 members, began
using AgriStar to network its state officers and members last year. Seven other
large commodity organizations now are doing the same, as are state Farm Bureaus
and other farm groups.
- We are developing an AgriStar program specifically for FFA members, who literally
have grown up with computers and the Internet. These young folks are technologically
savvy and wield a lot of influence with their parents in this regard. A quick
story I heard from an Illinois mother who asked her 12-year old son and one
of his pals if they had ever seen a typewriter. Her son said he saw one
in a doctor's office once, and allowed that it was "pretty cool, except
that it couldn't delete anything." His friend said he saw one in
a movie, but added that it was a very old movie. Times indeed are changing
and at broadband speed.
Finally, some non-farm stories that show the total rural potential for satellite
broadband:
- A secondary school in Iowa had 37 computers running off a dedicated 56k circuit.
With AgriStar they now are averaging 600k. How the school learned about AgriStar
is a classic example of adoptive use and diffusion. An Iowa farmer subscribed
to AgriStar. His wife, who is on the local school board, reported how much they
liked it. The school installed a unit, and the superintendent now is recommending
AgriStar to others.
- The North Valejo Community Center in California is utilizing AgriStar to provide
Skills Training for 15 to 20 adult students at a time.
- And, at a remote dinosaur dig in Wyoming, a University of Texas project is
underway to unearth the largest T-‘Rex ever found. Researchers are using AgriStar
to transmit daily photos to the outside world, including school children following
the project on their web site. We're not quite sure what the long term T-Rex
market is but we are digging into it!
In closing, I want to say that in my 40 years in communications, there never
has been anything close to the potential of the Internet combined with satellite
broadband to impact how business is done in agriculture and to open new
opportunities for rural America overall. There still is a learning curve to
get everyone to understand just how much can be done when these two horses
are harnessed together. But with efforts such as this FCC forum today,
the understanding and utilization will come quickly. Thank you.
Information provided by Bernard P AUXENFANS
mailto:auxenfansb@attglobal.net
"The Meatrix," a hilarious new animated short from Free Range Graphics
As its name implies, the Meatrix spoofs the popular Matrix movies. But instead
of Keanu Reaves, the Meatrix stars a young pig, Leo, who lives on a pleasant
family farm... he thinks. Leo is approached by a wise and mysterious cow, Moopheus,
who shows Leo the truth about modern farming -- the truth about the Meatrix!
It may be humorous, but the film also brings up an important issue: factory
farming. Huge, industrial farms have all but wiped out the family farm in America.
Along the way, they are damaging our health, our environment and our communities
(not to mention the lives of billions of animals).
But the Meatrix isn¹t all gloom and doom. In fact, it ends with an upbeat, meaningful
way that YOU can help fight the factory farming crisis – the Eat Well Guide,
an online healthy-living resource that allows you to enter your zip code and
find nearby family farms that produce organic, safe produce and meat:
See: http://www.eatwellguide.org
Supporting family farmers is an effective way for us all to protect the environment,
our health and animal rights. The Eat Well Guide makes it easy.
If you like The Meatrix or the Eat Well Guide, please send them to your friends.
Now, enjoy the show!
See: http://www.themeatrix.com
A classic Solow bon mot
"It may be at the very beginning the power of computing was wasted.
I always thought that the main difference the computer made in my office was
that before the computer my secretary used to work for me, and afterward I worked
for my secretary!"
The Region, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, September 2002, 24-34. found
at: Saffran, B. 2003. Recommendations for further reading. Journal of Economic
Perspectives 17(2):199.206.
Contact: Dr. Rolf A.E. Mueller, Prof.
mailto:raem@agric-econ.uni-kiel.de
WASHINGTON D.C. (REUTERS) - You can adapt the joke to your national context!
Early this morning a devastating fire burned down the personal library of
President George W. Bush.
Tragically, both books were lost in the conflagration. More poignantly, the
President, due to his hectic schedule, had not found time to colour in the second
one.
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