Paris, 9 August 2004


EFITA newsletter / 171 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


EFITA web site
This newsletter is published on our web site.
See: http://www.efita.net?d=5194


EFITA 2005 conference: the best opportunity to present your results, your achievements… and to meet friends and make contacts
25 - 28 July 2005 - Universidade de Trás-os-Montes - Portugal
Contact: Jose BOAVENTURA
E-mail: jboavent(a)utad.pt


IT in Rural Areas conference - preliminary programme
PROGIS Conference 22nd-24th of September 2004
With the participation of speakers from…
- European Commission
- Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- Central European for Land Knowledge Centre (CELK)
- European Umbrella Organization for Geographic Information (EUROGI)
- Federal Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Agricultural Universities
- Research Centres, etc.
See: http://www.progis.com/event/conf2004/index.htm
Contact: Karin Strobl
E-mail: karin.strobl(a)progis.com


Foresight exercises at regional level
23 September - Brussels
The European Commission has supported a number of working groups in the development of a series of 5 'blueprints for regional foresight. These are aimed at experts involved in regional development and they cover a number of themes including the sustainable development of rural areas.
See: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/conferences/2004/foresight/index_en.html
See: http://www.teamwork.fr/inscription/blueprints/
Contact: Patrick CREHAN
E-mail: patrick.crehan(a)cka.be


92nd EAAE Seminar "Quality Management and Quality Assurance in Food Chains"
University of Göttingen (Germany)
2-4 March 2005
See: http://www.eaae.uni-goettingen.de/
Contact: Ludwig THEUVSEN
E-Mail: theuvsen(a)uni-goettingen.de


WTO Doha Development Agenda: WTO mid-point agreement paves the way for future conclusion of trade round "a stronger multilateral trading system"
See: http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/04/1011&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr


German Agricultural Society (DLG)
See: http://www.dlg.org/en/


Site of the developing Consensus Legume Database
See: http://legumes.org/


FAO launches new Internet service to highlight new global developments in food and agriculture
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new online service to keep its global Internet audiences up-to-date on the latest news and developments in agriculture, nutrition and food security. The FAO What's New Service at harvests the most recent postings from the Organization's internet dissemination services and displays them on a single easy-to-access Web page. Press releases, publications, reports and new Web sites are among the categories covered.
The effective and efficient delivery of online material is a central mandate of FAO's WAICENT initiative which aims to fight hunger by making high quality technical information available to all.
See: http://www.fao.org/waicent/whats_new/index_en.htm
Contact Stephen KATZ
E-mail: waicent(a)fao.org


AGROPLAN LdV Project - The project outputs will include…
- A review of farm management and planning approaches and the extent of use of software packages
- An assessment of current thinking and future opportunities for encouraging greater innovation, entrepreneurship and use of ICT in Agriculture.
- The development and dissemination of new training packages, case studies and examples of good practice
- The further development of partner networks and pan-European links between farm advisers, advisory organisations and farmers associations
- Training of Country Trainers and specialist Agricultural advisers on farm management, production, planning, entrepreneurship and innovation and the use of ICT
- Working closely with software providers and manufacturers of enabling technologies, to assist in the development and dissemination of information in the Agricultural sector
- Encouraging greater certification of materials and courses among European Training Providers, in order to further improve farm management, production, planning, entrepreneurship and innovation
See: http://www.agroplan.org
Contact: Vasso ARGYROROPOLOU
E-mail: office(a)hcl-consultants.com


Taxing Time!!!
A bright, young, fresh-out-of-school auditor just joined the IRS,
excited to begin tracking down high-powered offenders - like the Enron and WorldCom guys. Anxious for his first high-powered audit, he was a bit dismayed when his assignment was to audit a Rabbi.

Examining the books and taxes was pretty straight forward, and the
Rabbi clearly very frugal, so he thought he'd make his day interesting
by having a little fun with the Rabbi.

"Rabbi," he said, "I noticed that you buy a lot of candles."

"Yes," answered the Rabbi.

"Well, Rabbi, what do you do with the candle drippings?" he asked.

"A good question," noted the Rabbi. "We actually save them up and when we have enough, we send them back to the candle maker. And every now and then, they send us a box of candles."

"Oh," replied the auditor somewhat disappointed that his mischievous question actually had a practical answer. So he thought he'd persist, in his juvenial way..."Rabbi, what about all these matzo purchases? What do you do with the crumbs from the matzo?"

"Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi calmly, "we actually collect up all the
crumbs from the matzo and when we have enough, we send them in a box back to the manufacturer and every now and then, they send a box of matzo balls."

"Oh," replied the auditor, thinking hard of a way to fluster the Rabbi.
"Well, Rabbi," he went on, "what do you do with all the foreskins from the circumcisions?"

"Yes, here too, we do not waste," answered the Rabbi. "We save up all the foreskins, and when we have enough we actually send them to
the I.R.S."

"The I.R.S.?," questioned the young auditor in disbelief.

"Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi "the I.R.S." ... and about once a year, they send us a little prick like you."

Contact: Mick HARKIN
E-mail: harkin(a)iol.ie


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