Paris, 26 November 2007


EFITA newsletter / 338 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


9th International Conference on Precision Agriculture
20–23 July 2008 - DENVER
- Abstracts may be submitted online at http://www.icpaonline.org/SubmissionForm.php
- Online registration
See:  http://www.icpaonline.org/


I came across a web site that referred to the English newsletter released by ACTA. The topics covered look interesting and I would like to be part of your mailing list, if possible.
See: http://www.agrista.com
Contact: Helmut DREWES
E-mail: helmut(a)agrista.com


TeLearn website
The migration of the TeLearn website into the ICT portal, the new FP7 web presence of the European Commission, "Information Society and Media" is finalized.
See: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/telearn-digicult/telearn_en.html


DLG Trendmonitor survey showing farmers' opinions in Europe as announced at Agritechnica
Farmers in the countries who have most recently joined the EU are planning to make major investment in their holdings as confidence grows in the economic future for their businesses and the industry as a whole, according to a new survey carried out across six EU countries.
Biggest investment increases are likely to be seen in Poland with 31% of farmers expecting to buy tractors, 19% to buy combines and 15% to buy drilling and cultivation equipment. Czech Republic and Hungary are next on the list with the UK trailing a distant fourth in the investment stakes.
Product prices remain the issue most likely to trouble EU according to the survey, the DLG Trend Monitor, carried out this autumn by DLG, the German Agricultural Society. Only in the UK, recently hit by foot and mouth disease and the bluetongue virus, has animal disease taken over from prices as the hottest topic.
The DLG Trend Monitor surveys almost 3000 farmers in Europe on a six-monthly basis. The survey began in 2003 and is used as a trend index by businesses in the agricultural sector.
When assessing the current economic climate, German farmers were the most confident followed by Polish farmers. The UK was equal third with the Czech Republic and France. This is a sharp turn round as the UK was least confident in spring 2006 and was second bottom of the list last autumn.
When it comes to confidence in their own businesses’ future, German and Polish farmers were again the most bullish, with UK, French, Czech and Hungarian farmers equal bottom of the survey – but with confidence measured on the scale of 1-5, there are only .5 points separating top from bottom as farmers in all six countries expect to benefit from improving world prices for key commodities such as cereals, oilseeds and milk. All farmers expect the current better conditions to be sustainable.
Among the three “older” EU states, farmers in the UK appear more likely to turn their better expected returns into hard on-farm investment. Almost 20% expect to buy tractors in the near future, 5% to buy combines and 4% to buy drilling and cultivation equipment. That is almost twice the numbers planning to make similar investments in France and Germany.
Germany and the Czech Republic lead the way in renewable energy with 20% and 17.5% of farmers saying they expect to invest in the next year.
The results were presented at Agritechnica 2007 by Dr. Reinhard Grandke, DLG’s Chief Executive Officer. The survey is carried out by the Kleffmann Group.
Contact: Malene CONLONG
E-mail: m.conlong(a)dlg.org


Retired - how I spend my days!
Working people frequently ask us retired people what we do to make our days interesting. Well, for example, the other day I went into town and went to a small shop down on High Street. I was only in there for about 10 minutes.
When I came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I went up to him and said, "Come on buddy, how about giving a senior citizen a break?"

He looked up, then ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a heartless Nazi bastard. He glared at me and then started writing another ticket for worn tires. So I called him a piece of stinking dog shit. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. I called him an asshole and a pig. Then he started writing a third ticket. I called his mother a slut and a whore.

This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I verbally abused him, the more tickets he wrote. Personally, I didn't give a shit. I came downtown by bus. I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important at my age.
Contact: Mick HARKIN
E-mail; harkin(a)iol.ie


How to save the airlines?
Dump the male flight attendants. No one wanted them in the first place.
Replace all the female flight attendants with good-looking strippers!
What the hell -- They don't even serve food anymore, so what's the loss?
The strippers would at least triple the alcohol sales and get a 'party atmosphere' going in the cabin.
And, of course, every businessman in this country would start flying again, hoping to see naked women.
Because of the tips, female flight attendants wouldn't need a salary, thus saving even more money. I suspect tips would be so good that we could charge the women for working the plane and have them kick back 20% of the tips, including lap dances and 'special services.'
Muslims would be afraid to get on the planes for fear of seeing naked women. Hijackings would come to a screeching halt, and the airline industry would see record revenues.
This is definitely a win-win situation if we handle it right -- a golden opportunity to turn a liability into an asset.
Why didn't Bush think of this?!
Why do I still have to do everything myself?
Sincerely,

Bill Clinton


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