Web's power ruffles feathers in poultry industry
March
16, 1997
By JIM BROOKS
The power that the Internet provides in giving people access to
information is undeniable. But proof of this fact crops up from
time-to-time in the most peculiar places.
One of the recent examples has pitted the U.S. Department of Agriculture
against the poultry industry (which you may recall fought and lost
a battle last year to continue the practice of labeling frozen chickens
as "fresh").
This summer, the USDA will begin testing raw meat and poultry slaughter
plants for salmonella bacteria.
The move is part of the government's overhaul of meat inspection
processes.
Salmonella is the biggest food-borne killer, and recent outbreaks
have fueled the drive to improve the quality of our government meat
and poultry inspections.
USDA inspections have historically been mostly a visual check of
carcasses by inspectors. The new law means actual tests for the
bacteria in each slaughter house and poultry plant. Lawmakers and
consumer groups believe better testing will improve quality.
But the byproduct of the new tests will be the results -- how each
slaughterhouse and poultry processing plant fared in salmonella
tests.
The law says the test results must be made available to the public
and the USDA was considering posting the results of these tests
on the Internet.
In recent hearings, representatives for the poultry industry strongly
objected to public disclosure of the information, saying consumers
won't know how to interpret the test results from the slaughter
plants.
The information could also be used by foreign competitors to block
exports of U.S. meat and poultry, they said.
Consumer groups who have rallied to improve meat and poultry inspections
want to see the detailed information released from the tests, broken
down to reveal how each plant ranks in comparison to government
standards.
Industry representatives say individual plants shouldn't be identified
until the fail to meet government standards three times and are
determined to be in violation of the rules.
The USDA is in the middle, and has yet to determine what information
it will release. The tests begin this summer, so look for an announcement
later this spring.
LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN. If there's a job that's one
of the most dreaded in a household, it has to be moving from one
house to another.
There's the job of packing everything you own in boxes, crates,
garbage bags or other handy containers. It's enough to drive a sane
person over the edge (or a columnist further over it).
You round-up (or pay) as many of your closest neighbors/friends/in-laws/outlaws
as you can find (and afford), and pray everything makes it in one
piece.
Fortunately, in my own case, the first two steps are completed.
But while sorting through some boxes, I came across a couple of
artifacts from my computing past -- a "Compute!" magazine
from the fall of 1988.
The cover story for "Compute!" some eight and one-half
years ago was the IBM-compatible PC's move into the education market,
which had previous been dominated by Apple's line of Apple II computers.
During the 1987-88 school year, PCs made up nearly 35 percent of
the computer purchased nationally for education. The increased market
share was due to lower prices and higher performance than the Apple
IIs, the article said.
But software makers had a dilemma on their hands, since not all
PCs tagged "IBM compatible" were truly compatible. In
fact, at one point around this time, I remember a couple of tests
for compatibility among PC "clones" included the ability
to run Microsoft's "Flight Simulator" game or the popular
Lotus' "1-2-3" spreadsheet software.
A companion story in the same issue highlights a new user-installable
card for a "compatible" PC that let it run the popular
Apple II-series of software.
A how-to article in the same issue describes the procedure for
installing one of those relatively new 3 1/2-inch disk drives in
your computer so you could "move up to this new standard in
disk technology."
Also new for the fall of 1988 was the CD-ROM drive -- with list
prices ranging from $800 to $1,000.
And the software titles were equally pricey: Microsoft "Bookshelf"
and Grollier's "Electronic Encyclopedia" were both priced
at $295 each.
Computers have come a long way since then too -- a Commodore (remember
them?) PC10 equipped with a 8088-1 processor running at 10 MHz,
640k of memory, a half-height 5 1/4-inch disk drive and CGA graphics
card set you back a cool $999. A "massive" 20-megabyte
hard drive was available for an additional $500.
There were faster computers -- the 286 and 386 were in production
-- if you could afford them. IBM's desktop PCs equipped with 386
processors had prices ranging from $5,995 to $11,295, depending
largely on the size of the hard drive.
But some things don't change.
Computer shoppers could save significant cash by using mail order
even then.
A new Laser Desktop Turbo XT with two floppies and 640k of memory
was available for only $599; a new Seagate 20 meg hard drive was
$215.
The top speed in modems was 2400 baud. A Hayes Smartmodem 2400
external modem was a bargain at $425.95
A note in a column offers tips for saving money when using CompuServe,
which was charging a basic rate of $12.50 per hour, which it explained
"is among the highest for commercial services, but having 24-hour
access at the same rates means being able to get online whenever
you wish."
ROYALTY ONLINE. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II recently christened
a royal Web site at http:/www.royal.gov.uk.
The site's home page shows color pictures of the Crown Jewels and
Buckingham Palace and offers a wealth of information about the present-day
monarchy -- how it works, its members, its many palaces and the
huge royal art collection.
You won't find any gossip about royal meanderings at this site.
To strike pay dirt on royal dirt, visit the Weekly World News,
which is online with America Online.
This little corner of AOL has most of the famed supermarket tabloid
online -- including photographs along with news of alien visits,
Elvis sightings and the usual.
The Weekly World News isn't on the Web; for a visit you'll need
to sign-up for America Online.
For details on a free trial subscription to AOL, visit their Web
site at www.aol.com. And don't forget you can access them via the
Internet and avoid long-distance toll charges.
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