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.

Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web.

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