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To: long-gone who wrote (40647)	9/22/1999 4:16:00 PM
From: Ahda	Respond to of 116914

it is what we are subjective to Richard that happens to frequently . To remain objective is difficult you have to view everything with basic knowledge the mind but the rest must be blank to remain objective and assemble accordingly.

To: long-gone who wrote (40647)	9/22/1999 6:47:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116914

N.C. Farmers Struggling After Floyd Wednesday, 22 Sepember 1999 N A S H V I L L E , N .C . (AP) WILLIE JOYNER'S farm is soggy and rotting. Twenty-two thousand dead chickens lie deteriorating in heaps of wet, stinking sawdust - the remnants of a chicken house deluged by Hurricane Floyd. Seventy percent of the farm's cotton crop is mangled. The top leaves of the tobacco plants - the ones Joyner counted on for his profit - hang limp and bruised as his workers slog through knee-deep mud to salvage what they can. "All of it's hit to some point or another," the Nash County farmer said as he drove his battered pickup from field to soggy field Wednesday. And he may be one of the lucky ones, North Carolina agriculture officials say. In neighboring counties, entire fields along with machinery and curing barns brimming with tobacco remain submerged, the tobacco leaves inside destroyed. State officials estimate at least 100,000 hogs, 2.4 million chickens and 500,000 turkeys died in eastern North Carolina floodwaters. More than $243 million in crop damage and $90 million in farm structural damage has been reported statewide, and officials say that's just a sliver of Floyd's destruction. The hurricane was the latest blow after a summer of heatwaves, drought and the plunge of commodity prices for everything from cotton to turkeys. "You add this flood on top of it, and it's a pretty critical situation," said Blake Brown, an agricultural economist at North Carolina State University. "It just comes at a time that was already difficult for farmers." For many, tobacco was to be the saving grace. Charlie Tyson, Nash County's agricultural extension agent for tobacco, said about 25 percent of the tobacco in his area was still in the fields when Floyd hit. Leaves that did not blow down and rot were battered and bruised to the point they won't cure properly, he said. "The tobacco that's in the field is ripening and deteriorating prematurely at a very rapid rate - faster than it can be harvested," Tyson said. "Most of that will be lost." Joyner 44, planted 53 acres of tobacco to supplement the income from his 350 acres of soybeans and 150 acres of cotton. Migrant workers had already pulled the first two levels of thin bottom leaves, the kind the cigarette companies usually buy from overseas. Joyner was looking forward to a nice harvest of the top leaves, where most of the valuable nicotine resides. In the fields across from Joyner's house, workers in knit hats and gloves trudged through mud to strip the remaining leaves Wednesday. "What we're going to lose is that cream of the crop profit," Joyner said, shaking his head as he pulled off one spotted, wilted leaf after another. About 70 percent of his tobacco crop was still in the field when the hurricane hit. The summer drought had damaged his other operations; Joyner lost 4,500 chickens in one day to the heat. "It's a sad situation," he said. "It really keeps you not knowing what to do next. Do you try it another year? And, really, that's the only choice you have. You try it another year or you give up."

To: long-gone who wrote (40647)	9/22/1999 10:48:00 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116914

Why is it "wise economics" when the UN advocates selling gold & "soft science" when they are forecasting population? What kind of question is that, Richard? You're referring to two different issues and trying to make a comparison. And frankly, it has been the IMF that has been leading the charge to sell gold in order to relieve international debt. I have heard hardly a peep out of the UN on the issue of gold sales, but I'm sure they don't disagree with them. Minus a major global economic or military catastrophe, gold will continue to be under pressure. Don't fool yourself over the recent gains in the gold market. It is merely a great hedging opportunity for mining companies. Regards, Ron