Keep 'em comin', Paul. BTW, keep this one for when FEMA hauls one of your "friends aka c.....s" into court for breaking hoarding laws, post 12/31/99
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1998
PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO
USDA sees threat to food supply
Suggests preparing for Y2K crisis
By Stephan Archer
© 1998 WorldNetDaily.com
The United States Department of Agriculture says that
food suppliers, including farmers and ranchers, are
vulnerable to the Y2K millennium bug, and need to fix
any problems within their businesses now to avoid a
catastrophe beginning Jan. 1, 2000.
"Every organization's systems are composed of various
layers of hardware and software that can be
compromised by the Y2K problem," says the USDA.
"There is no single solution, so preparing for Y2K
readiness requires a flexible and immediate plan of
action."
Trudy Kareus, coordinator of the Food Supply
Working Group at USDA, said that many larger food
companies are well on their way to fixing the problem,
but it isn't just the food sector that determines whether
or not food is distributed to consumers. How compliant
the energy, utilities and transportation sectors are to
Y2K needs to be considered as well in the flow of food
products.
"We've considered all sectors," said Kareus. "And the
big and mid size businesses are OK." Kareus did state,
however, that all sectors that are important to the
delivery of food have to work completely for things to
go smoothly.
A report, according to Kareus, is currently being put
together which states that food shortages that will cause
major castatrophes are highly unlikely. The report,
which should be made available to the public sometime
next week, was put together by the Gartner Group, a
leading private research authority on information
technology.
In the report, the group created a scenario in which
there was no food at the beginning of 2000. Working
backwards to find the source of the food shortage
problem, the group concluded that the cause of the
shortages were very improbable.
"You shouldn't be too confident, though," said Kareus.
"You should always ask, 'What if?'"
Kareus said that if shelves in food stores are empty at
the turn of the millennium, it will probably be because of
a self-induced panic. "If there's going to be shortages, it
will be because people are clearing shelves, not because
of Y2K," she said.
Kareus suggested that if people do want to prepare for
Y2K, they should prepare by slowly storing essential
items ahead of time. That way, a last-minute rush on
markets and ensuing panic can be avoided.
Y2K is the result of what has now become a computer
programming error. In the early days of computers,
when the saving of memory space was of the utmost
importance, programmers designed computers to store
year dates using only two digits; instead of 1998, the
computers read the year as "98."
Now at the turn of the millennium, many computers
won't know if, on New Year's Day, the world will be
welcoming in the year 1900, or 2000.
Because of Y2K, the USDA has quite a challenge
ahead of them. The USDA's Year 2000 Program Office
mission statement states that its goal is to face the
challenge head on by ensuring that "USDA's
mission-critical systems nationwide are Year 2000
compliant by March 31, 1999."
The mission statement also says that the USDA plans to
give guidance and leadership for all of the department
and agencies that they are in charge of on all aspects of
USDA Year 2000 program activities. One of these
agencies that the USDA is providing leadership for is
the Food Supply Working Group (FSWG).
The goal of the FSWG, created by the President's
Council on Year 2000 Conversion, is to raise
awareness about the Y2K problem among those who
have a part in maintaining an uninterrupted food supply.
Because the USDA believes that farmers, ranchers, and
other food suppliers are not immune from the Y2K
problem, the FSWG, with guidance from the USDA,
have developed a six step plan
usda.gov to
ensure that food continues to flow from producer to
consumer as smooth as possible, when the Year 2000 is
upon us. These six steps are awareness, inventory,
assessment, solutions, testing, and contingency planning.
The Six Steps
The first thing that the FSWG suggests that farmers,
ranchers, and other food suppliers do is to make their
employees, other suppliers, and service companies
aware of the potential problems surrounding Y2K. The
FSWG believes that this is very important in preventing
potential problems with food distribution at the turn of
the millennium.
Making an inventory of all automated systems is the
second step that the FSWG encourages farmers,
ranchers, and food suppliers to take. Depending on
which part of the food distribution network your
company is a part of, you will want to check to see if
your irrigation systems, communications systems,
automatic feeders, conveyors, accounting systems, or
other computer systems have been affected by Y2K.
The FSWG reminds those involved with food
distribution that some systems may fail before the turn of
the millennium because some systems perform
forecasting or future processing.
"This is called 'time horizon to failure', and should be
considered during inventory and assessment," said the
FSWG.
After making an inventory of all automated systems, an
assessment should be made of them. The FSWG says
that the manufacturers of each system in your inventory
should be contacted and asked if the system in question
is Y2K compliant. "Ask for written confirmation through
an official letter from the manufacturer if it is, and
instructions on how to proceed if it isn't," said the
FSWG.
Assessing different systems can also be done by running
them as if it were already the year 2000. The FSWG
warns, however, that resetting dates in sensitive
automated systems can cause problems, and should be
done only after the potential risks are fully understood.
If assessing equipment shows that some are not Y2K
compliant or if the equipment's manufacturer calls back
and confirms this to be so, a solution must be thought of
quickly. The FSWG suggests three -- either upgrade the
system, replace the system, or fix the system.
Once all systems that are not Y2K compliant are
upgraded, replaced, or fixed, testing needs to be done.
"Testing is a critical aspect of any year 2000 project,"
said the FSWG." Testing verifies that the repaired or
replaced system operates properly when the date
changes, and that existing business functions such as
accounting, inventory control, and order tracking
continue to operate as expected."
The final step in preparing for Y2K is contingency
planning. In a good contingency plan, the FSWG says
the companies should have ways of backing up and
protecting business data, ensuring continued production
with minimum delay, ensuring continued cash and
product flow, and making clear the responsibilities of
key employees if and when a Y2K problem occurs.
"We do not know for sure what the millennium will
bring," said the FSWG, "but the prudent manager will
start now to plan for all conceivable scenarios."
© 1998 Western Journalism Center
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