From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2002 - 15:34:47 MDT
I think I saw something like this in action when I moved here four
years ago, and went on a tour of a countryside with a doctor and his
family. On our return to Heidelberg, we stopped at a small farm. The
farmer and the doctor were friends, and so we received a tour of the
farm and I learned some facts about the dairy industry in a European
Union country. Do you remember the note Serafino posted regarding
the European Union requirement that all peas must have no more and
no less than 6 peas in a pod? The rest of the farm business is
similar.
Farmers are allowed to sell milk of particular percentage fat in the
EU, so if they have some milk with more fat or less fat, that milk
doesn't get sold. Therefore, the farmers tightly control the fat
percentages of the milk produced by their cows. (Otherwise they lose
money.) Do you see how EU politics changes the methods of such a
simple industry?
The way they control the fat content is to precisely monitor the
food intake of their cows. Each cow wears a transponder that
identifies that particular cow. Each cow is allowed to go into the
main feed area a particular number of times per day. When the cow
enters the feed area, the electronic device in the feed area that
identifies that particular cow (because it is wearing a transponder)
signals the food dispenser to give a particular food (quantity and
type) to that particular cow.
So not exactly a chip, but this transponder perhaps has a similar
purpose to the chip.
I was also amused with other methods by this farmer. He said that
"unhappy cows produce sour milk" so he is very concerned that his
cows are happy (they receive exceedingly good care).
The transponders provide locations at any time for any of the
cows. So if one has the right computer and software at home, a
farmer can watch his/her cows on his computer. This funny fact
prompted the doctor to say to me: "they run the cows under Windows".
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Sometimes I think I understand everything. Then I regain consciousness." --Ashleigh Brilliant
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