USDANEWS VOLUME 56 NO. 3 - MARCH 1997

Clickin' Away to 2000
Okay, here's the problem. You have to train a staff of 175 in nine locations--including the Caribbean--on Windows 95 Microsoft Office applications. You also have to change all their computers to that new system. You also have to replace 177 office computers which are too outdated to support that new software. And--did we mention?--the work of the office must get done, too.

A daunting task, for sure. But a team of four staffers at the Food and Consumer Service's Mid-Atlantic Regional Office in Robbinsville, N.J., pulled it off, by helping to develop an implementation package for modernizing not merely the region's information systems, but the systems for the agency as a whole. In the process, because of the rather unique approach they took, that region was the first in the agency to complete its computer modernization.

FCS had ensured that its seven regions were being provided with more computer tools to do a better--and faster--job. "We knew," said Larry Shulan, FCS Local Area Network Administrator for the region and implementation team member, "that our employees would better prefer conveniences like computer multi-tasking--but, at first, they were a little apprehensive about the new system and the change that it represented."

And the initial training didn't seem to completely smooth out the transition. In an era of contracting work out, a specialist from the private sector was brought in to train regional staffers on Windows 95.

"It didn't work as well as we had hoped," said Shulan. "To figure out why, we interviewed the trainees." Most of the first 70 employees who went through this training process "didn't get it."

"There are different levels of knowledge among our regional employees," observed Linda Shelden, a regional staff supervisor and implementation team leader.

"So we decided to take the training into our own hands," recounted Peter Santos, financial management director for the region.

Accordingly, employees in Santos' Information Technology and Services Staff first attended training courses themselves to get to know the applications.

"We had to first become proficient in a specialized subject," advised Helen Repolio, regional office systems analyst and team member. "Then, we all had to become proficient in each other's specialities, since we had to serve as each other's backups."

"We decided to train 12 people at a time," explained Shelden. "Then, while they were in training, we installed the new software on their computers."

"There was no point in doing this less than 100 percent," advised Regional Administrator Chris Martin. "It meant we had to sacrifice in other areas--but I couldn't see half the regional staff on a DOS system and the other half on Windows 95."

The training of all 175 FCS region staffers got done. But there were costs. After a particularly frustrating day, team member Bob Speary--in his haste to get home--got a speeding ticket. Shelden slipped on her wet driveway, broke her leg, and has since been fine-tuning her imitation of "Gunsmoke's" Chester. And Shulan's summer vacation was no more than a fantasy--it got canceled.

While FCS's Bob Speary (second from left) scratches his head for inspiration, FCS's Linda Shelden (left) fine-tunes her game plan for providing computer training to 175 Mid-Atlantic Region employees, with help from FCS's Larry Shulan and Helen Repolio
.--Photo by Walt Haake

So it's now six months, 30 lost files, 500 blank e-mails, and 73 worn mouse pads later. "And we submit," affirmed Martin, "that we're the first FCS region where all staffers are happily clicking their way toward the year 2000." ¤
--Margarita Maisterrena

90 Years Worth of Inspections
When Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle" was published in 1906, he probably didn't realize the impact his words would have on the world.

And he almost certainly didn't realize that his words would lead to the creation of a food safety agency--the Food Safety and Inspection Service--that is celebrating its 90th birthday this month.

In his book--which he wrote as a treatise on labor exploitation and the need for socialism, not about the safety of America's meat supply--Sinclair used the ill-treatment of immigrant laborers and the horrible working conditions in Chicago's slaughterhouses merely as a backdrop. But upon reading about the inner-workings of the slaughterhouses, the public became outraged that the meat destined for their dinner tables came from tubercular cattle that were butchered under incredibly filthy conditions.

"Rats, flies, and other unpalatable creatures were often ground up with the meat back then--although I'd note I wasn't there at the time," quipped Jake Bell, a circuit supervisor in southeast Pennsylvania, who joined FSIS as an inspector 42 years ago.

The public's reaction to "The Jungle" was so intense that on June 30, 1906 Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act. Congress then approved the appropriations act--which provided funding for an agency to coordinate meat inspection--on March 4, 1907. That date is considered the birthday of what is now FSIS.

In a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Sinclair had urged him to secretly send an inspector into the Chicago packinghouses. That seven-page, typewritten letter is currently on display as part of an exhibit titled "American Originals" at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Ironically, Sinclair would later observe that "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident hit it in the stomach."

Bell noted that in the early years of meat inspection, agency inspectors relied on their own senses of sight, touch, and smell to distinguish healthy from unhealthy animals. "As we learned more about animal diseases, pathogens, food safety, and sanitation," he pointed out, "the agency added and developed more sophisticated inspection and testing methods."

And, as of March 4--FSIS's 90th birthday--the agency employees involved in inspection include 7,338 food inspectors and 923 veterinarians, all busy helping to regulate approximately 6,500 establishments that produce the nation's meat and poultry products. ¤
--Anne McGuigan

Attention All Missing Pets: Look Here!
Evenings and weekends don't seem like a lot of time to create a national program for locating lost pets--but that's all the time that Jerry DePoyster needed.

DePoyster, a veterinarian with the Animal Care unit in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said that over the past year he had been thinking about creating a page for missing pets--to be located in USDA's home page on the World Wide Web.

"I believe the message comes across loud and clear," concludes APHIS's Jerry DePoyster, as he studies a printout containing some of the information located on APHIS's "Missing Pets" Web site--which he developed.
--Photo by Ann Czapiewski

"Our Animal Care office gets lots of calls from people who lost their pets," he said.

So, using his own computer equipment during his spare time at home, DePoyster slowly built the Web page onto the Animal Care Web site on APHIS's home page--all within USDA's home page. The Universal Resource Locator for that Web site is http://www/aphis.usda.gov/reac

"I've arranged it," he said, "so that pictures and text are displayed on the page, grouped by state." He also includes information on pets that others have found--under the belief that one person's "found" animal may be someone else's "lost" pet.

"One reason I set this page up," DePoyster added, "is to show how important it is to have a picture of one's pet."

DePoyster said that, as of March 25, the "Missing Animals" Web site had logged about 7,000 hits.

And what's the track record of 'found pets' as a result of people using this USDA Web site?

"We're not really sure yet about how much our Web site has contributed to lost pets being found," he acknowledged. "But we're working on a way to determine that--and I do get feedback that people really appreciate our Web site being there." ¤
--Jim Rogers

The Ag Census Moves to USDA
For more than 150 years the U.S. Bureau of the Census--and its predecessor, the U.S. Census Office--conducted the "Census of Agriculture," which it administered periodically across the country. But that tradition has now come to an end.

Instead, the National Agricultural Statistics Service is now responsible for the Census of Agriculture. That's because USDA's FY97 budget--which was passed by Congress on August 1, 1996 and then signed into law on August 6--also transferred responsibility for conducting the Census of Agriculture to USDA.

"It means that 68 employees from the Census Bureau--who had been working full-time on the Census of Agriculture--now continue that same effort as part of the newly-created Census Division in NASS," said Joe Reilly, its acting director.

The transfer of staff became official on February 2, 1997.

Agricultural statistician Dave Peterson explained that the purpose of the Census of Agriculture--which is currently conducted every five years--is to count every farm or ranch in each and every county in the nation.

Kent Hoover, acting chief of the Census Planning and Analysis Branch and one of the 68 transferees, noted that the move came just as major preparations are underway to conduct the 1997 Census of Agriculture. "Because of timing," he said, "the '97 Census will be conducted as a joint effort between NASS and the Census Bureau."

Agricultural statistician Debbie Norton said data collection for the '97 Census of Agriculture is to begin in Dec. 1997 with an initial mailout of about three million forms.

Reilly noted that, due to budget restrictions at the Census Bureau, that agency faced the likelihood of having to either drastically curtail--or even completely eliminate--the 1997 Census of Agriculture. "But moving that responsibility to NASS," he said, "ensures the '97 Census of Agriculture will be preserved, and will be comparable in scope to the 1992 census."

Agricultural statistician Carter Anderson pointed out that the transfer has a second advantage. "Until now, both NASS and the Census Bureau have maintained independent 'universe' lists of farms and ranches," he said. "But now, NASS will integrate the two 'universes' into one master list."

Thirdly, NASS has the advantage of a network of 45 field offices, which have the local presence and knowledge to assist with public relations, and collection and review of census information. Fourth, agricultural statistician Quentin Coleman said that this will hopefully speed up the data summarization by six to nine months.

"I think the changes we made to our reporting form will better support the '97 Census of Agriculture," notes NASS agricultural statistician Jorge Garcia-Pratts (right) to agricultural statistician Quentin Coleman (left) and agricultural information assistant Sharon Powers.
--Photo by Pat Joyce

According to Cecelia Peets, the Census of Agriculture librarian, the transfer holds a fifth advantage. "Frankly," she observed, "the Census of Agriculture wasn't all that high on the priority list at the Census Bureau because of all the other census and survey efforts it was responsible for."

"But at NASS," noted agricultural statistician Robin Roark, "the Census of Agriculture will be the largest single data collection activity we've ever undertaken."

And there is one final historical item of note. "To my knowledge," Reilly said, "when NASS completes the '97 Census of Agriculture, it will mark the first time that any major U.S. census--either of the population or of any sector of our economy--will not have been conducted by the Census Bureau, in the history of the country." ¤
--Pat Joyce

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