Hand Grain grinders on back order

[Guest guest]

> HAND GRINDERS??

>

> How long do you expect these Y2K problems to last??

 

Actualy regardless of Y2K, hand ground grains are extremely good for you.

Flour that is bought in the stores is generaly ground in such a way that a

lot of heat is generated, which destroys much of the goodness. Then all the

ground wheat is seperated into its various parts, Wheatgerm, Bran etc, and

remixed to create different grades of flour such as brown bread flour,

chapati flour, white flour, wheatgerm etc. (I know this because I just spent

a couple of hours with a food technologist in the Mauritius Govt's largest

wheat importer and miller).

 

Wheat which has been ground freshly using a hand grinder has not been

subjected to heat, and contains every part of the grain including the

wheatgerm. (the wheatgerm is removed in commercial flour as it tends to turn

the flour rancid very quickly). Wheatgerm is the life of the grain.

 

I had a direct experience of the benefits of such flour a few years ago. I

was traveling in North Bengal with Kiranasa Prabhu. He has his flour ground

freshly, and makes rotis using his fingers in the way Srila Prabhupada used

to do. One morning he made some fresh rotis on a small fire before we went

out to try to locate an old Goswami Temple. We ate about two or three each

with a little honey, and some achar (pickle). Then the whole day we spent

travelling to small villages, and walking long distances, in the heat.

 

In the evening at about 7 pm we arrived back in Mayapur, and as I walked

past the restaurant, I realised that I had no hunger at all, despite having

only eaten those two or three rotis, and I was used to eating two full meals

a day with a snack in the evening!

 

I cannot emphasise enough the benefits of freshly ground wheat for your

health. No other food that I know of can provide energy and nourishment for

a full days activity with such a small amount, and that in the early part of

the day. I can send some actual data regarding the benefits of freshly

ground flour if anyone is interested.

 

Regardless of Y2K we should start living more simply in the way Srila

Prabhupada wanted us to. Y2K is a good enough reason to start. You can get

grain mills which can serve a small family or for the needs of a temple

community.

 

Your servant.

 

Samba das

[Guest guest]

On Thu, 14 Jan 1999, WWW: Bhakti Yoga Dasa (Toronto - CAN) wrote:

 

> [Text 2016379 from COM]

>

> HAND GRINDERS??

>

> How long do you expect these Y2K problems to last??

 

 

Hare Krsna dasi

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How long do I expect problems to last? They may last some time. Think of

it like this: It's January, in the middle of winter, with all the usual

winter storm crises. A phone company goes out, and a power company goes

out. Also a few other local companies have problems. How will they

communicate even to tell each other what the problems are? On top of that

weather conditions make roads impassable. On top of that maybe you can't

get gas to even run snow plows. Okay: Bring on the computer programmers

to fix everything up. But where are the computer programmers going to

go?: they will go to the place where they make the most money (unless they

are conscripted by the government, which has also been discussed). Keep

in mind when our communities have a crisis, they normally call in help

from out of state - like last year's ice storm when the State of Maine

shipped in electrical linemen from North Carolina. But in this kind of

crisis that might not be possible. North Carolina might be having its own

crisis. So it's probably going to take a lot longer to fix things than in

a normal crisis, because there is the potential for so many different

kinds of problems going on in so many different places at the same time.

 

Personally, I am trying to use the Y2K event as an excuse to push myself

and my family more towards self-sufficiency. How long do I expect to be

without food? The thing I find amazing is that so many people seem to be

pretty sure of what to expect. Either they won't be without food at all,

or they will be without food for two weeks, or they will be without food

without two years. For myself: I DON'T KNOW.

 

And, living on a very low income, and pretty much locked into a

job-family-writing situation, I'm not in such a good position to do

anything dramatic to prepare myself. Also, not all of my family is really

into this, so I'm not inclined to make waves. I think in our families and

communities and in ISKCON, we need to acknowledge what a potentially

volatile topic this is. The best thing is to try to respect others' point

of view, whether they want to head for the hills, or do nothing.

Naturally, we will talk to them, but if at all possible, we really need to

avoid making this a life-or-death type argument. We just have to do the

best we can to follow the direction we believe we are getting from

Supersoul, and then leave the result up to Krsna. In this situation, we

need to cultivate as detachment. We're not going to be able to control

the results. Krsna's going to control the results.

 

So, no, I don't know how long I will be inconvenienced by Y2K. From the

things I read, it seems like that the aftershocks from Y2K could be as

serious as the problems next January, if not more so. Two of the things I

am concerned about are the USDA and petroleum.

 

We hear a lot about banks, and we hear a lot about power companies. They

are big and can afford to spend lots of money on computer programmers.

But, they are also small enough that if they mess up, they can lose

customers, especially banks. So they have incentive to make timely

repairs to their programs. I'm thinking that many of them might be all

right, except for possibly the nuclear power plants, which seem to have

too many layers of ancient code to fix.

 

But what about the US Department of Agriculture? Ever since I read that

the USDA doesn't plan to be Y2K compliant until 2002, I haven't read

anything more. Maybe people just don't appreciate the implications of

such a statement. What happens when the American government doesn't

support its farmers? - They become extinct. That has been demonstrated by

the plight of black farmers in the US. It's almost like a scientific

experiment. In about 1900, blacks were 13% of the population, and they

owned 13% of the farms. After the depression, the government got more and

more into subsidizing farms. BUT, especially in the South, the programs

for USDA subsidies and loans were administered by local white citizens who

generally denied loans to black farmers, or granted them too late in the

growing season. As the farms of the black farmers went broke as a result,

the whites bought them out. As a result, out of 250 million people in the

US and more than 10 million black citizens, there are fewer than 20,000

black farmers. Under the capitalist system, they simply went broke

without government support. (That's why the USDA is finally giving them a

little compensation.)

 

But the issue of race discrimination is not the point I'm trying to call

attention to. Instead, I'm trying to call attention to the fact that

American capitalist agriculture, as we know it today, cannot continue

without the timely input and support of the USDA. Yes, I know the $11

billion price support plan is supposedly being abolished, but some of it

still exists, and there are many, many other ways that the government

helps the farmers.

 

Now, if the USDA finds itself in too much of a tangle to help farmers, I

wonder how many are going to get their crops planted on time? How many

will be able to maintain their dairy cows? Historically, recessions and

depressions are always times for increased cow slaughter, because feed

becomes too expensive. So I find the silence that we hear from the USDA

to be worrisome. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe they have everything under

control, since that remark in the Senate. But if they have everything

under control, why aren't we hearing about it? Every other department

that is making progress is advertising it all over the place. Why aren't

we hearing from the USDA?

 

My second worry is about petroleum. Even if the USDA gets its own act

together, what about petroleum? I'm always worried about petroleum-based

agriculture, and this situation makes me even more concerned. If

petroleum does not have its act together, fuel prices are going to spike

up. That will really impact agriculture, because agriculture is one of

the most petroleum-dependent industries there is - and it can't shift over

to coal or windpower if gasoline gets too expensive. There is no such

thing as a coal-powered tractor or windpowered tractor. And that farm

equipment burns up a lot more fuel than your car does. Maybe Madhava Gosh

could tell us how much fuel it takes to run a combine harvester for one

day during harvest season.

 

But petroleum does not sound like it's in very good condition at all. I

worry about the fact that so much of our petroleum is imported. (I guess

the Norwegians don't have to worry about that.) Our petroleum is coming

from countries where institutions are not very upfront about their

short-comings. Some of those countries are known for corrupt

infrastructure. I don't feel confident that those factors will lead to

honest self-assessment and a timely treatment of the problem. Victor

Porlier's commentary on the President's Council Reports on Y2K

[Westergaard Year 2000 website] undermined my confidence even further.

Read this slowly and carefully, maybe even out loud:

 

*****************

>>Embedded in the [report's] text are such revelations as, "International

failures are likely. Lack of progress on the international front may lead

to failures that could affect the United States, especially in areas that

rely on cross-boarder networks as finance, telecommunications, and

transportation.

 

>>With regard to transportation - air, highway, transit, rail, and marine

- assessments forms were sent to 83 key trade associations in November.

Only three responded. Is it any wonder that there are, "concerns about

the readiness of the international maritime industry" and further that

"the oil and gas industry is concerned about international production and

shipping"? Given that the U.S. imports 53 percent of its crude oil and

seven percent of the refined oil it consumes, perhaps someone should be

concerned. Yet The Summary tells us that industry representatives are

"cautiously optimistic." One should remember that these are unaudited self

reports made to the oil and gas associations. When the industry said it

is "making good progress, but the rate needs to increase," does this mean

that they are on schedule?

 

>>Of the petroleum industry The Summary says, "Potential Y2K problems

range from incorrect financial transactions, oil field production outages,

refinery and pipeline stoppages, product flow disruption, as well as

potential environmental and safety hazards."

 

*******************

 

If the U.S. imports 53 percent of its crude oil, and that is coming

substantially from countries which have done little to address the Y2K

problem, that seems like a warning to me that we may be in for some

long-term problems with petroleum - not so much that we can't get any, but

that supplies will be restricted to such an extent that the prices will be

jacked up very high. In that situation, it's going to be rough on farmers

planting their crops. Not to say no one will be able to plant crops, but

when prices of inputs are spiked way up, it always increases the number of

farms that close down.

 

And, in that situation, it may be suddenly very expensive to ship things

like grain grinders, woodstoves, looms and animal-powered farm equipment

or even to load it into a truck and drive it 200 miles back to my home.

That's why I think it's good to get a lot of that kind of equipment now.

It may still be available after the year 2000, but I might not be able to

afford it if the shipping costs per pound are doubled or tripled. So

that's one reason for ordering a grain grinder now.

 

But another reason is that something like a grain grinder is manufactured

by a very, very small company. How do I know that Y2K won't wipe them

out? Small businesses are especially vulnerable to Y2K problems. We tend

to think, what's the big deal - just buy a new computer. But the problem

is that they don't have much fat to fall back on if they run into banking

snags, telecommunications snags or, especially, shipping snags that

interrupt their relations with their customers. One senator noted, "We

may say no big deal. When the Galaxy IV satellite interfered with pager

communications, everything was back on line the next day. But we forget

that several small companies went out of business when that happened.

What if the interruption was not for just one day, but for several weeks?

How many small businesses could afford that?"

 

So that's another reason for ordering that type of equipment this year.

Partly, so I won't miss out, and partly to help their business so they can

weather the Y2K storm and keep providing their products to other people -

especially spiritually minded people - who want to develop simple living.

 

In a separate file I have sent the Wall Street Journal article about

Lehman's Non-Electric. It would be interesting if devotees had a business

like this.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi