Tag Archives: Ranchers

Crisis Hotline: New option for farmers, ranchers, loggers and fishermen in Oregon

A new hotline, the Agristress Helpline, launched in Oregon in September. It is tailored to support those who work in agriculture, forestry or the fishing industry through a phone and text service that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The helpline is free and has trained counselors with experience in those industries who can take phone calls in 160 languages, with English, Spanish and Vietnamese professionals available to respond by text. Experts say the line is sorely needed. Although the 988 crisis line provides a similar service, the Agristress line is specialized to address the needs of farmers, ranchers, loggers and fishermen. They often work in social and geographic isolation and in areas with limited access to health care services. These professions also have to grapple with extreme weather conditions, such as flash flooding or drought, and they face fluctuating commodity prices. >>click to read<< 18:06

We’ve surrounded the Earth with surveillance satellites, but who is that good for?

It is no longer just advanced militaries and rich corporations who can keep tabs on what people are up to half a world away. Watchdogs such as Global Forest Watch, Global Fishing Watch, and SkyTruth are combing through satellite photos and radar scans to alert authorities to illegal clear-cutting, rogue fishing, mountaintop removals, and other environmental misbehavior. Researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have exploited Amazon cloud servers to assemble millions of amateur birdwatcher reports into exquisite animated maps that plot the changing abundance of 122 bird species throughout North America. Ranchers are stapling health-monitoring microchips to their livestock. Beekeepers are sticking wireless sensors into their hives. Farmers are planting high-tech electronics into the soil along with their crops. >click to read< 16:17