Bellingham to Host NAN Economic Council
The Sovereign Tribal Council announced today that the Salish-Sidhe capitol has been selected as the site for the 2057 Summit for Economic Affairs. This summit, held every five years, will discuss trade and economic laws between the Native American Nations, as well as international economic policy.
The big issue this year is shaping up to be agriculture, with nearly all of the nations having one thing or another to say about the subject. Perhaps the most controversial topic is the imminent unveiling of Wind River Corporation's Shoshoni Hydroponics Farm, slated to open in June of this year. This 20,000 square kilometer facility is built entirely underground, making it the largest underground complex in the world.
"The Shoshoni Hydroponics Farm will be a paradigm shift in the way the NAN is fed," states Wind River CEO Ron Mull. "Since our complex will be climate-controlled, we will be able to produce up to ten harvests annually, as well as growing crops as diverse as pineapples and winter wheat, all in a germ- and pest-free environment. All the NAN will be able to enjoy fresh, natural food, free of chemicals, and at affordable prices."
Not everyone is happy with this development, however. "The introduction of undergroud farming is a rash experiment at best," argues Sheila Doxawnee of the Algonkian-Manitou Agricultural Bureau. "Wind River has been highly reluctant to let any Council observers into their facility to verify their claims of safety and ecological responsibility. Moreover, they have released no studies to prove that crops grown without sunlight are as nutritious as traditionally-grown crops. I feel that allowing Wind River to continue without any Council oversight is a mistake we can't afford to make."
Just as controversial is the issue of water rights. The Ute Nation is already making somewhat hostile overtures to the Pueblo Corporate Council's proposal to buy rights to another five million gallons per year, to be diverted from the Colorado River. The PCC leadership maintains that these rights are vital to keep up with the growing population center of Phoenix. The Ute, however, are unwilling to divert such a large amount from their agricultural industries, as well as the lucrative tourist trade of Las Vegas.
Surprisingly, the Trans-Polar Aleut nation, which rarely makes waves during NAN political councils, is putting forth a greivance against the Athabaskan Council for what TPA representative Mary Two Bears calls "criminally negligent border security." Two Bears's claim revolves largely around the illegal transporting of controlled sugar products to the TPA nation, which many claim to come mostly through the mountain ranges of Athabaska. The Athabaskan Council has not yet made any public rebuttal to Two Bears's accusation.
The Summit on Economic Affairs is slated to be held from March 3rd through the 14th at the Bellingham Convention Center. It remains to be seen whether the UCAS's request to have a delegate present will be approved.
21 comments:
No surprise that Algonkian isn't too happy about Shoshoni. Their entire government is in the Azzie's pocket since they bailed the country out of starvation during the big crop failure back in '50. The new hydroponic farm is in the postion to lose their Azzie agro-business overlords a whole mess of money. Assuming it works, of course.
The Azzies aren't the only ones worried about that new farm. It's knuckle-biting time here in our own backyard. The tribes on the other side of the Cascades, especially the Yakama, the Spokane, and the Kutenai, rely pretty heavily on their produce to keep the economy moving.
The eastern tribes are already getting the short end of the stick economically, since most of Salish-Sidhe's political and economic life happens on this side of the Cascades. If profits from farming go down, we're likely to hear some unhappy rumbling from the dry country.
Fraggin' redskins are gonna die! Vote Yeats!
Ummm...Yeah. Anyways, there's still a lot of concern as to exactly what the Shoshoni plant is up to. The world's largest underground facility working on genetics and nobody's allowed in? Plus, it's underground so astral spying isn't really an option. They could be doing anything down there, and let's not forget, Wind River is a corp., they're not just out to feed the world, they're after whatever fragged up crap pumps up the bottom line. Fifty nuyen says half the facility is filled with gene-spliced piasmas and stonebinders the size of dirigibles.
I have some paydata that says the whole thing is actually a big Bug Spirit mega-hive. The Sioux are experimenting with putting tame buggies into their Wildcats, so that they can complete what Howling Coyote started. If they manage it, the UCAS is toast.
Or, and here's a stretch you fraggin' alarmists, they're growing FRAGGIN' WHEAT!! It's a fraggin' wheat farm for Ghost's sake! By the spirits, do you know nothing of agriculture?? The set up at Shoshoni facility is going to produce more food (hey Sideout, food=corp profit) than any conventional farming ever could because it won't be subject to the weather, climate or pests. And Frodo, I'm sorry chummer but you're just crazy. I'm sorry the big bad buggies scared you but Chicago is gone and you'll just have to move on.
There's going to be a lot of running in Bellingham this March. Dust off those forged cred-sticks chum.
Running, and forged identification are illegal. Just so you know. This is a public board, and you could (and should) be arrested for admitting to crimes. Other than that, what surprises me about the economic summit is that while the UCAS wants in, the CAS has made no overtures towards attendance. Lord knows that their economy is far more tied up in the NAN's production base than their northern cousins. I'm interested to see how things play out with Ute-Puelblo disagreement. This bickering has been going on since the Ghost-Dance war and mark my words, it will get ugly one day.
20,000 hectar underground hydroponics plant? I have one question, where is all of the electricity for this going to come from? I'm sure that some of you have attempted to hydroponically grow a plant or two in your own closets and y'all must have noticed how fraggin much electricity it takes to turn a closet into a hydroponic plant. 20,000 hectars? I doubt there is enough generator capacity in North America to power that large of a hydroponics farm.
Nuclear power, eh? So you got the choice of fission or fusion. About a dozen fission plants would produce enough electricity, but I seriously doubt the NAN would go for such an environmentally unsound solution.
Fusion, on the other hand, is clean and produces waters as its byproduct, but it is very inefficient. Gotta produce a helluva lot of liquid hydrogen to power all the fusion plants necissary for this mega-grow. Where is all that hydrogen going to come from? The NAN doesn't have nearly the hydrogen capacity to produce that much hydrogen and I doubt they have the cash to upgrade their facilites to a level where they could produce so much.
While all of this is 'technically' possible, the upfront investment costs are mind-bogglingly huge. Add to that the costs of building the hydroponics facility itself and I'm starting to wonder who is actually paying for this facility. Wind River is a pretty large corp, but they don't have the ready cash to even come close to paying for this thing. Someone is laying out a drekload of cash and it would be in the NANs best interest to figure out just who that is.
Hmm...someone want to put lots of money into growing a crop with ten times the production per year. They also want to figure out how to do it so no one sees and no one can get inside. I wonder who could be behind such a thing?
Honestly coches, you don't have to be from South America to figure los narcotraficantes are behind this. They didn't all go to Aztlan, after all. There are plenty of places where they still have to either hide what they do or kill anyone who trys to stop them.
Also, I know from personal esperiance that lots of armies in SA, like Sendero Luminoso (better known to you yuraq siki as "Shining Path") are still trading coca and Novacoke for guns. More crop=more guns=lots of trouble for the goverment.
I really doubt that any kind of nuclear power would be used. This is the NAN we're talking about here, they're not too interested in bringing dangerou nuke plants into their backyard, especially into their food supply.
The water diverted would likely be used for power (water turbines) as well as for growing. Sunlight can be diverted from the surface, from old-fashioned panels or even "solar tunnels" - small tunnels and mirrors to divert solar rays.
Mind you, this makes the fight for the Colorado River even more fierce. Sure, a hydroponics plant is nice and looks good in PR news, but the water is going to be the true battle at the summit.
Hell, S-S got that huge fusion plant just north of Seattle. Since the NAN states removed most of the river dams and aren't in to the use of coal or oil to fire powerplants they're pretty much left with natural gas and fusion. Yea, yea I know they've got those geo-thermal plants but they're just PR, don't hardly produce any electricity.
Wow you guys are creative... or maybe just stupid. You think the power it's going to take to run this facility for a week compares to running something like the Renraku Arcology for even a few hours? You guys do realize that we use superconductive alloys for the generator coils right? I mean, I know you oldtimers had science courses that are somewhat out of date by now, but c'mon if you wanna talk shop at least slot a knowsoft. But just so I don't get left out of all the fun... I heard they were using captured thunderbirds locked in a secret sub-basement beneath the facility to power it and they're having the water brought in by werewolf bug spirits in backpack water jugs.
Gnomes!
Bored! C'mon, is this all there is on the Fax? Not that I read it, usually. I stick to the Shadowland myself, only, from the inside, if ya get my meaning. But even there, all the talk has turned to voting for faggin' president. I hope I'm dead by 21, before my brains melt and I starting giving a crap about all this drek.
Where's all the news about the collapse of the Lonestar communications system for 2 minutes, 43 seconds last night? I popped in for a bit with my decker team High In(cest)f1d3lity, and before those rotospleens knew what hit them, they were rebooting servers and trying to shake bugs out of their cummincations systems all night. Some rich slag mighta got raped by trolls, and those buzzards wouldn't have been able to respond before her pelvis snapped.
Dude, my friend's Mom is a trid journalist; I might have to hack her P-Sec and tip her off to the news, if ya'll can't carry it here.
Transient Dental List out.
Hey, you know the yaqi suits don't like being reminded that they got muscle in the gun clip. They like to think even if their corp sec fails, they still got their daddy on the roof when the Star come fallin'. It's bad for biz when the auquis in the suits don't feel secure, you know?
Hey Mr. Transient Dental Man you're maybe the tenth person I've seen take the cred for that bit of hackin. Me thinkest that the ones who actually did it wouldn't post about it on such an open board as this.
Flux Sux! Lick my nuts!
They're big and br@$$, so k1$$ my @$$!
I got time codes: 07:23:42.322 - 07:26:05.408 GMT, b1tch3s!
High In(cest)f1d3lity takes it as a compliment when rotocolons try to step to our cred.
"All your bases are to have by us."
Oh yeah, I forgot why I signed on in the first place... must be all the deep weed I've been smokin'! And all those stim patches to give the ladies love all night long (and I do mean looooo000nngggzors).
Sux Leo, I don't have no fear of your "society" or their "laws." You, they, can't trace me! Can't Hold me! Get off me!
H4ck the PL4n3t!
TDL, you're giving the decker community a black eye. You of all people should know that it's quite a current to swim against.
After a quick sniff on some support systems of some likely contract companies for this work, it does indeed look like there's a bit of parasecurity being installed in the complex.
Less than you might think for keeping sniffers out; probably to keep something in. Keeping snoopers out, they must be planning some serious staff for that.
Post a Comment