Business

Y. Martin Lo says eating genetically modified foods is no different than eating chicken.

“I’ve been eating chicken my entire life, and I’m very certain that I’m not going to turn into one myself,” said Lo, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Maryland, College Park, who is working with Chesapeake Field Farmers LLC through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program. “All food, whether genetically modified or not, passes throught the GI tract, but there is no exchange with one’s DNA, and there is no exchange of other genetic information.”

So why all the ruckus over genetically modified foods?

Pam Tucker sits at her desk, reading what employers and their staff have to say about telework: This is the greatest company to work for; A huge benefit that makes me more likely to stay with the company; I can now make dinner for my family; Very positive; My morale is up.

With raves like that, one would think that Baltimore employers would be falling all over themselves to offer the option of teleworking--working from home with a computer and phone--to their employees.

But even though there's a good chunk of public money available to help employers and their staff make the transition, this region is not embracing telework the way other parts of the country, such as the West Coast, have.

Twenty or so years ago, security clearances were typically required just for those working in government, particularly with the CIA or NSA. But that is no longer the case, especially since the Sept. 11th attacks.

“Since 2001, everyone has become very security conscious,” says Roy Bombard, president and founder of Ailsa Information Services, a Bethesda-based firm that provides contract staffing and search capability. “In the corporate world, we used to just ask for references, but that's no longer the case.

“Now a background investigation is definitely required.”

When looking to the technology workforce of the future, David Pearce Snyder describes it as “destroy first and create later.”

Or, looking at the issue from a different vantage point, Snyder believes that it typically takes about 75 years from the invention of a new technology to the point at which it becomes the standard. “On Valentine's Day, 1946, the first computer was switched on, so we are still in the destructive phase of technology jobs,” says Snyder, a futurist consultant and contributing editor to The Futurist Magazine. “The information technology displacement that began in 1995 will end in 2020, according to the way I interpret Bureau of Labor statistics. After 2020, greater prosperity can be expected, although that is hardly a certainty.”

And there is plenty about which to be uncertain. As Terry Brock, a syndicated columnist notes, “The reality is that we don’t know what many of the jobs will be in 15 years.”

First, a few facts about the Maryland equine industry. There are more than 20,000 horse farms and almost 90,000 horses in the state, which is twice as many horses per square mile than in Kentucky. The first organized horserace on the continent was held here in 1743, and the horse industry contributes $2 billion annually to the state’s economy. The industry employs 20,000 men and women and encompasses 600,000 acres of land.

In short, Maryland enjoys a tradition that includes Thoroughbred racing, jousting tournaments (which date back to the Revolutionary War), steeplechases, fox hunting, and recreational riding. But it is an industry that, at least for now, sees the Free State losing racing ground to its neighbors in Delaware and West Virginia. If that’s not bad enough, many of Maryland’s breeders are heading to Pennsylvania.