00:00:02.330 - 00:00:15.270

Female voice 1: --Operations. Female voice 2: Hi, is Ern Bruce in, please? Female voice 1: I'm sorry, he isn't back. I don't know whether he'll be back today or not. Female voice 2: Oh. How about Mike Dowto?

00:00:15.270 - 00:00:37.270

Female voice 1: Yeah, he's here. Hold on just a moment. Female voice 2: Thanks. [Long pause. Typewriter sounds in background] Male voice 1: Hello? Female voice 2: Hi, Mike. It's Bobbi Satterfield. Male voice 1: Hey kid. How you doing? Female voice 2: Okay. How are you? Male voice 1: Oh, I'm okay.

00:00:37.270 - 00:00:48.180

Female voice 2: Huh? Male voice 1: Surviving. Female voice 2: Good. I'm glad to hear that. Do you know anything about the agricultural forces? Joining forces for disaster reaction?

00:00:48.180 - 00:00:59.260

With you all? Male voice 1: Yes, in fact we have a table talk on the 13th, and our new PIO, Ern Bruce is supposed to put out a news release-- Female voice 2: Well, I have the news release.

00:00:59.260 - 00:01:09.670

But what I'd like is to get some audio. Male voice 1: Okay. Female voice 2: Can you talk about that? Male voice 1: Sure. Certainly. Female voice 2: Okay. What'd you do? What's the purpose?

00:01:09.670 - 00:01:20.870

Male voice 1: Okay, basically what happened was, we assembled the groups of agricultural officials under the Agricultural Emergency Board

00:01:20.870 - 00:01:31.820

within the State of Delaware, headed by Richard Lester. And we talked about various scenarios, and what could

00:01:31.820 - 00:01:39.410

possibly happen within the State of Delaware if it became necessary for State of Delaware to be on its own,

00:01:39.410 - 00:01:50.540

so to speak, and to feed itself for an extended period of time. For example, say a two to three week period. And it was very stimulating

00:01:50.540 - 00:01:57.670

in that it kind of forced interaction between various agricultural groups. There was a lot of good input

00:01:57.670 - 00:02:06.410

from the University of Delaware Extension Service, the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, the State Department of Agriculture,

00:02:06.410 - 00:02:15.350

the various county agents, the Farmers Home Administration. And we talked really about how to conduct mass feeding

00:02:15.350 - 00:02:24.800

if in the event, it became necessary for the State of Delaware to undertake that. What we try to do and this division is to, and specifically

00:02:24.800 - 00:02:32.210

my particular position, is to look into the future and come up with, so to speak, with impossible scenarios that

00:02:32.210 - 00:02:40.100

we hope will never happen. Ideally, if we confront these things in a non-crisis situation ahead of time,

00:02:40.100 - 00:02:51.940

hopefully we're somewhat prepared in case, God forbid, anything like that ever comes upon us Delawareans. Female voice 2: Okay. That's really all I need except your title.

00:02:51.940 - 00:03:00.170

Male voice 1: Okay. Right now I'm... This is Mike Alto and I'm the Exercise Training Officer-- Female voice 2: Okay. Male voice 1: --for the Delaware Division

00:03:00.170 - 00:03:02.670

of Emergency Planning and Operations. Female Voice 2: I know that. [Laughs]