Let's face it - Farming-Town-USA is dying at an incredibly increasing, never-before-seen rate. There are a lot of factors that go into a very severe shift in populations like this. It's the new age, and there's no other way to say it than technology is beginning to, if not already, running the world. More often than not, technology is going to be discovered, created, innovated, and manufactured in a very urban area to fit its specific needs. The most common place on the face of this Earth for technology innovation is Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is great, nobody is going to deny that, but cities like this and almost all metropolises and heavily populated cities are what's driving rural America out of business. But what if I told you America couldn't survive without them? I know it's crazy to think that the most shrinking market in all of the US- Agriculture- is still the backbone of this country over technology, but without Silicon Valley there is no modern agriculture, and vice versa.
Look at my hometown for example, Deer Grove, Illinois. A town with 50 people, and literally all there is to it is a post office and Arnie’s Happy Spot (one of the best fried chicken joints around). How does a town like this offer any kind of support to the most technologically advanced place in the world? Through farmers adaptation with technology. Agriculture has done an extremely good job at coming to terms with accepting change. Every fall when I run the chisel plow on my family farm, there is a GPS in there showing me a map of the field that I'm in and the tractor is being steered through GPS. Yes you read that correctly. Auto-Steer is a feature to help farmers map out the best route possible for farmers to be the most efficient they can be in their practices. Without Silicon Valley, that invention would have never been created. Without the farmers however, GPS would not be as prevalent in society as it is today. The origin of GPS comes from agriculture actually. Farmers were looking to discover more efficient ways to manage their crops and land. This is just one of the many examples of where even though Silicon Valley is providing the initiative and the equipment, Agriculture is providing the need and the Practical use of this equipment.
America, and almost the entire world, is overpopulated. That comes at a cost to agriculture. More and more farming land is being taken away and being used for commercial uses like residential areas for families to live in. Farmers are now faced with the difficult task of growing more and more food every year, with less and less land to use. I don't know how us as farmers are ever going to be able to meet the mark that we need to actually feed everybody on this planet. But I do know that agriculture is doing everything that it can. The invention of genetically modified organisms (also known as GMOs) are doing great wonders and increasing the yields of corn and soybeans to help manufacture more food. Farmers are becoming more aware of their carbon emissions in their tractors thanks to the use of technology, which in return is saving the planet. Also, new inventions are helping closer monitor chemical application to the soil, which reduces harmful emissions to the earth. Agriculture today is probably the most technologically-advanced job market outside of technology itself. Even though you might not be able to see that everyday, it's affecting your daily lives. It is in the food you eat, in the clothes you wear, it's in the phone or computer or whatever device you're on reading this article right now. The impact agriculture is having on the world is so profound that it is being seen across platforms once never thought imaginable. It is because that the impact that technology is having on agriculture is more-often-than-not unseen that leads people to think that Agriculture is no longer the basis of this country.
Silicon Valley would not exist without Deer Grove, IL. and every other farming town left in this great country. That is a hard reality for people to understand, but just take a minute or two the next time you are eating dinner with your family to think about how much of your world is involved in agriculture. Whether you realize it or not, agriculture is just as large of a part of your everyday life as technology.
