The Associated Press reported back in May on technological advances in farming that would supposedly help make farming more profitable. Any and all technological advances in farming are certainly welcome, but the effect of such innovations has historically been — and will certainly continue to be — to make farming less rather than more profitable in the long term.
The technology being highlighted by the AP is precision agriculture and described the experiences of farmers using global positioning systems and computers to “evaluate the field’s fertility on an almost row-by-row basis.”
That sort of incredibly detailed information is then used to automate exactly what crops are planted, how much fertilizer they receive, etc. This sort of technology is still in the early stages, but eventually the result will be higher yields at lower costs which will be good for everyone.
Well, everyone except for farmers. If successful, the higher yields and lower costs will soon attract other farmers and pretty soon the price farm commodities will experience price pressure from competition. Consumers win, the number of hungry people in the world will decline, but farmers will be stuck in the sort of technological arms race that has been going on for literally thousands of years.
They don’t call them commodities for nothing.
Source:
Technology could make farming more profitable. Associated Press, May 12, 2003.
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