Farm of the Future?

From a recent Wall Street Journal Article, entitled High-Tech Farm Startups Are Laid Low

by Financing Drought, Pests:

Startups that promised to make farming a high-tech business are withering, suffering from rising costs, tight financing, pests and other problems that have troubled traditional agriculture for centuries.

Investors poured billions of dollars into companies such as AppHarvest and Local Bounti that grow lettuce, tomatoes and other crops in indoor farms that use advanced technology such as sensors and robots to offset weather-related risks, use less water and produce more consistent crops.

Shares of the two companies are down more than 95% since they went public in 2021, and in recent months at least four companies in the sector have shut down or filed for bankruptcy.

Here is a photo of this "farm:"

Notice the verdant, pastoral landscape, the blue skies, chirping birds and brilliant sunshine.  I jest.  I am going to expose myself as being the old- fashioned, Luddite, backwards curmudgeon that I am, but folks, "That ain't no farm and what's going on in that hermetically sealed, antiseptic building ain't farming!"  That is a scientific laboratory.  I can only imagine what a tomato grown in a metal building without fresh air and sunshine tastes like.  I can see two "farm workers" laboring in "their fields" with masks on.  

I read that article and I have mixed feelings.  I wish no one ill will and want to see no one fail.  Their business venture that would have robots and sensors work the land, use less water, avoid pests and the vagaries of the weather to achieve more consistent crops and efficient production is failing.  The cost of the lighting alone is a detriment to profitability.  

On the other hand, if you go back to Genesis, this is not what God intended farming to be.  After the fall of Man, sin entered the world and a Curse fell upon creation.  Things were no longer going to be easy.  Thorns would arise.  Man must "toil by the sweat of his brow."  It seems that in all our humanist wisdom, we feel like we can break the curse.  God told man to be a husbandman, a steward of His Creation, a tiller of the soil.  And yet, here we are farming in metal buildings under LED lights, growing plants in soil-less containers.  There will be no sweat on the farm laborers' brows!

Truth be told, despite this article, modern agriculture is rushing headlong into this brave, new world in the remaining fields around us.  Farm labor, you see, is beneath the dignity of most Americans.  We must import workers to do this work that no one wants to do.  In fact, we don't need many workers anyway.  We have farm implements that drive themselves.  Smart machines that apply the correct amount of chemicals to the soil to kill the pests, eradicate the weeds, and encourage plant growth.

If you drive on gravel roads, you don't see many farmers anymore.  Who is stewarding the land?  In THIS ARTICLE, Farm Bureau lists these fast facts:

Farm and ranch families comprise less than 2% of the U.S. population.  Most families in America were once tied to Agriculture.

After accounting for input costs, farmers and ranchers receive only 8 cents out of every dollar spent on food at home and away from home. The rest goes for costs beyond the farm gate: wages and materials for production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution.

From Wikipedia: By 2000, the biggest component of the Farm Bill was the Food Stamp program.

Farming is hard.  I know it all too well.  Input costs are high.  The amount of investment required and necessary to farm is paralyzing to even think about.  You are one weather disaster away from bankruptcy.  You are dependent upon government policies, regulations, and payments that change.  I remember when there was something called an LDP (loan deficiency payment).  Each Tuesday, the Government would change the payment.  When the LDP would increase by $0.20 per barrel, amazingly, the price the mill would buy your rice from you would drop by $0.20.  The payment meant for the farmer went to the middleman.  It seemed like the farmer takes on all the risk and gets very little of the reward.

Yes, farming is hard, but growing up on a farm was a great life.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  One day each week, I'm going to try to commit to having a blog post describing memories of growing up on a farm in the 70's and 80's.  As our family farms get gobbled up by huge corporate farms and family farms dwindle, I think it is important to keep the memories of our farming heritage alive.