The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'agricultural combine.'
The farm equipment used in industrial agriculture is computerized and massively complex. In the US, manufacturers like John Deere have actively prevented farmers from repairing their own tractors, in part by keeping the software that runs the tractors a secret. The right-to-repair movement has been trying to change this, with mixed results. Recently, John Deere publicly agreed to give farmers better options, but the agreement with American Farm Bureau Federation explicitly discourages members from "introducing, promoting, or supporting federal or state 'Right to Repair' legislation that imposes obligations beyond the commitments in this MOU." Considering this provision, the agreement may be little more than a PR move by the manufacturer.
In general, reliance on complex software represents a serious vulnerability in our food system. Software breaks and updates fail. Dependence on GPS systems in particular is cause for great concern. GPS is reliable until it's not, and when it fails, there's little a farmer can do about it but shake their hand at the sky.
Not long ago, the Inmarsat-41 satellite signal failed in the middle of an important planting season in Australia and New Zealand. This stopped equipment like planters and combines from functioning, effectively halting operations at industrial farms. Chris Groves, chairman of the National Farmers Federation farming systems committee, had this to say about it in a Sydney Morning Herald article:
"But GPS is our guidance system that eliminates overlapping [in rows of seeds] and over-application of chemicals, and when that system is down, the machine is literally down. My planter is 32 rows wide; if I overlap by just two rows, that is 4 per cent I am losing out on. When you’re paying $1300 [a tonne] for fertiliser, that really adds up very quickly. My crop sprayer relies on the GPS signal to tell the spray unit how much chemical to put on, where it is in the paddock and how many nozzles it needs working."
A single satellite outage like this economically harms Big Ag farmers. That will inevitably translate into higher prices for food buyers and ultimately consumers. But it would be mistaken to view the issue in purely economic terms. If a GPS failure can bring an entire region's crop production to a standstill, that's a major food security issue.
Everything about this seems unsustainable to me. The chemical inputs used by industrial farmers poison the land and water, contribute to the insect apocalypse, and harm human health in ways we're just barely beginning to understand. None of that can go on forever. And the computerization of equipment adds another thick layer of complex vulnerabilities to the equation. Aside from basic security issues like hackers hijacking tractors for ransom and downtime from software bugs, there are central points of failure like GPS and maybe manufacturer servers.
I find it baffling that people decided to create such a harmful and vulnerable food system. While I have little sympathy for industrial farmers, the global food system is largely dependent on their operations, and this will probably remain the case for at least another decade or more. Unless their model breaks down before then. Which it very well might.
All of this highlights the need to continue expanding sustainable agriculture throughout the world. There are farming practices that regenerate land instead of depleting it, and these practices should be adopted even if it raises the price of food. Right now, countries like Mexico are leading the way by banning GMO corn and glyphosate. Progress in this area in the US is happening too, but on a smaller scale, because the government is owned by industry. The end result I'd like to see in 20 years is a healthy and resilient global food system. If enough of us do our part, maybe we can make that happen.
Read my novels:
See my NFTs:
