Empty Acres

Motoring along I-87 this morning I was struck by the many acres of corn and soybeans lining the highway.  Large fields of monocrops taken care of by a handful of tractor operators.  I hesitate to call them farmers, since few of them have dirt on their knees at the end of the day and many are overweight and out of shape, victims of days in comfortable seats on tractors with climate controlled cabs.  The micro farm I grow and manage during evenings and weekends is less than one acre, yet requires 20 hours of work to keep it clean and growing.  One of the giant fields I pass is probably over 100 acres and requires less than 20 hours from planting to harvest.  The yeoman farmer of our historic past has been replaced by a commodity trader who drives a tractor occasionally.  At least on the NCR, some of these growers also manage a dairy herd and grow the forage for their cows.  Across most of the country the mixed livestock farm is a relic.  I don't know where I am going with this rant, because there is little interest among the population to revive a labor intensive agricultural economy, even if the financial rewards were equal to the toil and investment required.  Satellite controlled tractors are already being deployed in some areas.  These driverless automatons will be the final step in divorcing Americans from the soil which started us on our trajectory to becoming the strongest nation in the world.  I wonder how long we will survive this development.