Rhinehart is not a fan of farms, which he refers to as “very inefficient factories.” He believes that farming should become more industrialized, not less. “It’s really the labor that gets me”
This seems a little ignorant to me. Farms (at least in Australia) are amazingly industrialized. I visited my cousin's dairy farm recently and one person was working at milking dozens of cows at a time.
I walked away with the image that modern farmers are technical early adopters, looking at ways technology can improve their return on investment.
You are right. I've been working in this domain for 15 years. Technologies such as GPS, auto guidance, remote sensing, were common in agriculture back then. Some farmers are hackers too. I saw some pretty amazing Excel (!) spreadsheets modeling crop growth or disease damage.
There is something true when he says that farms are inefficient factories. They sometimes fail to give a proper income to the famer, considering the work they put in. But for me the solution is not overspecialized industrialized farms growing one crop for the rest of the world. It would be better to have highly versatile farms dedicated to fulfill the needs of specific areas to minimize transportation impact. I've never seen any environnemental protection concern related to the soylent production. It's all about saving time while eating healthy.
I saw a documentary about chinese farmers growing tomatoes. They could not imagine eating what they were growing. Pretty sad for a farmer.
This is definitely true, look at the rise of John Deere's GreenStar - GPS controlled tractors and implements which dramatically improve yields. Farmers are like hackers in many ways.
I guy I knew years ago used to work for a software company that sold software to farmers, and he said he was always surprised by how incredibly high tech farming and farmers where.
This seems a little ignorant to me. Farms (at least in Australia) are amazingly industrialized. I visited my cousin's dairy farm recently and one person was working at milking dozens of cows at a time.
I walked away with the image that modern farmers are technical early adopters, looking at ways technology can improve their return on investment.