The Breadbasket needs broadband too

USA Today recently took a good look at rural Americans and their Internet connections, and discovered what the entire country is realizing: every American deserves broadband access.

In Plains, Texas, peanut farmer Jeff Roper tells us another unique role that high speed internet access can play in rural America: helping agriculture. Roper explains how broadband access could increase the efficiency of his farm's irrigation system:

"For one round trip from my farm right now to check all my pivots is probably close to 45 miles. That's just one time around if there aren't any problems. If we find a problem and have to come back to town to get whatever part we need, you know that just adds to it. If I could wake up in the morning and check it via our computer and know before we left town that there was a problem, we could load the parts and fix it there...

...Just because we live in rural America doesn't mean we shouldn't have broadband. We're all Americans. We shouldn't be treated less than anyone else." 

Every day, Roper makes the 45 mile trek in order to check up on nine large "pivots" that are a part of his underground well system, in order to irrigate his peanut plants. Right now these computerized pivot points function autonomously, but Roper hopes to create a remote broadband monitoring system that gives him the ability to operate his irrigation system from home instead.

Not only would high speed access save Roper time and money, but it would increase the productivity of his farm.

And Roper is far from alone. Thousands of rural Americans across the country have fallen victim to the digital divide that currently plagues our nation. A new, 21st Century broadband network is what we need to ensure that all of our communities - rural and urban alike - stay competitive in the global economy.