Even in the digital age, not all US farmers can use the internet for their agriculture. Find out more soon on This Land of Ours.
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Although it seems like everyone is online all the time these days, nearly a quarter of U.S. farmers lack internet access, according to the latest Census of Agriculture data, which show that the largest internet access gaps are in southeastern states.
According to the 2022 Census, more than 21 percent of farms or their homes do not have internet access. That’s a three percent change from the 2017 Census of Agriculture, which found that more than 24 percent of farmers did not have internet access at that time. Even those with internet access in rural America may not have adequate internet service for the needs of precision agriculture.
An FCC task force recommends a minimum performance of 100 megabits per second for download and 20 megabits per second for upload to support precision agriculture.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s program “This Land Of Ours” here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, radio host, and speaker specializing in agriculture. She primarily covers legislative issues and hosts the podcasts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly. Sabrina is from California’s agricultural Central Valley.
