Industrial Farming Blues
2019Conversations with farmers of all stripes, from the industrial-scale to the regenerative, in rural North Dakota and Minnesota, August 2019. Lanny Faleide, a farmer who created Satshot—one of the first satellite analysis companies for agriculture—together with his wife Lisa Swanson Faleide, a writer and theologian, were the connection and collaborators in this conversation marathon on technology, farming, and community. Emotions were high: trade tensions with China were escalating. Confronted with unstable prices, some farmers will go even bigger in the race to survive. Others are choosing new directions: smaller, smarter, regenerative; scripting and automating to improve soil health, biodiversity, crop diversity, and water quality.
Audio credit:
Lanny Faleide (President Satshot)
Lisa Swanson Faleide (theologian, writer)
Diana Overby (co-owner Lee Farms)
Paul Overby (regenerative farmer and consultant, Lee Farms)
Mark Watne (President North Dakota Farmers Union)
Gary Wagner (early precision farming adopter, A.W.G. Farms Inc.)
Janna Bystrykh (editor).
Included in Countryside, A Report
