How our century of supersized farm machines will end
We took the landrace grain of the indigenous Americans and–with an arsenal of anhydrous ammonia and Roundup Ready genetics–went down to Mexico, smashed open their gates with NAFTA, and hammered their local corn producers to death in just a few years1. They couldn’t compete with Supercorn USA, and are only now beginning to find a spine2.
We blew their ag sector up so badly that the economic fallout supercharged the narcocrisis and triggered our own domestic political crisis thanks to illegal immigration and illicit border crossings.
Yes, I am claiming that American grain producers inadvertently set into motion a chain of events resulting in the 2016 and 2024 American presidential outcomes. I do genuinely believe this.
A key part of this “success” is the cycle of innovation and invention by major American agricultural equipment manufacturers like John Deere, Massey Ferguson, International Harvester, and others. They responded quickly to market needs. The producers kept asking for bigger machines, and their prayers were answered.
Unfortunately, I think America’s large farming operations are headed for a bad place by the end of the decade as their capitalization in equipment becomes dead weight.
