More farmers are finding that Internet access is a useful tool in conducting their day-to-day business operations. According to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture study, 70 percent of U.S. farms and ranches have some form of Internet access, up three percentage points since 2013.
Interestingly, the USDA report revealed that the more money a farm made, it possibly had a faster Internet connection, and leveraged the Internet to operate their business.
Despite the progress being made, Lu Nelsen, a policy associate at the Nebraska-based Center For Rural Affairs, said that there are large parts of the Midwest and Great Plains that either have no access or limited connectivity. "There is something that people like about living in small towns and rural communities," Nelsen said in a KUNC article. "But that doesn't mean that they want to sacrifice some of the essential services that they could get in a larger city." KUNC article