Economist Sees Internet as Ag’s Future

February 25, 2000

Economist and futurist George Gilder says Internet agricultural information now is just a fraction of what will be available in five years. Information now seems jumbled and incoherent at times, he adds, but will become more useful and integrated with the entire farm enterprise.

In Forbes ASAP, Gilder wrote, "Ultimately, through this radiant light will run most of the commerce of the world. In fact, more value will move by resonant light than by all the world’s supertankers, pipelines, 18-wheeler trucks and C5A aircraft."

During an interview with American Farm Bureau Federation, Gilder said the average business or farm on the Internet now "confronts about one-tenth of 1% of the information that will be available in just five years." Although now seemingly "jumbled and incoherent at times," it will become "more useful and integrated with the entire farm enterprise."

He continued, "The point is we are at the very dawn of an amazing revolution in communications power that converges with an ongoing revolution in computer power and with a biotech revolution just emerging. And all these together will transform the opportunities for farming."

Gilder predicts farmers soon will carry a cell phone that is "as portable as your watch, as personal as your wallet." It will recognize speech and accept instructions to collect news, markets and weather. Eventually the information will be displayed to the farmer through special eyeglasses, he says.