This year has been a struggle to say the least for farmers and ranchers in the western half of the United States. Low snow pack levels produced virtually no run off that is vital for filling lakes and reservoirs that provide irrigation and drinking water for large portions of our country. Smoke has been in the air all spring and summer from large wildfires that consumed grasslands, timber, homes and livelihoods from the west coast all the way to Nebraska. The moisture we have been praying for started to fall here in the panhandle of Nebraska in late summer and we have been blessed with some beautiful life giving rains that have brought the pastures back to life. Friends and neighbors back in Colorado have also received beneficial rains that have brought pastures to life for the first time this year.
This drought has affected more than just farmers and ranchers. Major cities are concerned about their water supply as the lakes they depend on fall to historically low levels. It has got me to thinking, what are these cities going to do when they finally put all of us in agriculture out of business? I was just a small kid when I first saw the effects of how selling water rights completely destroyed the small farming and ranching communities of southeastern Colorado. Crowley county was once thriving with agriculture that was largely driven by irrigation. Water rights were sold to the large cities along the front range that continue to grow everyday, meanwhile main street in Ordway looks like a ghost town with the empty buildings that once housed businesses that supported families. Farm ground that was once productive and fertile now looks like barren weed patches as it lays idle and the ditches that once carried life giving water now sit full of sand. It’s a constant reminder that agriculture is more than cows and plows, it’s a way of life that sustains small town America.
Beyond needing water for these ever growing cities, there is a new argument that large data centers should be built to support ai. The water appetite for these centers will dry up even more farms and ranches. Is squeezing out small towns, putting farmers and ranchers out of business and decimating livelihoods really more important than feeding a nation and protecting the resources that we are blessed with? How is AI going to produce food to feed the masses? How is it going to know how to care for cattle in a snowstorm? I for one think that individual creativity is something that should be celebrated. I also want people to be able to think for themselves. I’d hate to think that my doctor only passed medical school because they used some AI app to do all of their work for them. Problems arise when people quit thinking for themselves. We have all been blessed with a brain and our own way of thinking. Rather than letting a computer do our thinking for us, maybe we decide our own creativity is more important.
Technology is constantly changing. That’s not always a bad thing, but with change comes new responsibilities. Let’s be smart with the resources that we have been entrusted with. There is only one planet that we all have to share to live on together. Let’s protect our natural resources, realize that the best things in life are real, not artificially created and use a little common sense when we elect leaders to govern us. That’s all for this time, keep praying for moisture and keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire. God Bless.