Broadband Access Vital for Rural America and the Economy

Rural broadband is a win-win-win: more income for farmers, more tax revenue for the government, and more affordable food for everyone. Before broadband, we relied on the slow and unreliable service of satellite internet. Broadband made everything better. We keep excellent records of our herd, monitoring every animal’s health and production. The veterinarian doesn’t need to visit nearly as often because we can get our pregnancy test reports in our email from a milk testing lab in PA. We can look up our milk production and quality measures from our dairy cooperative online, as well as receive text alerts if a report is ready. We also have instant access to our bank, allowing us to check balances, pay bills, and request disbursements at any time of the day or night. We’re hoping to make more advances soon. 

[Joanna Lidback and her husband operate the Farm at Wheeler Mountain, a diversified dairy farm in Vermont.]