GPS and Wheat Farming

The growing file of comments at the FCC on whether or not the network of 40,000 cell towers planned by start-up mobile broadband company LightSquared will interfere with GPS receivers contains numerous nuggets of information about how deeply position and location technology is embedded in the economy.

The National Association of Wheat Growers told commissioners that the average investment in GPS hardware and software by the country's 160,000 farmers is about $20,000 each, for a total investment of more than $3 billion.

GPS-enabled precision farming, the association said, means less use of fuel, fertilizer and pesticides and results in higher productivity.

Wheat farming sure has come a long way from the days since I drove a Caterpillar D5 pulling seed drills in Ralston, Wash., in 1969.