Rural broadband is our duty to farmers

[Commentary] A task force created by President Donald Trump has developed many recommendations for addressing this issue, but it has found one overarching challenge that we must overcome to ensure future rural prosperity. We must deploy high-speed internet access to rural America. E-connectivity is a tool that enables increased productivity for farms, factories, forests, and small businesses, and is fundamental for economic development and an improved quality of life. It allows medical, educational, and business services to travel virtually to remote areas and can enrich rural life immeasurably. To increase access to broadband in rural areas, we must incentivize private capital investment, including the use of public-private partnerships. We must also invest in making high-speed Internet infrastructure more attractive by streamlining arduous review, approval, and permitting processes. We have a duty to harness technological innovation to improve the quality, nutritional value, and safety of American crops. An improved strategy for research and development of new agricultural technologies will be key, as will be a unified US approach toward convincing our trading partners of the value of safe biotech products.