Robert Bell is one of the co-founders of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). They give out Intelligent Rural Community awards. The ICF framework has served as an underpinning for the Blandin Foundation’s Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities initiative. Last week, Robert asked a great question in his blog…

What Do Rural People Need Broadband For Anyway?

He starts by pointing out that..

according to the USDA, that 70% of farms with sales of at least a quarter million dollars use the Internet for farm business. Slightly over 40% of smaller farms are also online.

Robert uses a couple of examples of how farmers use broadband for tasks from communication with government and other businesses, pest control, sales and marketing and combatting loneliness.