Throughout the past century, the USA’s agricultural infrastructure has suffered from extensive price fluctuation and lack of innovation. By the end of the 19th century, there were few ways for farmers to protect themselves from price fluctuations. During the century, World Wars I and II, and food embargoes caused food prices to increase astronomically. In order to cope with rising food prices during the 1970s, farmers started to mix chemicals on their fields to kill pests and weeds. The chemicals used for this purpose were usually heavy in toxic chemicals, such as lead acetate, a pesticide with very low environmental footprint. This led to a decline of the environmental impact of agriculture.
The agricultural farming community has started to adopt more sustainable practices, like growing crops organically and reducing the use of pesticides and herbicides. Bitcoin-based agricultural infrastructure provides a system to transfer agricultural products among buyers and sellers. Agricultural infrastructure allows for the settlement of sales in a transparent and distributed manner.
Besides helping farmers, Bitcoin-based agricultural infrastructure can also help people in need of food. The Silicon Valley-based Nonprofit Brighter World is working with charities to create a Bitcoin donation infrastructure for Africa. Brighter World has partnered with Elephant Action League, an organization dedicated to ending the use of elephant tusks in Chinese traditional medicine, to raise funds for this initiative. Elephant Action League is working together with Pantera Capital to collect donations on the fundraising platform GoFundMe.
The agricultural infrastructure of Bitcoin is starting to sprout a new wave of innovation and support for the farming