Conventional agriculture on the Great Plains

Conventional agriculture on the Great Plains of the mid west produces 200 bushels per acre of corn and 20 million acres of high yield wheat in an area with 17 inches of rainfall. Driving around the wheat fields of Kansas and Nebraska one becomes aware of the well heads which suck out the fossil fuel.which allows this agriculture to continue The irony perhaps is that most of this grain is put into feddlots, which Wes has called "the largest cattle and pig welfare program in the world". He continues, "we do this in order to have a combination of cancer of the lower bowel, pollution of ground water due to nitrates, the problem of what to do with the manure, and people driving 50-60 miles in one direction in order to get to work".