Minnesota’s agricultural industry has many needs and power is one of them. While farming didn’t always require electricity, it is now a necessity for an industry that requires constant efficiency.

Here are some figures to consider: There are more than 2 million farms in the country that cover nearly 100 million acres of land. The industry is so large that 21 million Americans, which is 15 percent of the workforce, produces and processes food for sale to consumers. One in three farms plant food for export to other countries that rely on the U.S. for safe food. This shows that there is heavy reliance on safe and high quantity food production and that means there is a need for reliable power sources in every aspect of the industry.

Minnesota has many of these farms and there is a great deal of reliability placed on these farms to produce food no matter how short or long a power outage is. At the same time, a power outage can put crops and animals at risk. If there is a loss of crops or animals, then money is lost.

This is where backup generator use can be very beneficial to farmers and others in the agricultural industry. Significant power loss can cause great losses, but keeping the power on means keeping things going as usual.

Many farmer’s turn to diesel generators because they are durable and dependable. Plus, some areas of a farm may not be able to be tapped into the power grid, so off-grid generator installation may be necessary.

There is also the fact that most farms are located in rural environments and that means that power restoration can take much longer than in the urban areas. This is because cities are given priority because of the number of businesses and residents within those areas. The farmer has to wait, but a generator is going to make that wait a bit more bearable and less damaging to the overall operations. This means that a farmer can achieve a return on investment again and again through the use of a generator.

If the farmers, processors, and retailers of food in the United States didn’t have ways to combat such things as power outages (which happen every day somewhere), then food production would suffer greatly. If food production would suffer, so would the people from not having access to what they want and need.