Jahren shifts from human population statistics to agricultural statistics, with a primary focus on the region in which she grew up: “While the Heartland makes up only 15 percent of the land area of the United States, it is home to more than half of its farm fields” (28). Jahren describes the seasonal agricultural routine of her home in Minnesota, including the farming of soybeans and corn. These two types of plants are often planted side by side.

While the farm fields in both the Midwest and across the world are producing three times the amount of product now that they were 50 years ago, the acreage of land dedicated to agriculture has not significantly increased: “How did we come to be growing three times more food on only 10 percent more land? The answer has to do with gigantic increases in yield—the amount produced per footprint of soil” (31). Key to this increased yield are farmers’ access to better nutrients for their plants, the development of stronger herbicides and pesticides, and the scientific breakthrough in plant genetics to create genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs do not pose a health risk for consumers, as many believe. The powerful corporate structure that controls the sale of seeds, however, is more problematic.