Kansas: Wheat, Corn, and…
On our 3,108 mile, Drive for Strategy, one of my biggest surprises was Kansas. Does this sound familiar? And here we are, again, talking about Kansas.
If we were together, one month ago, if you had asked me, I was going to write two consecutive posts on the Wheat State, I would have told you that I must be crazy.
Call me crazy. The beauty of a non-Chat GPT blog with a single human algorithm. :)
Leaving eastern Colorado to enter Kansas, I expected Kansas to be the same, expansive plains, wheat, and corn production. Yet, we stopped at the Kansas state tourist center, and I was surprised to learn there are 12 distinctive byways (see photo above), including Post Rock, Gypsum Hills, and Flint Hills. There are hills in Kansas!
Then, we started the I-70 journey, and we did see plains and rolling hills, filled with corn, and wheat production. Kansas is #2 in wheat production and #6 in corn production. Yet, then, I started to see what I did not expect. On these valuable fields producing corn and wheat, wind turbines towered over the crops. Matter of fact, Kansas is #4 in wind megawatts of power, and it produces 47% of their energy.
Then, I turned my head again. Was that an oil well? On these same resource rich lands, for corn or wheat, and wind, there are also oil wells! Kansas is #11 in oil production. And of course, this same corn is used to produce cheaper fuel. Yes, there were 4 different gas pumps next to the Freddy’s restaurant, including corn fed 85 octane.
Over the past two decades, Kansas has been able to use technological advances to produce far more out of the same fields which previously produced only crops. |