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Cultivating Domain

Agricultural
Susquehanna County, PA

America’s longstanding reverence for family farms has not stopped them from becoming obsolete. The embrace of natural gas fracking, which brought a brief but total industrial revolution to rural Pennsylvania, is evidence of a nascent desire for macroeconomic experimentation.

The proposal is to use the precedent set by fracking to create long-term agricultural infrastructure. Food corporations will take pipeline rights-of-way by eminent domain, converting them into a farm transporation network that links small-town growers to the national food supply. Most importantly, the old defaults of corn, soybeans, and dairy must make way for something more profitable—tropical species grown using steam from abandoned gas wells.

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Typical pre-fracking rural homestead

Typical pre-fracking rural homestead

Proposed post-fracking rural homesteads

Proposed post-fracking rural homesteads

Aerial photo of fracked rural landscape—the industrial revolution of the countryside

Aerial photo of fracked rural landscape—the industrial revolution of the countryside

Satellite image of the Bluestone pipeline right-of-way, connecting Susquehanna's frack pads to the Millennium pipeline (which supplies New York City)

Satellite image of the Bluestone pipeline right-of-way, connecting Susquehanna's frack pads to the Millennium pipeline (which supplies New York City)

Aerial view of a pipeline right-of-way cutting through private properties. If residents refuse to lease land to fossil fuel corporations, eminent domain is used.

Aerial view of a pipeline right-of-way cutting through private properties. If residents refuse to lease land to fossil fuel corporations, eminent domain is used.

Roughly 100 Americans die annually from pipeline explosions. Contrary to popular belief, the US has several large accidents (spills or fires) each week.

Roughly 100 Americans die annually from pipeline explosions. Contrary to popular belief, the US has several large accidents (spills or fires) each week.