Lower energy prices from soaring shale development have helped industries across the country, and agriculture — an energy-intensive business at the core of the American economy – has gotten a huge boost.

At a time when farmers have struggled to meet costs and sell their products, lower prices from our energy boom have turned things around, keeping many farms in business.  As the Associated Press recently explained, “Falling energy prices mean tractors are cheaper to run, water is less expensive to pump and crops are more economical to ship.”

Farmers who own mineral rights have also had the additional benefit of receiving royalties for operations on their land – revenues that have allowed them to invest in things like new equipment and facilities. In the words of Bill Jerke, a farmer and a mineral owner in Weld County, Colorado:

“It seems that oil and gas has become agriculture’s best friend over the last 20 or 30 years here in Weld County. We have ups and downs all the time in agriculture. There’s nothing more helpful than being able to go to that mailbox and getting a royalty check. And that helps keep more people in agriculture, and more people healthy economically, than crops, frankly, and livestock prices.”

Check out EID’s new infographic – Shale Development Supports American Farmers – to learn more about how shale development is supporting farmers and American agriculture.