A rural lifestyle provides opportunities for personal growth, recreation, and enterprise unmatched by those of the urban setting. But there are also responsibilities attached to that freedom. The expanse of open spaces feeds an illusion that our actions affect no one else. To try to understand interactions of human activities as diverse as agriculture, energy production and transportation in a sparsely-populated landscape is a task as arduous as that encountered by the Pioneers, but one that must be faced. Looking back, the task of settling the continent almost seems easy compared to present-day problems.
Modern agriculture places far greater demands on resources than it did in the past.
Today, much of Nebraska is farmed in crops that require much more water than rainfall provides, so artificial irrigation must make up the difference. Most of this water is pumped from the ground, from aquifers that are being replentished at rates far below the demand. And in some parts of Nebraska, chemical fertilizers have leached through the soil, contaminating groundwater below. Such practices are of course destroying the resource. If they were to continue, agriculture, and the healthy lifestyle as we know it on the Great Plains would be doomed.