Bumper Crop

Hanson’s Soy Farm

10 miles east of Huntsville, Ontario, Canada

August 2053

 

Peter Hanson looked up from his desk as his assistant, Marcel Fillion, came into the office. Marcel was in his mid-thirties, tall and fit, wearing dirty farmer’s jeans and short sleeved shirt.

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“How does it look?” Peter asked.

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“We’re going to have a bumper crop this year, Pete. No doubt about it,” said Marcel happily as he flopped into the chair in front of Peter’s desk.

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Peter leaned back. At fifty-six, he’d seen a lot of changes in his farm. Originally a dairy farm, the economic downturn of twenty years ago had almost bankrupted him. He had hoped that by growing soy, he could survive and for the first couple of years, he barely broke even. Then, with the change in the climate - longer, dryer summers - it had turned around and now his crops were very profitable.

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“We should be able to begin harvesting in about a month,” said Marcel.

“That’s good news,” commented Peter calmly. “I’ve already had six big distributors calling me.”

Just then a loud alarm sounded from the console on Peter’s desk.

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“Looks like there’s a group of people in the south field,” said Peter after checking the messages on the console.

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Marcel had jumped up at the sound of the alarm.

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“I’ll head out and see if they did any damage before the security bots got them.”

Peter sighed.

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“I hope they weren’t stupid enough to try to wreck the bots,” he said.

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“Yea,” replied Marcel. “Just got a message from the police. They’ll be here in half an hour to pick them up.”

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Peter looked back at his console. A flying drone showed him the group being corralled by the security robots. Other than a few plants they had cut down, the rest of the field was intact.

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“We caught them before they could steal much,” he said. “And they’re not trying anything stupid.”

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Peter felt sorry for them. Like most of the trespassers, these people had only wanted to steal the soy because they were starving. Now, they’d be sent to the work camps. They wouldn’t starve anymore, but their life would be a lot harder and they’d never see their families again.