Dinger From the Cab #3 | September 2026

Welcome back. Three views again this month: the road ahead, the road behind and a question for the ride.

Out the Windshield

We use AI extensively at Landoption, and we care deeply about natural resources. People sometimes ask me how those two things square.

Here's how I see it.

I don't think most of the computing that powers AI will continue happening in traditional data centers. Models will increasingly live on our phones and computers, while more of the large-scale computing will happen in space or in net-zero data centers.

The current model is simply too resource-intensive. Municipalities are already facing difficult questions about the power and water demands of data centers. Regulators in at least 18 states are developing special rate classes for them, and utilities are introducing tariffs intended to make large users pay their own way. Meanwhile, the first orbital data center nodes have launched, and an AI model has already been trained in space.

The economics will eventually require the industry to find a better way.

I also think AI companies have their business model backward. They should charge full price for the frivolous things, like memes and pointless videos, and make solving real problems affordable. I don't get to choose their models for them, but with open-source models trailing the paid versions by less and less, the market may force that change.

Sooner or later, the big AI companies will have to earn their premium by making a positive dent in the universe.

One of the biggest dents I can imagine is in food and agriculture.

Many people are unhealthy because of the food we eat. That costs our country trillions of dollars, but the greater cost is the good years families lose with the people they love.

The way we grow and distribute food in this country has to improve, and I believe AI will be a significant part of how we do it. A future in which producers receive premiums for nutrient density and for food that genuinely fuels people is not far off. It also fits where food policy appears to be headed.

Take school lunches. There's no reason kids should be limited to heavily processed food simply because developing a better system requires more planning and coordination than anyone has time to manage. Those are exactly the kinds of complicated problems AI can help solve.

Paying producers a premium to work with nature and grow food differently than they grow fiber or fuel could create outcomes that change the world.

So no, I don't like the way data centers consume resources. I don't like that they can become enormous eyesores or that they sometimes promise small towns substantial job growth, only to employ a handful of people long-term.

But I believe we'll find a way to gain the benefits of AI without accepting all the blight that currently comes with it.

In the Rearview

Landoption recently turned two. This is a story about two of the people who helped us get here.

My dad, Don, and my brother, Brent, operate Dinger Sales and Service in southwest Minnesota.

When they started the company, Dad had recently retired from a career that began with running grain elevators and included 25 years of selling DEKALB corn and Asgrow soybeans. He accepted a retirement offer from Bayer and spent almost one full day actually being retired before looking for something else to do.

That something was becoming one of the early dealers for Pivot Bio. He quickly grew into one of the company's larger dealers in the country. Along the way, he added other products and eventually brought in my brother, who was growing tired of working as a plumber.

Together, they built Dinger Sales and Service through relationships they had spent years earning and maintaining.

We started Landoption hoping to work with people like my dad and brother. Ben and I had spent years in the conservation and sustainability program world, but our network in agriculture was thin by comparison. We needed someone willing to take a chance on us.

My dad and I had never done business together, and we lived four hours apart. One day, while I was updating him on our progress and lamenting some of our struggles, I finally said:

"Dad, I'd like you to take a chance on us with your relationships and bet that we're going to make it pay off."

Thirty years of trusted relationships are no small thing to bet. Maybe it was because he's my dad, or maybe it was because he saw what I saw, but he agreed to ask a few customers about Landoption.

Many of them said yes.

By doing so, Dad and Brent helped us prove that Landoption could help dealers and farmers make money by navigating the program landscape effectively. Dad has helped farmers who once laughed at their neighbors for planting cover crops begin planting cover crops themselves. He has connected customers with water and carbon programs, and he has found so many opportunities that some of them now call Brent "the money man."

When Brent calls, it's often because he has found another opportunity for them.

Landoption would not be where it is today without their help. In its own way, Landoption has become part of the Dinger family business, and it has been a blessing to work together.

As our network grows, I hope we reach a point where Landoption can bring our dealers, customers and their families together. When that day comes, I'm excited for more of you to meet these two great men.

The Passenger Seat

This month's question:

Who took a chance on you when they didn't have to?

Did it pay off for them?

See you down the road,

Eric