The classic risk-reward scenario. Tech has the potential for tremendously greater upside, but it is also insanely difficult to succeed in. Farming is comparatively quite easy. Your customer base is essentially guaranteed.

> go invest it and get passive returns

Technically farmland is an investment with passive returns. Other farmers will fall over themselves to rent it from you. If you choose to farm it yourself, you do not lose the passive return. Your farm income should reflect the rent that you would have otherwise paid if it weren't your land. Thus, in effect, you are still paying rent to yourself even if you don't formally account for it.

> Your labor is worth less

My tech job also pays me to farm. Double-dipping will always be worth more. However, even ignoring that, I make more per hour farming than I do in my tech job.

It is not very many hours, though. A hypothetical $10,000 per hour job doesn't get you far if there is only one hour of work per year to do. This is why making a living farming is hard.

Maybe... maybe some things are worth doing not simply because there's a dollar sign in the result. Let's ponder that this Juneteenth.

- declining reliability of seeds

- increasing variation in climate

- Ron DeSantis, according to Donald Trump

I think the temptation of America's artisanal manufacturing and farming is to revive a strong relationship between hard work and value. Maybe you remember beginning in software to help people, but look back at too many sacrifices inflicted on nature and humanity just to game the extractive component of ROI. So, I agree with your philosophy, but I want to say that farmers themselves obsess about ROI. I'm sure you understand their long-term success relies on interfacing with competitive markets right up to physical delivery. I wouldn't call that an American mentality because it affects farmers around the world.