science

Technology treadmill

Technology treadmill is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Technology treadmill rather than just read about it. In short: In agriculture, technology treadmill is the cycle of improving technology, reducing the cost of production, and increasing farm sizes. The technology treadmill theory was first described by Willard Cochrane in 1958 to explain the increasing land consolidation and ownership of farms and to show how the treadmill creates incentives for people to leave farming and become landowners.

Key takeaways

Technology treadmill belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Technology treadmill to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Technology treadmill from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In agriculture, technology treadmill is the cycle of improving technology, reducing the cost of production, and increasing farm sizes. The technology treadmill theory was first described by Willard Cochrane in 1958 to explain the increasing land consolidation and ownership of farms and to show how the treadmill creates incentives for people to leave farming and become landowners.

History The technology treadmill begins when a small number of farmers adopt new technology early. These farmers make profits for a short while because their production costs are lower than other farmers. As more farmers get on the treadmill and adopt the technology, overall production goes up, prices go down, and profits are no longer possible – even with the lower production costs. Consequently, new technology must be created to make profits possible again. Furthermore, the remaining farmers are forced to sell their products at lower prices and if they want to remain competitive. Those farmers who do not get on the treadmill go down in the price squeeze and the more successful farmers expand over them.

References

Further reading Dr. Steve Suppan (April 20, 2020). "Revisiting Crisis by Design: The agricultural technology treadmill". Institute for Agriculture and Trade Study.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Technology treadmill

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Technology treadmill claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Technology treadmill before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Technology treadmill ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Technology treadmill

In research: Technology treadmill appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Technology treadmill in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Technology treadmill is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agricultural terminology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Technology treadmill outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Technology treadmill in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Technology treadmill means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Technology treadmill out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Technology treadmill in simple terms?

Why does Technology treadmill matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Technology treadmill?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Technology treadmill.