These issues are common among farmers and they can have substantial consequences. Farmers are often left out of agricultural policy discussions, lack channels to hear about resources available to them or don’t know how to grow their businesses with online marketing tools. Limited connectivity poses a challenge and improving infrastructure is necessary to mitigate some of these problems—but more conectivity isn’t a cure-all to close the technology gap among farmers. Without the skills to use the Internet, how helpful is broadband?

Darlene Knipe, cofounder of an online farm-to-fork platform called MarketMaker, needs the technology knowledge gap among farmers to close in order to encourage more growers to use her website. MarketMaker is a national partnership of land grant institutions and State Departments of Agriculture dedicated to developing a comprehensive, interactive database of food industry marketing and business data.

It’s one of the most extensive collections of searchable food industry data in the country, connecting farms, restaurants, cafeterias, and consumers. While these are resources that most farmers would benefit from, the tools and data are only useful if farmers can access them in the first place.

Lea Nowlin with Down East Connect, a North Carolina nonprofit that sells local produce through an online farmers’ market, may have a solution. Nowlin says that her site relies on a network of older and younger farmers who can teach each other how to use the technology.

“The more experienced—I won’t say older—farmers learn to use the Internet really well,” says Nowlin. She may be onto something; Down East’s oldest user is 89. Like MarketMaker, the organization partners with state extension services to provide boots-on-the-ground support for the site’s growing community of farmers.

Users who still lack Internet access are able to access the site through computers at extension offices in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties. In an era where Internet connectivity matters but is still imperfect, this in-person support remains critical.

The age disparity of farmers who lack Internet access reflects the overall generational gap in the U.S. population. According to Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, only 54 percent of seniors over 65 used the Internet last year. While this is the highest this number has been since Pew began tracking the data in 2000, it means that nearly half of all seniors still aren’t plugged in. Given that the average age of farm operators is now 58 years old, the agricultural community isn’t exactly wired.

Mentor Up through the AARP Foundation is one program working to empower and coordinate young people to teach older generations how to use the Internet. Mentor Up partners include Facebook, DoSomething.org, and the 4-H Council. Four-H is the youth development arm of the Cooperative Extension System of land grant universities throughout the U.S., and their partnership with Mentor Up uniquely positions them to focus on educating older farmers.

Bringing Internet access to rural areas and helping farmers use online tools is a tall order. While the $190.5 million for infrastructure is just one (rather large) piece of this puzzle, organizations working with and in agriculture should strive to build relationships with farmers through multiple media: Facebook, texting, email, snail mail, face-to-face communication, etc. Working with farmers across all communication channels can help ensure fairer representation in the growing good food economy.