I'm very sad that I completely missed this set. I also missed my final jump of the set before gregg's set and finished third when I should have been good for a few million more NW (easily over 20 mil). It turns out that there are places in California that still do not have internet or cell towers.
I haven't really played farmer much but wouldn't buying res tech be counterproductive? Or is the cash gained from the pop enough to overcome the food loss?
With a rep farmer and maxed out bus/res you can be making 2-3m cash a turn on top of your food production, which isn't really affected by the techs much.