穀物 does not mean crops.
It's being used as an example of the use of 新式. Yes, I could unlink it and set up a different sentence as an example, but since it's our only sentence with 新式 that's a helluva lot more work than adding an alternative translation.
英文とのリンクを削除しました。
[#299925] He went to America for the purpose of learning a new method of producing crops.
I've been using #10465301 in example sentence pairs.
I forget the context of that exchange, but yes, I should consider unlinking sentences when I'm adding what I think is a correct translation.