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from the we-welcome-our-new-robot-overlords dept.
Ilan Brat reports at the WSJ that technological advances are making it possible for robots to handle the backbreaking job of gently plucking ripe strawberries from below deep-green leaves, just as the shrinking supply of available fruit pickers has made the technology more financially attractive. “It’s no longer a problem of how much does a strawberry harvester cost,” says Juan Bravo, inventor of Agrobot, the picking machine. “Now it’s about how much does it cost to leave a field unpicked, and that’s a lot more expensive.” The Agrobot costs about $100,000 and Bravo has a second, larger prototype in development.
Other devices similarly are starting to assume delicate tasks in different parts of the fresh-produce industry, from planting vegetable seedlings to harvesting lettuce to transplanting roses. While farmers of corn and other commodity crops replaced most of their workers decades ago with giant combines, growers of produce and plants have largely stuck with human pickers—partly to avoid maladroit machines marring the blemish-free appearance of items that consumers see on store shelves. With workers in short supply, “the only way to get more out of the sunshine we have is to elevate the technology,” says Soren Bjorn.
American farmers have in recent years resorted to bringing in hundreds of thousands of workers from Mexico on costly, temporary visas for such work. But the decades-old system needs to be replaced because “we don’t have the unlimited labor supply we once did,” says Rick Antle. "Americans themselves don't seem willing to take the harder farming jobs," says Charles Trauger, who has a farm in Nebraska. "Nobody's taking them. People want to live in the city instead of the farm. Hispanics who usually do that work are going to higher paying jobs in packing plants and other industrial areas."
The labor shortage spurred Tanimura & Antle Fresh Foods, one of the country’s largest vegetable farmers, to buy a Spanish startup called Plant Tape, whose system transplants vegetable seedlings from greenhouse to field using strips of biodegradable material fed through a tractor-pulled planting device. “This is the least desirable job in the entire company,” says Becky Drumright. With machines, “there are no complaints whatsoever. The robots don’t have workers' compensation, they don’t take breaks.”
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @10:50AM
Them damn foreigner robots stealing 'jahbs' from genuine, good-ol' heartland-born, hard-working Americans! I know what these guys are up to... They bring them 'immigants' here and pay them less so that they can pay me less too... It's all a big conspira... Oh... you what...?
Oh, it's because I feel too good to take the job myself? Oh and they're actually paying market price for their labor? Hmm... you sure? That can't be true, I've heard it on Fox!
Anyhoo... maybe those mexican guys are ok because I don't want to pay one penny more than I need to for my precious strawberries and for sure, I'm too lazy to go and do it myself, we americans are better than that!
But now don't get me started on H1-B's... Those paki fuckehhhhh... What's that? They too are actually paid market price? But how? These 'people' studied in non-american schools. How can they be worth that much..eeehhh.... Ahhh... you say that the american education system is actually not as good as we think it is...just overpriced...
But the free market, if people are willing to pay that much for education, it must mean it's good right? As long as we don't apply the free market principles to immigration, amiright???
Hot-diggity! Bunch of hypocrites!
(Score: 3, Funny) by curunir_wolf on Monday April 27 2015, @12:34PM
Them damn foreigner robots stealing 'jahbs'
It's jorbs, dammit. If you're gonna troll, do it right.
I am a crackpot
(Score: 3, Informative) by TK on Monday April 27 2015, @01:20PM
Jorbs is the pronunciation in the Southern dialect. Jahbs is the pronunciation in the Boston dialect.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Monday April 27 2015, @01:48PM
"Jerbs" is the proper pronunciation for people hailing from the south Park region of Colorado.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Monday April 27 2015, @06:02PM
"Jorb" is how Coach Z would say it on Homestarrunner; I always thought he had an Illinois/Michigan accent (Chicago?).
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday April 27 2015, @03:39PM
I think I'd be amused by the mod list of this comment... That's a hard one: Funny flamebait insightful touche...
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Monday April 27 2015, @07:04PM
Your comment prompted an interesting thought(at least interesting to me):
How much of these comments are a coping mechanism?
It seems this comment pattern pops up in discussions of articles where the subject is very 'difficult', with seemingly unsolvable/unpleasant issues.
At any rate, I had to giggle at your comment, and I imagine you are correct! :-)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Monday April 27 2015, @09:20PM
I will oblidge: 1 each Funny, Interesting, Flamebait,... AND 2 Touchés
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2015, @06:36PM
They bring them 'immigants' here and pay ... market price for their labor
I'm not entirely sure I believe this... I've heard anecdotal evidence of illegal immigrants getting the short-end (not being paid, being paid fewer hours than they work, not having benefits like insurance). However, as noted several times, anecdotal evidence is not proof, and I don't have any specific studies I can reference from memory, so...
By dramatically increasing the number of unskilled workers, you are increasing supply and thus lowering prices. If it is "market price," it is an artificially low market price due to flouting the law and public policy to increase the supply of workers.
H1-B's ... They too are actually paid market price
Repeat my previous comment about anecdotal evidence (including people I personally know). However ignoring that, this statement doesn't even pass the smell test.
Imagine you have two people. Person A can work anywhere, Person B must work only at this company. Who actually thinks person B would be paid the same as A? Their negotiation position is far weaker, and they can't "job hop" for a salary increase. The previous comment of "artificially" increasing supply applies here as well, both by flouting the law (tailored job postings, not hiring US Citizens due to "company cultural mismatch," etc) and even legally just increasing the number of technically skilled people so they can all be paid less due to supply-demand curve.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday April 27 2015, @07:49PM
Why does no one grow their own strawberries? Or grapes? Or any kind of fruit and vegetable?
I grew up in a place where you did that as a matter of course, and canned or pickled or somehow preserved everything you couldn't eat fresh to get you through the winter. It's astonishing that so few do that anymore. The savings and convenience aside, home-grown produce tastes miles better than what you can get in your average supermarket.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @04:51AM
I live in a house with five other people on the bottom floor alone. There are likely at least that many people on each of the top two floors. My requests for a corner of backyard are unlikely to be fruitful (pun intended).
This is also known as the Apartment Problem.