Remember when we were kids and flying cars were supposed to the future? Where are the flying car?!! This was a rather silly story that appeared in the NY Times this morning. It will take years before this kind of technology is widespread and most small farmers operating on marginal profits are not likely to survive without labor in the short and medium term.
With authorities promising tighter borders, some farmers who rely on immigrant labor are eyeing an emerging generation of fruit-picking robots and high-tech tractors to do everything from pluck premium wine grapes to clean and core lettuce.
Such machines, now in various stages of development, could become essential for harvesting delicate fruits and vegetables that are still picked by hand.
''If we want to maintain our current agriculture here in California, that's where mechanization comes in,'' said Jack King, national affairs manager for the California Farm Bureau.
California harvests about half the nation's fruits, nuts and vegetables, according to the state Food and Agriculture Department. The California Farm Bureau Federation estimates that the job requires about 225,000 workers year-round and double that during the peak summer season.
More than half of all farm workers in the country are illegal immigrants, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
Maybe we should replace grandma with a robot too.
Posted by: alan | September 09, 2007 at 09:07 PM
This is an interesting proposition for the replacement of immigrants - legal or illegals. How about the proposition of using ROBOTS to guard the border Area especially in the US Mexico border? And also, how about the proposition of using ROBOTS in the US Health Care system?
Posted by: roboticproposition | September 07, 2007 at 07:15 PM
This is very good. When illegals are out, we can start developing new technology and employing more engineers and high-skilled labor. With illegals we only stagnate. It's very bad when the labor is so cheap that you use people rather than technology. For example, instead of buying cars you use people to pull you in a cart around - this is ridiculous!
Posted by: alfie | September 07, 2007 at 11:11 AM
US government wants to turn a blind eye to this situation if you have the people to do the job here and right now then they should be allowed to work. If they want to wait for the robbots it may may take a few years of lost crops before they get them.
Posted by: Another voice | September 07, 2007 at 07:32 AM