Wall-E-Like Farming Robots Could Replace Undocumented Workers and Save the US Billions

Gizmoto.com ^ | Andrew Tarantola

[KeyLargo]

Wall-E-Like Farming Robots Could Replace Undocumented Workers and Save the US Billions

Despite advancements in mechanization within US agriculture, some menial jobs are still best left to human workers. Problem is, federal crackdowns on undocumented laborers have decimated that workforce. The Harvester automaton could provide a cheap, readily available labor force without the threat of raids by the INS.

The US agriculture industry is worth about $300 billion annually—half from livestock production, the other half from crops. However, some of the most basic jobs in this industry still have to be performed by people. Jobs like offloading potted plants from trucks, arranging them in rows for the growing season, then loading them back onto a truck when they're ready for sale. That may not sound very difficult, but when performed on an industrial scale, it becomes a mammoth task requiring a huge workforce of low-productivity manual laborers—today largely comprising undocumented migrant workers. However, some analysts estimate that, by automating these sorts of tasks, a firm's revenue per employee could be increased from $40K per employee vs. $175K per employee—an annual labor savings of $21 billion. "We've recognized the need for robotics in the nursery industry for moving pots because it's one of our highest concentrations of labor use," said Tom Demaline, president of Willoway Nurseries, Inc. in Avon, Ohio.

[KeyLargo]

So when the illegal aliens are given amnesty and in the near future the majority are replaced by mechanization of agriculture the Democrats will have more millions to add to not only the voter rolls but add to welfare rolls when they are displaced by machines.

"The technology is maturing just at the right time to allow us to do this kind of work economically," said Derek Morikawa, whose San Diego-based Vision Robotics has been working with the California Citrus Research Board and Washington State Apple Commission to develop a fruit picker."

A technician monitors a scout robot that uses stereoscopic cameras to digitally map the location of apples in an orchard row. The information would be downloaded to a second harvester robot that would pick the fruit.

[dsrtsage]

Excellent. We can use the billions saved to pay the welfare benefits for all of the unemployed illegals.

[Gaffer]

Yeah, but can they take a dump or in the middle of the field like our illegal workforce and start an E.Coli epidemic in the food chain?

[Buckeye McFrog]

so....instead of 2/3 of them being on welfare, they’ll ALL be on welfare....swell!

[C. Edmund Wright]

...but....but....but...I thought the very minute we rid ourselves of the illegal workforce, that millions upon millions of motivated honest hard working American laborers would be pouring into these positions? So why the need for these gadgets?

[The Sons of Liberty]

Wall-E-Like Farming Robots Could Replace Undocumented Workers and Save the US Billions

Sounds like a very good plan, but will they vote dimocratic and provide kickbacks to fat cat politicos?

[C. Edmund Wright]

...which is why eVerify should start at the government welfare and EBT offices.....for just what you pointed out.

[dfwgator]

Wish we had these about 200 years ago....would have saved us from a lot of problems.

[NonValueAdded]

Before Wall-e

[pepsionice]

By 2100, I don’t see any farmer needing any extra help. Other than the typical jobs....laying carpet, doing drywall, or laying bricks....there’s just any work to be left for illegals. Even McDonalds will likely be run with just three people behind the counter, and everything done by robots.

[mkboyce]

Next time some twit-box RINO or bleeding-heart D-Rat gets in your face about the US needing cheap labor to ‘do the jobs that Americans will no longer do’...show them this.

And it will only get better as time marches on.

I think we’d rather have several thousand design engineers and skilled machine operators, than a few million illiterates hunched over in the fields.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Terrific. They’ll unionize; Robot Local 213. Solidarity!

[C. Edmund Wright]

You may be right - which begs the question: if there is supposedly this raring and ready to go American workforce, why??????

[KeyLargo]

Farmers Mull Replacing Illegal Workers With Robots
Published September 06, 2007

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – 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.

Last year, amid heightened immigration enforcement, California’s seasonal migration was marked by spot worker shortages, and some fruit was left to rot in the fields.

“There’s a lot of very nervous people out there in agriculture in terms of what’s going to be available in the labor force,” said Robert Wample, viticulture and enology program director at California State University, Fresno.

Mechanized picking wouldn’t be new for some California crops such as canning tomatoes, low-grade wine grapes and nuts.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/09/06/farmers-mull-replacing-illegal-workers-with-robots/#ixzz2XWLOmG75

[cripplecreek]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

[C. Edmund Wright]

uh, dude.....this article does not support your position. Quite the opposite in fact.......what’s wrong with your processor?

[C. Edmund Wright]

who will program ebonics into their systems and hand out the yellow or purple tee shirts?

[pepsionice]

Go add up a $10 an hour wage, and the cost of living in most states. There’s nothing much left at the end of the month. The only way that you can manage to get ahead is for the family to live as cheaply as possible....for decades.

[KeyLargo]

Agricultural mechanisation for economic survival
09:00 (GMT+2), Mon, 01 April 2013

Agricultural mechanisation for economic survival
Between 70 000t and 80 000t of lucerne is produced annually under irrigation in the Douglas district, mainly due to mechanisation.

Annelie Coleman

The era of mechanisation and outsourcing in the commercial agriculture sector has arrived to counter the sharp increase in labour costs, says Attie Scholtz, the 2012 Northern Cape Young Farmer of the Year. He explains to Annelie Coleman why mechanisation has become vital for a farmer’s economic survival.

http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/article.aspx?id=37395&h=Agricultural-mechanisation-for-economic-survival

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We’ve got an App for that! *SMIRK*