[Oatka]

[Aussie method of harvesting raisins]This new method radically reduces labor demand at harvest time and increases yield per acre by up to 200 percent. But this high-productivity, innovative method of production has spread very slowly in the United States because the mass availability of foreign workers has served as a disincentive to farmers to make the necessary capital investment.

Aye, there's the rub. As long as you can get LOTS of cheap labor, why change?
Back in the '70s I lived in the San Joaquin valley where among other things, they grew almonds and walnuts. To harvest them you had to take a long bamboo pole and beat hell out of the tree limbs to knock the ripe nuts down. VERY labor intensive and time-consuming.
I don't know what triggered it, but the geniuses at UC Davis came up with a machine with padded jaws. They'd run that machine up to an almond or walnut tree, clutch it in its "jaws" and then rapidly shake the tree. Ergo, the crop is picked in minutes with one guy and a machine.
Now you can't tell me that American ingenuity cannot do the same with some of these stoop/labor-intensive crops. But Hey, as long as we can get these cheap Mexicans . . .

[noodler]

hey I get it but I or we don't change policy.We change it by vote in this Country which is as good as the bought-off crack whore down the street, but at least her vote for clinton etc is cancelled by mine.