America Is Running Out of Mexican Farmworkers. Will Robots Step in? Brad Plumer - Vox
go to original July 2, 2014

Harvest Automation's robots, designed to pick up and move plants around at nurseries — a job often done by migrant workers. (harvestai)

The United States is likely to face a serious shortage of farm labor in the years ahead — especially as Mexico gets richer and sends fewer low-wage workers our way.

So what happens then? One option is that the United States could just grow fewer crops that need lots of workers to harvest. But that seems unlikely, given all the demand for fresh produce.

Another possibility is that robots could do more and more of our farming. Last October, the US Department of Agriculture handed out $4.5 million in grants for "robotics research." Projects included robots that could harvest strawberries or apples, as well as drones that can detect citrus diseases. Meanwhile, private companies are developing machines that can pluck oranges or whack weeds with minimal supervision.

It's too soon to tell how many of these robots will actually pan out or be cost-effective, but automated farming is popping up in surprising places. Aviva Rutkin of New Scientist reports that Hackney Nursery in northern Florida recently hired four HV1000 robots that move perennials around the nursery autonomously, giving the plants more space to grow. At least 20 nurseries nationwide have hired these robots to do jobs once done by migrant workers.

Read the rest at Vox

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