It's always amusing to me that the first crop headline writers turn to when it comes to migrant labor is Strawberries.
Strawberries? That's your "must have" crop? Not potatoes, tomatoes, corn, wheat, soy, apples, or oranges?
In fact most crops can be automated, and that's trues for strawberries, as well as blue berries.
Tom Coen, CEO of Octinion, maker of this strawberry-picking machine notes that:
Agricultural labor, at this point, is not sustainable, in the sense that it’s often people who come a long way–a few thousand kilometers–do that work, and after the season they go back, or people come over as immigrants and do that kind of job to get started, and afterwards move on to other, better jobs.
Never mentioned: simply having some crops grown overseas near the migrant labor pools. There's no need to grow strawberries in the US; they ship well, can be grown in Mexico, and farms now growing strawberries in the US can switch to another crop with ease. Fertile fields will not lie fallow if we do not grow strawberries!
1 comment:
I suspect it's more complicated. Some years back when I was growing pinot noir (hand harvested) in California I was told that strawberry pickers were the elite of farm labor and that a skilled picker could earn $500/day doing piecework. Grape pickers got just over minimum wage. Bending over to pick is hard on the body, and not many can or want do strawberry work. If they've worked out a mechanical strawberry picker, I won't be surprised to see it at work in California.
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