<p>Thanks to developments out of Silicone Valley, California’s central valley agriculture is experiencing an influx of robot labor, according to a Financial Times report. Currently in testing and production, these high-tech machines accomplish tasks from harvesting to sorting and beyond. Consolidating the number of employees needed, implementation of these technologies will surely mean redundancies with human laborers.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">“We’ve had to design our harvesting systems for growth in an industry where the labor situation is in question, so there is a workload that future generations of farm workers are willing to do,” said Jerrett Stoffel, vice-president of operations for Taylor Farms’ retail division, which processes 5m pounds of lettuce per week for Walmart, Costco, and other commercial food retailers.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">However some of these advancements will provide for a more manageable work environment for many field workers.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">An automated lettuce thinner is a key example, developed by President and CEO Franck Maconachy of Ramsay Highlander, a harvesting equipment manufacturer. It removes excess seedlings from the field so that others have room to grow, according to NPR. The machine –roughly the size of a Hummer, boasts its own vision system used to find the seedlings. It then sends their location to a computer on board, which uses an algorithm to analyze which seedlings to save and which to eliminate. Then it zaps the unlucky ones with a concentrated shot of fertilizer, like an industrial-sized search-and-destroy robot. It requires only one worker operate, versus a crew of 20 who would do the same task with long-handled hoes. The price tag: $250,000, meaning that it will be out of reach for many small growers.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The company is also working on a robotic picker that seeks out a head of lettuce and then picks it using a sophisticated vision system to determine if the greens are ready for the picking.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">A large amount of the responsibility for this shift to automated help is being placed on the lack of timely immigration reform as well as other food safety regulations, market pressures and the usual climate of competition.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Most innovation in this field is currently funded by private companies and Silicon Valley venture capitalists become more interested as the demand for solutions gain traction. Retailers also provide pressure for sustainability, often demanding the use of energy-saving methods to sign contracts.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The industry as a whole seems to stand by a vow of new jobs rather than more jobs. “The workforce may change,” said Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. “It will be interesting to see, five to 10 years from now, with the implications of science and technology, what kind of jobs are needed to do the work here.”</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.ft.com/home/uk ">Financial Times Reports </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
