A Human Element in Agriculture

A few years back we took a trip to Kenya.  Although not the purpose of the trip, the agriculture that we witnessed there was a highlight for me.  The photo above is of laborers picking tea leaves in a region called "The White Highlands" west of Nairobi.

Our guide told us the work of the tea pickers was very difficult and that they were not paid well.  I have no doubt of the difficulty, I have put in many hours of manual labor and it can be extremely demanding physically.

One way such backbreaking labor could be minimized, or possibly eliminated, is through robotics.  Sensors would detect when the leaves are at the peak level of maturity for picking.  The difficult manual labor would be eliminated and instead, there would be mechanics and engineers to maintain the machines.  Those labor intensive jobs would be eliminated.

Even though it was a number of years ago that I witnessed this, the thought of mechanical pickers crossed my mind at the time.  I considered the large amount of capital investment and the elimination of the difficult jobs.  I also thought about the fact that most people in Kenya are struggling to survive, have little opportunity for employment and rely on foreign investment to a large extent for the growth of most industries and therefore, jobs.

The U.S. is a country founded on agriculture and trade.  We have moved far beyond that to one of technology and service, but we still are the most advanced producers of food in the world.  Our farms are the most productive and each farmer feeds many, many people -- not only here, but around the world.

In our developmental period, farmers and their families provided much of the backbreaking labor.  In some areas, imported labor in the form of slaves increased productivity (I am opposed to slavery in all forms but, won't get into that discussion here).  Later, and even today, much of the labor for some types of farming comes through poor immigrants seeking jobs.  However, a tremendous amount of the need for manual labor has been replaced by mechanical devices that plant, cultivate and harvest the crops.

Those who have never been in the situation of desperately needing a job don't understand that there is dignity in work -- even difficult manual labor.  Mechanization and robotics eliminate jobs.  Are we guilty of applying "first world" views to "third world" problems when we think this way?  Those jobs may be foundational to some economies.  The issue of appropriate compensation, health care and working hours/conditions is something totally different.  Those are issues of governance.

I am a firm believer in and enthusiastic about the advances being made in both mechanization and robotics as applied to agriculture.  Along with such advances though, needs to come an awareness of the impact on the people dependent on agriculture for the dignity of a job.  An awareness of the social issues is just as critical as the desire to replace human labor with machines.