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The rise of the robot farmer

theguardian.com

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Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#31

Post by decebalus1 »

borkt wrote: post #26
decebalus1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I actually assume farmers are very welcoming of technology They should be, especially wrt to automation, considering farmers have been the most prolific in hiring undocumented workers while at the same time being some of the most vocal republican supporters. WAY less cognitive dissonance.

A lot of them use legitimate guest worker systems, and it benefits everyone to have access to these workers.

'a lot of them' means exactly nothing. How many? Do you have some numbers?

Last time I checked, the dept of labor was saying that about 40% of all agricultural workers are illegal immigrants and United Fresh Produce Association between 50 and 70 percent. So yeah, a lot of them don't use 'legit' systems. It must be very hard to cheer for building 'the wall' while employing illegals and getting federal subsidies. That's why I have great faith in farming automation as it would provide some well deserved relief.

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#32

Post by stevenwoo »

That was a pretty inspirational tale about the startup the guy founded in terms of purpose and possibility and application of technology. For me it's better than anything I've heard about recently in America, though I am not an expert in this.

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#33

Post by joe_the_user »

tda wrote: post #27
rmason wrote: post #9

In Michigan we've already got family farms with a man, two sons and a single employee handling 10,000 acres. Robots driving tractors, trucks and combines would allow that to expand 5-6X. In turn that would lead to a reduction in farmers of up to 80%. This is a trend that has been running for close to a hundred years. Remember at one time a quarter of America's population were farmers and now it's under 2%.

managing giant monocultures with a few giant machines (that may or may not be human controlled) is not what this article is about; it is about the huge potential that smallish robots have for farming. More diverse crops, less pesticides, less damage to soil, less energy use, mixed instead of mono cultures. Really exciting if this takes off, such a win for the environment, the landscape, and ultimately for everyone of…

Sure, this might allow family farms to expand but it could also monoculture operations to diversify and become efficient through decreased pesticide and water use.

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#35

Post by zackmorris »

Now for a bit of hubris: anyone else reading this feel that building a robot that could do pest/weed control and harvesting is almost a triviality compared to say, fixing enterprise software to maximize customer purchases and ad revenue?

What are we all doing? Seriously, why can't each of us take a year of our lives and automate all the most awful jobs in the world?

Asking for a friend :-P

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#36

Post by mc32 »

wolfram74 wrote: post #8
pwaivers wrote: post #6

> This is the one note of darkness that enters an otherwise optimistic conversation. “This technology could be used in a completely different way,” he says. “You could have entire states in America with no people in them. The potential for what we’re doing to be used in the wrong way is there.” What is inherently wrong or evil about this? If we could automate a state-size farm to feed everyone, isn't that a good thin…

Well, the one person in the state would get two senators and a representative, so that's one thing to consider.

But the state sized farm could straddle several states.

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#37

Post by ionforce »

clarkmoody wrote: post #12
rmason wrote: post #9

In Michigan we've already got family farms with a man, two sons and a single employee handling 10,000 acres. Robots driving tractors, trucks and combines would allow that to expand 5-6X. In turn that would lead to a reduction in farmers of up to 80%. This is a trend that has been running for close to a hundred years. Remember at one time a quarter of America's population were farmers and now it's under 2%.

The immense productivity gains in agriculture have driven down food costs, which improves the standard of living of everyone. It also frees up those who would have worked farm jobs to do higher-valued labor in the economy.

Like what labor? Are they skilled appropriately to fill what's actually in demand?

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#38

Post by bluGill »

tda wrote: post #27
rmason wrote: post #9

In Michigan we've already got family farms with a man, two sons and a single employee handling 10,000 acres. Robots driving tractors, trucks and combines would allow that to expand 5-6X. In turn that would lead to a reduction in farmers of up to 80%. This is a trend that has been running for close to a hundred years. Remember at one time a quarter of America's population were farmers and now it's under 2%.

managing giant monocultures with a few giant machines (that may or may not be human controlled) is not what this article is about; it is about the huge potential that smallish robots have for farming. More diverse crops, less pesticides, less damage to soil, less energy use, mixed instead of mono cultures. Really exciting if this takes off, such a win for the environment, the landscape, and ultimately for everyone of…

Unlike what you would expect, small robots do more damage to the soil not less. Damage to soil is not linear with mass, A massive robot will do twice as much damage where it touches the ground (wheel tracks most likely, but there are other choices), but it will touch 10 times less ground to do the same work so the total averaged over all the land is much better.

For the same reason, tracks generally end up doing more damage than wheels: you get somewhat less damage while going through the row, but they touch/damage far more ground when turning and that adds up.

Re: The rise of the robot farmer

#39

Post by wccrawford »

zackmorris wrote: post #35

Now for a bit of hubris: anyone else reading this feel that building a robot that could do pest/weed control and harvesting is almost a triviality compared to say, fixing enterprise software to maximize customer purchases and ad revenue? What are we all doing? Seriously, why can't each of us take a year of our lives and automate all the most awful jobs in the world? Asking for a friend :-P

See the XKCD comic about pictures in parks and kinds of birds.
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