By Zulema Chavez
Over the past several years, the U.S has grown dependent on illegal immigrant farm workers on the production of food . According to PEW Research Center illegal immigrants make-up an estimated amount of 17% on agricultural farms. That’s about 54,213,000 undocumented that “Cost U.S. taxpayers about $113 billion a year at the federal, state and local level…” http://www.fairus.org/publications/the-fiscal-burden-of-illegal-immigration-on-united-states-taxpayers. I believe that we can replace the need for illegal migrant worker with the use of innovative technology.
We live in a era where technology is at its peak. Industrial agriculture has already made a movement by using “Farm Robots”to help fruits. In 2004 Derek Morikawa, CEO of Vision Robotics, was approached by California Citrus Research Board to trail their two “robotic picker”. During the trail the robotic picker was able to locate all the oranges, and the second would pick them. Another example of technology replacing the need for an illegal migrant worker are on how we pick out lettuce. Blue river has came out with the “See and Spray” that uses video cameras and visual-recognition software to identify which lettuce plants to eliminate with a squirt of concentrated fertilizer that kills the unwanted buds while enriching the soil. http://www.bluerivert.com/. Replacing illegal migrant farm workers with technological machines, can provide relive any short of costly labor and increase quality of the fruit or vegetable leading to more consistent produce.
Source: Vision Robotics
In conclusion, with the advancement of technology farmers will be able to cut down on the use of illegal immigrant farm workers. I believe with the reinforcement and push farms will be able to replace more or less of the 54,213,000 undocumented workers.
More Sources:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/425278/down-on-the-farm-will-robots-replace-immigrant-labor/
http://www.fairus.org/publications/illegal-immigration-and-agribusiness
About the Author:
I am someone who likes to see other options.
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