
Farmworkers key to keeping US fed are wary of virus spread - jelliclesfarm
https://apnews.com/647a445d026527acdc2848a740666d38
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jennyyang
We need to figure out protocols as a society so that things like farms, food
supply chains and other critical services are not disrupted by this epidemic.
Things like test every single farm worker for the virus and keep them isolated
during harvest season. Have onsite quarantine facilities, maybe even have the
military come in and help with containment and quaratining.

Oh yeah, also PAY THEM A LOT BETTER. Also, where are these 15 mins tests that
we have been talking about for months? We need these before we can start
implementing any sort of procedures to help restart our economies.

Unfortunately food prices will have to go up, which will affect the poor, but
not as badly as if the supply chains are completely disrupted and food prices
skyrocket.

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jelliclesfarm
Even if would pay more, as long as our population keeps increasing, it won’t
work out.

The only solution is automation of most Ag operations, create many more
decentralized food production/distribution hubs that is more sustainable. Food
security necessarily means assured labour supply.

No one wants their kids to be farm labourers. As we educate more of the world
population, why would they come to the field and do manual labour? We need Ag
robots and automated platforms of all sizes for farms at different scales.
Farm labour is implicitly exploitative.

The only solution is automation and reducing manual labour/labour costs for
food crops.

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jdjrkk90
Reality has a way of not giving a crap about what parents want.

Why can’t people be laborers regarding their basic needs some times, and
academics sometimes?

It’s a pretty traditional values “I am king now and forever” notion to think
one life one career.

There’s nothing biological preventing a rotation between work over our lives.

And many philosophers too have warned about division of labor making for a
society of ignorant humans. Following orders rather than their curiosity.

IMO first worlders who can should. You’re not a god and the billions that
outnumber us are catching up fast. Pointing big guns at them and saying “lol,
no” isn’t gonna work forever.

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jelliclesfarm
Why don’t we want manual labourers?

Because they are weaker and less efficient than machines.

If I had the choice and can afford to choose between a person picking fruit
and a machine picking fruit, I will pick the machine.

A human will get sick. A machine won’t.

A human needs breaks and insurance and have to be paid. Machines don’t.

If a human is broken, a life is affected. If a machine breaks down, it can be
repaired and sent to the fields to work again.

Also, I can depreciate a machine as a deduction. When a human ‘depreciates’
for someone to profit from that, it is a crime against our own species.

I am a god in my farm because I own it. I don’t know any farmer who would pick
unreliable, easily breakable, under paid(if they have a conscience, it should
bother them) human worker over reliable machines because the prime directive
of a business is to stay viable and profitable. The farmer wants to make a
profit and hopefully in an ethical and sustainable manner.

Human workers for repetitive manual unskilled jobs is not sustainable.

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_bxg1
Before you panic, what I heard when this came up about Europe is that it only
applies to "luxury crops". Certain fresh fruits and vegetables; not basics
like grains. The latter are easy to harvest with minimal labor. It isn't good,
but nobody's at risk of starvation.

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teeray
What about the second order effects though? Even if it’s a luxury crop, those
are calories that will have to be consumed elsewhere, putting strain on the
basics. Maybe we can turn up production on those, but what if we can’t? It
could prime us for a cascading failure.

~~~
_bxg1
Another thing someone pointed out is that we feed grains to cattle. If
livestock started declining for reasons like these, there would be excess
grain for humans.

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jelliclesfarm
Grain grown for feed and fodder is inedible for humans.

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laurex
My parents mentioned that farmers in their area are offering to let "regular
people" who have the time come and help with harvesting with social distancing
measures in place, with the bonus of taking home farm fresh items.

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jelliclesfarm
This is not a viable business model. And fraught with liability. Not to
mention risky.

Any business that have to resort to volunteerism to survive..or ‘gofundme’
...Or any business that needs works risking their health by exposing
themselves to covid are those in an industry that MUST be automated

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grognak420
Get the military to start farming

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pvaldes
... or send farmers to fight in wars, the result will be the same.

Army would not make good farmers for many reasons. Too different goals and
sensibilities.

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_bxg1
Link is broken

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jelliclesfarm
[https://www-sfgate-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.sfgate.com...](https://www-
sfgate-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.sfgate.com/news/medical/amp/Farmworkers-
key-to-keeping-US-fed-are-wary-of-15163600.php) : this should work?

~~~
dang
Sorry! This looks like a case where our software failed to rewrite an AMP URL
correctly. The correct URL would be
[https://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/Farmworkers-
key-...](https://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/Farmworkers-key-to-
keeping-US-fed-are-wary-of-15163600.php).

However, that page autoplays a video, so I googled the title and found one
which doesn't instead.

