| That's so funny. I actually do have a story about alfafa(which I will narrate separately after this). First: I agree. Automation of driving is important but so is tech in farming. Like I said before, it's not a competition. Why not both? My gripe is that they want to get to farming automation after driving automation is perfected. Which seems wrong to me because they are looking at farm bot tech as a vehicle. As a farmer, I feel that it's entirely wrong approach. But that's my experience and opinion. Ymmv. Secondly: farm production is semi automated for commodity food production. Can you live on grain alone? Can you live on sugar alone? Soy and corn are produced for livestock feed and for ethanol. You say human labour is cheaper than machines. It makes me cringe. What about the human potential of the Mexican labourers picking strawberries and destroying his health? What about the thousands of farmer children who are sick from pesticide residue and dust pollution from excessive tilling? What about thousands of farmers and neighbours with asthma and auto immune disease just because they live in a rural area that gets tilled hence releasing fungal soil spores and orchards are sprayed. Food and it's production is cheap only because the terrible price we pay for it is invisible. You see the human potential being saved because of drivers autonomous cars can do something else. I see human potential being saved when a labourers doing repetitive manual tasks bent over and their spines vibrating from tractor driving(which btw isn't cheap..) are free to do other things. People who don't own state subsidied massive farms or have money to buy their own land are bonded labour. It is no different from slave labour. Farmers aren't interested in it because no one has presented them with a viable produce. If I had a row crawling weeder, I will produce more and make more money. If I am presented with a million dollar automated tractor that I don't understand, can't afford and won't fully replace all my labour needs, why would I even look at it? There isn't enough done for ag tech and what is being done isn't appropriate technology. Farmers are the 'technical lead' because what we know about soil ecology and plants and methods is the technical nuts and bolts. MBAs and money guys and engineers are designing and creating farm tech which when I showed to real farmers invited peals of laughter. It's just not appropriate tech because engineers are not farmers. We speak different languages. And food production IS a problem. We bring in a lot. California feeds a lot of USA and we are paying for it..a terrible price. Florida grows tomatoes on sand and pesticides. The rest of USA will pay for it. Ok. Alfalfa story coming up. It's not a funny story but rather an outrageous one. Sorry..I have some pending chores and will be back with it soon! Watch this space! |