Labor and Automation: Effects on Social Sustainability and Resilience in U.S. Agriculture

In 2020, farm workers were devastated by the first wave of Covid-19 infections, leaving owners of agricultural operations scrambling to get their produce to market, and spotlighting the dependence of specialty crop production (of fruits, vegetables, berries, tree nuts, horticultural goods) on laborers who work in difficult conditions on a daily basis. Even before the pandemic, specialty crop farms were having difficulty in hiring qualified workers willing to perform arduous work for the wages the industry was offering. With new capabilities in automation and artificial intelligence, some farms have been looking to robotics to assist in the harvest of specialty crops, raising questions about the effects of technology adoption on vulnerable workers and their jobs. The net social impact of automation on farmers, farm workers, and food production has long been a controversial subject.

To get an overview of trends in both labor and automation in U.S. agriculture, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will host a webinar on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 from Noon to 2:30 pm ET (via Zoom). The webinar will be the first in a series planned by the Academies’ Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources to explore the implications of automation on social sustainability and resilience in agriculture.

The public is invited to join the Board as it hears from four presenters who will set the stage for the webinar series.

Brief presentations from:

• Phil Martin, Professor Emeritus, Global Migration Center, University of California at Davis
• R. Karina Gallardo, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University, Puyallup
• Manoj Karkee, Associate Professor, Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Prosser
• Laurens Klerkx, Professor, Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Presentations will be followed by a panel of discussants:

• A.G. Kawamura, Owner, Orange County Produce, LLC
• Debbie Berkowitz, National Employment Law Project
• Victor Smith, JV Smith Companies
• Armando Elenes, Secretary-Treasurer, United Farm Workers
• Others, TBD