Robots Are Rapidly Replacing Immigrant Farm Workers

The rationale for immigrant workers has always been “we need them for jobs American’s won’t do.” Within 10 years, 90 percent of human labor on farms and will be replaced by robots. So, where are the 30 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. working these days? Certainly not on farms. ⁃ TN Editor

As a boy, Abel Montoya remembers his father arriving home from the lettuce fields each evening, the picture of exhaustion, mud caked knee-high on his trousers. “Dad wanted me to stay away from manual labor. He was keen for me to stick to the books,” Mr. Montoya said. So he did, and went to college.

Yet Mr. Montoya, a 28-year-old immigrant’s son, recently took a job at a lettuce-packing facility, where it is wet, loud, freezing — and much of the work is physically taxing, even mind-numbing.

Now, though, he can delegate some of the worst work to robots.

Mr. Montoya is among a new generation of farmworkers here at Taylor Farms, one of the world’s largest producers and sellers of fresh-cut vegetables, which recently unveiled a fleet of robots designed to replace humans — one of the agriculture industry’s latest answers to a diminishing supply of immigrant labor.

The smart machines can assemble 60 to 80 salad bags a minute, double the output of a worker.

Enlisting robots made sound economic sense, Taylor Farms officials said, for a company seeking to capitalize on Americans’ insatiable appetite for healthy fare at a time when it cannot recruit enough people to work in the fields or the factory.

A decade ago, people lined up by the hundreds for jobs at packing houses in California and Arizona during the lettuce season. No more.

“Our work force is getting older,” said Mark Borman, chief operating officer of Taylor Farms. “We aren’t attracting young people to our industry. We aren’t getting an influx of immigrants. How do we deal with that? Innovation.”

Moving up the technology ladder creates higher-skilled positions that can attract young people like Mr. Montoya, who is finishing a computer science degree, and bolster retention of veteran employees who receive new training to advance their careers.

“We are making better jobs that we hope appeal to a broader range of people,” Mr. Borman said.

In a 2017 survey of farmers by the California Farm Bureau Federation, 55 percent reported labor shortages, and the figure was nearly 70 percent for those who depend on seasonal workers. Wage increases in recent years have not compensated for the shortfall, growers said.

Strawberry operations in California, apple orchards in Washington and dairy farms across the country are struggling with the consequences of a shrinking, aging, foreign-born work force; a crackdown at the border; and the failure of Congress to agree on an immigration overhaul that could...

Morning Mistress

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #447

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside? 

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific, 

from the beautiful to the repugnant, 

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed, 

you could be inspired, you could be appalled. 

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. 

You have been warned.

Hot Pick Of The Late Night - Smoking Hot RedHead

Drugs smuggled from Mexico are killing Americans

AMERICA FIRST 🔴 President Trump EXPLOSIVE Press Briefing on Saudis, Ivanka Email ..

NowThis Goes Explicitly ANTI-WHITE

Girls With Guns

The Crybaby Amendment...

Germany's Merkel faces mass protest in Chemnitz even as police censor latest rape

A German woman is said to have been attacked in a hallway and repeatedly raped in the city of Chemnitz this week. The news was censored ahead of Chancellor Merkel's visit.

The Criminal Investigation Department has taken over the investigation, but so far the media has not reported on the terrible deed. The process has been classified by the police as off-limits to the media, according to David Berger from the blog Philosophia Perennis.

On Tuesday November 13 at 9 pm, a woman with severe visual impairment is said to have been in the hallway of an apartment building in the Sonnenberg district. The alleged migrant perpetrator had lurked there. When the disabled woman arrived, the 38 year old assaulted and raped the victim twice. The Syrian asylum seeker then the fled the scene.

David Berger approached the police in Chemnitz wanting to know who the alleged victim is, whether the alleged perpetrator is still on the run and why there was no press release from the police.

Andrzej Rydzik, the deputy spokesman of the police department of Chemnitz confirmed investigations into the alleged rape to Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit. “For investigative tactical reasons and above all for reasons of victim protection, there was no mention in any of our media information,” said Rydzik. “The suspect is known.”

The news of the rape was censored ahead of the Chancellor is visiting the city, which was once again rocked by protest. People had taken to the streets of the German city of Chemnitz on Friday to rally against the government’s migration policy and to demand that Chancellor Angela Merkel step down.

The Friday rally was organised by the Pro Chemnitz movement, with protesters chanting “No truth in Merkel’s propaganda” and “Merkel must go”. According to a Sputnik correspondent’s estimate, the rally numbered some 1500 people. On Twitter the same number was noted.

#ProChemnitz ist zurück am Platz neben dem Karl-Marx-Monument. Die Versammlung löst sich nun langsam auf. Insgesamt dürften sich zwischen 1000-1500 Personen an dem Anti-Merkel-Protest beteiligt haben, so schätzen Kollegen. Wir machen für heute Schluss. pic.twitter.com/tHFMHx0Ftc

— ENDSTATION RECHTS. (@ER_MV) November 16, 2018

“There is a European solution — that is the Dublin agreement [stipulating that asylum seekers must be processed in the country of their first arrival]. Merkel failed to implement it, in contrast, she made it invalid,” one of the speakers told the cheering crowd.

In an attempt to smear conservatives and anti-immigrationists, Merkel engaged in what she called a “civil dialogue” by ironically excluding her critics from the debate.

She then fraudulently claimed that the feeling of insecurity was only “subjective” and was not supported by any police data. But an annual report — Criminality in the Context of Migration [Kriminalität im Kontext von Zuwanderung] — published by the Federal Criminal Police Office [Bundeskriminalamt, BKA] on April 27 revealed an increase of nearly 500 percent in migrant sex crimes during the past four years. Those are defined as sexual assaults as well as rapes and sexual abuse of children. While spouting off about “dialogue” Merkel herself appeared totally unwilling to engage with her political opponents, branding them as...

..And Then The Government Took All The Assault Guns Away And...

Another Company Throwing Its Weight Behind Gun Control

Once upon a time, it was difficult for people to know the politics of the men and women behind the corporations of the world. We didn’t know and, frankly, we rarely cared. They made a product, we bought the product, and if we liked the product, we bought more of it. That was the natural order of things.

But in this day and age, politics is life for people. It’s become imperative that companies let the politics of the people leading it serve as a flag for all to see. It’s gone from a thing to be avoided to something of a marketing gimmick.

It’s because of that kind of thing that we see yet another company become blatantly anti-gun.

Affecting change can be a time consuming and, unfortunately, expensive process, especially where the federal government is concerned. But this week, one company has decided to help cover costs. On Tuesday, TOMS pledged $5 million to gun violence prevention organizations, and also announced its plan to promote civic activism among its customers.

“I think totally, within my lifetime, I’ve seen a shift in corporate social responsibility,” National Student Walkout organizer Winter Minissee, who is working on the campaign, tells Bustle. “Before, lots of corporations and [grant providers] weren’t necessarily standing up for issues that could be…divisive, or had anything to do with politics. It was kind of a forbidden land.”

She says that seeing a company tackle a political issue in the face of potential risks and backlash was inspiring, and that she hopes other companies will follow suit. TOMS said in a press release that the money will be split among groups like The Black and Brown Gun Violence Prevention Consortium, Everytown for Gun Safety, Faith in Action, Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence, Live Free, March for Our Lives, and Moms Demand Action.

“We can’t afford to wait, so TOMS is following the lead of activists, students, and organizations and taking action to help end gun violence,” Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS, tells Bustle. “We are proud to evolve our giving model and use all of our resources — our voices, our platform and our supporters —to amplify the urgency and do our part to end this horrific epidemic in America.”

TOMS follows Levi Strauss as companies fly their anti-gun banner high and proud. Unlike Levi Strauss, TOMS doesn’t have an image that’s particularly tied to a pro-gun lifestyle in any way, shape, or form. Let’s face it; TOMS makes ugly, overpriced shoes that have always been more likely to appeal to the leftist Antifa supporter than someone who’s carrying a...