"Rudy Canoza" wrote in message
k.net...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Rudy Canoza" wrote in message
link.net...
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
"Rudy Canoza" wrote in message
link.net...

Are you ready for $8.00 per pound lettuce & broccoli?
I doubt it would go that high. I think those two crops, for one
things, are things that *do* lend themselves to more mechanization.
You can stop saying that now. It's getting old, and it is in no way
connected with the reality of how things grow.
I don't care if it's getting "old" or not. It is very *much* connected
with the reality of how some things grow.


Last time I'll type this: 2-3 years back, I got curious about this. I
contacted two farm machinery manufacturers and asked about this.
Identical response: If we could invent machines do address more needs,
you'd see them already. We'd love to, but...." Nobody has yet figured
out how to pick about half of what you see in the produce department.

I don't believe that for vegetables. Corn, beans, peas, carrots,
potatoes - those are all mechanically harvested. Pretty much every root
crop, and every crop where the entire plant is harvested, like the corn
and beans and peas.

A quick web search on "mechanical harvesters" showed a few I wouldn't have
thought existed: for sweet cherries, citrus and olives.


Any gardener can point out 20 vegetables that'll be ruined when handled
roughly.

So, I guess the prices of those things would have to rise as more
expensive domestic labor is used, wouldn't they?

How do you suppose Western Europeans get these crops harvested, given that
they don't have a large pool of illegally resident aliens equal to some
6-7% of their population to do it? Food prices in Europe are higher than
here, but they're not paying any $8.00 per pound for broccoli.


How do you think that would affect low income people?
Worse than it would affect higher income people. Most price increases
affect poor people more than rich people.

You're not suggesting that massive illegal immigration is countenanced
as a policy goal of providing cheap food for poor people, are you?

No, but is sure as hell is the way the economy has been structured over
the past 50-75 years.
The economy has not been "structured" in any such way, and large-scale
illegal immigration has not been going on for any 50-75 years.

Where do you come up with this crap, anyway?


When meat heads wail about throwing out migrant workers, they don't
consider that it'll take quite some time to adjust.
I don't know if it would or wouldn't. Personally, I'm not all that keen
to expel the illegally resident aliens who are here. I want to stop the
flow, and I want to get the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment to
be properly understood to get rid of the phenomenon of "anchor babies".


The biggest adjustment will be convincing people that someone has to do
"that kind of work",
No such adjustment is needed. People already understand that some
amount of labor is needed in agriculture.


and I don't care WHAT you pay them - you won't be able to accelerate
the cultural adjustment.
What kind of "cultural adjustment" is needed to make people understand
that labor-intensive work needs laborers for the work to get done? Are
you nuts?

I'll tell you what: Ask 20 teenagers if they'd be interested in working a
farm field when it's 93 degrees, and they have to bend over for 10 hours
cutting broccoli. Let me know what they say.

It would depend on the wage, wouldn't it?

I doubt it, but that's just me. I know people who refuse to ride a city bus
because ya know....there are (whispering) "those people - the kind that ride
buses a lot". I wonder if they'd want their kids working alongside "those
people" for any amount of money.