Record Profits No Job Creator on Farms as Owners Automate

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-30/record-profits-no-job-creator-on-farms-as-owners-automate.html


Total planted acreage has risen seven of the past 10 years, the prices of corn and soybeans reached records last year, and profits for 2012 of $114 billion are estimated to be second only to 2011, even after the worst drought since the 1930s.

The property Kevin Liefer and his son, Kirk, cultivate in southern Illinois has been expanding for decades without adding a single manager. These are boom times for farming and a bust for farm jobs.

The 3,600 acres of mostly corn, wheat and soybeans the Liefers hold were about 30 separate, individually operated farms more than 40 years ago, said Kevin. As families left, the homesteads near Red Bud, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, melded into one operation.

Older tractors were replaced with models that cultivate more ground and serve as miniature offices, complete with global positioning systems that allow them to steer themselves. Mobile phones enable communication while in the fields.

“There’s so much more you can do now without as much labor,” said Kevin, 58. “The consolidation has been rapid.”

[dkf]

1. And manufacturing may be coming back to the US but with robots and minimal jobs.

I really wonder how we are supposed to absorb 11 million illegal immigrants plus our current unemployed into the job market. If anything I see MORE automation and loss of jobs.

[Lasher]

2. That is a good point.

On one hand we need a guest worker program to fill all those farming jobs that Americans don't want. On the other hand, there are no farming jobs. I suppose the truth must lie somewhere between these two opinions.

[The2ndWheel]

3. Pretty much only one thing to do

That's adapt to an automating world. Because nobody wants to be a Luddite.

[lunatica]

4. Then the price of their food should go down drastically

since they don't have to pay salaries.

Yeah, I know. I crack myself up sometimes too.

[fasttense]

5. Yes, factory farms are consolidating

So, what else is new. But not all farms are factory farms.

The article did mention the large immigrant population that travels across the US picking crops (though it only claims California uses immigrant labor) that no machine can pick. So, no, machines aren't really replacing jobs. What is happening is factory farms are buying out family farms and converting to mono-crops like corn and soybean. Yes the acreage increases but those factory farms were NOT going to hire any people besides immigrants anyway. Factory farms are mechanized single crop or single animal product farms. They are more like factories betting that they can always sell their corn or beef to the USDA at a subsidized prices (that means you the tax payer are paying factory farms an inflated price for them to unload their GMO crap on school lunches).

The only reason these mono-crop farms can survive is because the USDA forces schools to buy the crap that factory farms unload on us. Remember the good old days when local farmers provided the food to the schools? Well that market has been legislated to factory farms. Many schools are NOT allowed to buy local and are required by law to buy the crap the federal government needs a dumping ground for.

So it isn't those overpriced monster combines that are doing away with jobs. It's the factory mentality of agribusiness along with a little help from the USDA.

Besides, do you think one of those huge monster machines will work in the mountains? Do you think those belching monsters would be gentle enough for heirloom carrots, grapes, and gooseberries?

So, along with consolidation of factory farms comes the consolidating of crops, whittling down of the varieties of foods available to eat.

What a very stupid way to run a countries food supply. No wonder so many Americas are so hugely fat.