4 ms·

Hand-harvestable-only crops like lettuce and tomatoes. Basically the CA Central Valley.

Alex3917 9y ago
Interesting. Between farm labor automation and self-driving cars, do you foresee a point where it's cost effective to give certain foods away for free and monetize via advertising? Even if it's slightly offbeat stuff like dandelion greens and seaweed or whatever?
- prawn 9y ago
  If anyone wants to eat thistles, I'll give those away... Oxalis too.
  - Alex3917 9y ago
    > If anyone wants to eat thistles, I'll give those away. How do they actually taste? I know they're in the artichoke family, but I've never actually dug one up or whatever.
    - prawn 9y ago
      Never tried them, but they are a painful weed here, grow quickly and seed very easily. We used to give the seed heads to our canary once upon a time, but currently have hundreds of thistles to zero canaries. Perhaps if they could be blended and used as a base for bread or cakes, but I have no idea if they're safe in large quantities.
      - Alex3917 9y ago
        > I have no idea if they're safe in large quantities. Good point, for most foraged stuff you definitely don't want it to make up more than a certain percentage of your diet. Not only because of the plants themselves, but also because it's hard to know how much heavy metals and other toxins they absorb. You should be fine treating it as a normal vegetable because it's known to be safe in those quantities, I just wouldn't eat it every meal for a week.
xefer 9y ago
I wonder if there will come a time when buying food harvested by stoop labor will be considered immoral. Perhaps human diets should target foods that can be produced through mechanization where possible.
- mikepurvis 9y ago
  But lettuce and tomatoes are delicious. Hence the interest in figuring out to do it robotically, either in the field or greenhouse.
  - njarboe 9y ago
    Some types of tomatoes can be pick with machines. Here is a video from New Zealand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EpFTyN26E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EpFTyN26E
njarboe 9y ago
The Salinas valley is where most of the lettuce comes from. Quite a bit cooler than the central valley. Baby greens harvesting is highly automated. A nice picture here: http://www.hortech.it/en/cp/agricultural-machineries-for-harvest/ http://www.hortech.it/en/cp/agricultural-machineries-for-har...

Interesting. Between farm labor automation and self-driving cars, do you foresee a point where it's cost effective to give certain foods away for free and monetize via advertising? Even if it's slightly offbeat stuff like dandelion greens and seaweed or whatever?

prawn 9y ago
If anyone wants to eat thistles, I'll give those away... Oxalis too.
- Alex3917 9y ago
  > If anyone wants to eat thistles, I'll give those away. How do they actually taste? I know they're in the artichoke family, but I've never actually dug one up or whatever.
  - prawn 9y ago
    Never tried them, but they are a painful weed here, grow quickly and seed very easily. We used to give the seed heads to our canary once upon a time, but currently have hundreds of thistles to zero canaries. Perhaps if they could be blended and used as a base for bread or cakes, but I have no idea if they're safe in large quantities.
    - Alex3917 9y ago
      > I have no idea if they're safe in large quantities. Good point, for most foraged stuff you definitely don't want it to make up more than a certain percentage of your diet. Not only because of the plants themselves, but also because it's hard to know how much heavy metals and other toxins they absorb. You should be fine treating it as a normal vegetable because it's known to be safe in those quantities, I just wouldn't eat it every meal for a week.

xefer 9y ago

I wonder if there will come a time when buying food harvested by stoop labor will be considered immoral. Perhaps human diets should target foods that can be produced through mechanization where possible.

mikepurvis 9y ago
But lettuce and tomatoes are delicious. Hence the interest in figuring out to do it robotically, either in the field or greenhouse.
- njarboe 9y ago
  Some types of tomatoes can be pick with machines. Here is a video from New Zealand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EpFTyN26E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EpFTyN26E

njarboe 9y ago

The Salinas valley is where most of the lettuce comes from. Quite a bit cooler than the central valley. Baby greens harvesting is highly automated. A nice picture here: http://www.hortech.it/en/cp/agricultural-machineries-for-harvest/ http://www.hortech.it/en/cp/agricultural-machineries-for-har...