3 ms·

I am up for doing some fruit picking if it can be organized correctly. The strategy of allowing in migrant labour would be a political fiasco.

beberlei 7y ago
There is a platform for Germany by the ministry of agriculture organizing it and it seems they had 30k prospects last week: www.daslandhilft.de - one problem as I understood is that this is not all unskilled laborer work, but the there is quite some machinery involved where skilled personal is required.
avip 7y ago
My experience organizing groups for picking tells me this feel good effort doesn't work.
- nicoburns 7y ago
  I'd be interested to hear more about what you think will go wrong. It seems like this is an important problem to solve.
  - KarlKemp 7y ago
    Search for images or videos of asparagus or strawberry picking. Or try holding small bottles of water in each hand, bend over with your arms stretched out, hold for 8 hours.
    - balola 7y ago
      Also the standards, produce being wasted too much.
  - avip 7y ago
    <disclaimer: have been volunteering for an org fighting food waste by organizing volunteer pickers> It's simpler than you think. 1. Commercially viable picking actually requires some training (identify pickable fruits, avoid damaging plants, don't half pick) 2. Farmers (rightfully) don't like people who have no knowledge in growing crops hanging around in their fields. They just do dumb things like drink from irrigation pipes (for some crops irrigation is periodically mixed with fertilizer or pesticides). 3. Volunteers are not trustworthy. You have 30 RSVP-ed and 5 show up. Picking season is usually a narrow window of opportunity. 4. Most importantly - the vast majority of people (from the subset of human race who may volunteer for picking in the first place) really don't know how to work consistently for 8-10 hours. They show up 8 AM (3h too late), then they sit down to drink coffee. Your equation is 10 volunteers ~ 1 professional labourer. And then you have to bring professional labour anyhow to clean after them. All in all, this doesn't work.
    - nicoburns 7y ago
      Hmm... So I wonder if this could be ameliorated by: 1. Paying people rather than recruiting volunteers. Presumably the normal pickers would be paid, so there should be funds available for this assuming that the right people can be found. 2. Recruiting and training people well ahead of time. This would give time for at least some level of training. The initial training could be online in video form so as to avoid wasting too much time for those overseeing the process. 3. Some kind of app to facilitate the process. This could potentially allow growers to reach a much wider audience. It could also help with the time-sensitive nature of the problem ("pickers required at X place now"). There are a lot of people out of work at the moment. It seems that diverting some of these people to food picking would be a win for everyone if it could be achieved.
KarlKemp 7y ago
You missed the part where it was always migrant labor that did this work? The article is specifically about the fiasco of not letting in these people. Or, more accurately, these people saying “no thanks” to the prospect of working for minimum wage while risking their lives.

beberlei 7y ago

There is a platform for Germany by the ministry of agriculture organizing it and it seems they had 30k prospects last week: www.daslandhilft.de - one problem as I understood is that this is not all unskilled laborer work, but the there is quite some machinery involved where skilled personal is required.

avip 7y ago

My experience organizing groups for picking tells me this feel good effort doesn't work.

nicoburns 7y ago
I'd be interested to hear more about what you think will go wrong. It seems like this is an important problem to solve.
- KarlKemp 7y ago
  Search for images or videos of asparagus or strawberry picking. Or try holding small bottles of water in each hand, bend over with your arms stretched out, hold for 8 hours.
  - balola 7y ago
    Also the standards, produce being wasted too much.
- avip 7y ago
  <disclaimer: have been volunteering for an org fighting food waste by organizing volunteer pickers> It's simpler than you think. 1. Commercially viable picking actually requires some training (identify pickable fruits, avoid damaging plants, don't half pick) 2. Farmers (rightfully) don't like people who have no knowledge in growing crops hanging around in their fields. They just do dumb things like drink from irrigation pipes (for some crops irrigation is periodically mixed with fertilizer or pesticides). 3. Volunteers are not trustworthy. You have 30 RSVP-ed and 5 show up. Picking season is usually a narrow window of opportunity. 4. Most importantly - the vast majority of people (from the subset of human race who may volunteer for picking in the first place) really don't know how to work consistently for 8-10 hours. They show up 8 AM (3h too late), then they sit down to drink coffee. Your equation is 10 volunteers ~ 1 professional labourer. And then you have to bring professional labour anyhow to clean after them. All in all, this doesn't work.
  - nicoburns 7y ago
    Hmm... So I wonder if this could be ameliorated by: 1. Paying people rather than recruiting volunteers. Presumably the normal pickers would be paid, so there should be funds available for this assuming that the right people can be found. 2. Recruiting and training people well ahead of time. This would give time for at least some level of training. The initial training could be online in video form so as to avoid wasting too much time for those overseeing the process. 3. Some kind of app to facilitate the process. This could potentially allow growers to reach a much wider audience. It could also help with the time-sensitive nature of the problem ("pickers required at X place now"). There are a lot of people out of work at the moment. It seems that diverting some of these people to food picking would be a win for everyone if it could be achieved.

KarlKemp 7y ago

You missed the part where it was always migrant labor that did this work? The article is specifically about the fiasco of not letting in these people. Or, more accurately, these people saying “no thanks” to the prospect of working for minimum wage while risking their lives.