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True - but other aspects of your running costs (electricity, gas, rent, etc) will not increase, as I don't believe they depend on cheap labour. Interestingly (
by CodeGlitch 5y ago
True - but other aspects of your running costs (electricity, gas, rent, etc) will not increase, as I don't believe they depend on cheap labour.
Interestingly (can't find the reference right now), I've read that the high cost of labour in the UK contributed to the push for mechanisation of farming, which resulted in the industrial revolution (something we have all benefited from). In China, labour costs were (are?) so low that there was no reason to invent a farming machine, when you could pay a peasant to do the job for less.
So if this runs long term, we will see further automation of farming?
- neilwilson 5y agoThe UK will need to adopt the approaches in farming taken by the Dutch amongst others. The crops planted will be the ones more amenable to automation.
- Scoundreller 5y agoOr just better distribution. It’s not hard for an Apple picker to pick a few dollars worth of apples per minute at harvest time, but that’s the supermarket price, not what the farmer can sell them off for per bushel. I know picking isn’t the only cost, but it seems like the cost of picking doubling or trebling should have minute effect on profitability. Farmers need to get better at capturing the price that consumers are willing to pay. Somehow, farmers markets have become the place to pay premium prices instead of lower prices. Or convince consumers that a bit of scab on an apple is fine to eat and doesn’t need to be destined to make sauce or juice.