In my local supermarket, there are assorted items such as sweet peas from China and butternut squash from Guatemala that advertise in big letters on their labels that they are “Hand Harvested”. Every time I walk down that aisle, the label is under my skin.
I’ve been trying to figure out why they bother me. I am all for acknowledging the role of human labor, especially in the production of goods or services that one might think are now fully automated.In many cases, the critical role humans play is hidden or overlooked, such as low wage workers Who trains artificial intelligence systems or moderates content on social media. As AI begins to be used in places like Hollywood and newsrooms, it will be more important than ever to provide clients with clear information about the respective roles humans and machines play in productions.
But picking fruit and vegetables by hand is manual labor and repetitive work, even at the best of times. Gone are the days when students could spend their summer as they please, set their own pace and enjoy the sunshine. When the UK called on Brits to come to work on farms to help with the harvest in the 2020 pandemic year, few were able to stick around. One supplier put 450 people on the farm, and only 4% of them were still on duty at the end of the season.
What’s wrong with giving the job to a machine? One could argue that automation is exactly what the industry needs, especially in a country like the UK, where domestic labor shortages lead to a reliance on imports or seasonal migrant workers brought in on temporary visas who are vulnerable to their home countries. Exploitation by recruitment agencies.
For example, the number of Nepali workers arriving in the UK through the government’s seasonal worker visa scheme more than quadrupled to 2,472 last year, but farmers stopped recruiting from there this year after Nepalese agents warned they were charging exorbitant recruitment fees Worker. “Given the circumstances we’re in now, we desperately need more automation of horticultural production – it has to be better than importing labor from the other side of the world and all the problems that come with it,” said Martin Buttle, who leads the “More Nice job at CCLA Investment Management.”
It could be a long wait, though.recently launched by the government review A UK study of horticultural automation found a number of barriers preventing farmers from investing in technology, including low profit margins and a lack of certainty about future income. Some of the most labour-efficient developments may also need government help to move out of the “valley of death” – the stage between academia and commercialization where innovations can fail for lack of funding, the report said. The report predicts that if left to market forces, “self-selective harvesting” will not be commercialized until at least 2030.
Another thing that bothers me about those “hand harvested” labels is that they don’t provide enough information for the customer. If you’re going to comment on the use of manpower, shouldn’t you also provide some details on how these people are paid and under what conditions they work?
I emailed some photos of Spanish zucchini, Guatemalan butternut squash, and Chinese sweet peas labeled “Hand Harvested” to the co-op, the supermarket in question, asking for information about their respective suppliers. The Co-op didn’t give me details of any suppliers, but it sent a statement saying: “Harvested by Hand is printed on a small amount of fresh produce to inform customers that the produce was harvested undamaged. Take care of harvesting these in our supply chain Vegetables’ people are always a top priority, and we take an active leadership role in industry groups aimed at strengthening due diligence and helping to protect workers’ safety, welfare and working conditions.”
The Co-op is also a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, which told me the supermarket is “actively” involved in initiatives to improve working conditions in the supply chain and has “outperformed other supermarkets on transparency”.
That said, I think there should be some new ground rules if the use of human labor is to be a marketing plus point in an era of greater automation. Don’t brag about the people’s work unless you’re giving the client more information about the people. If you make the hands visible but keep the rest of the person invisible, somehow it feels more inhuman than not mentioning them at all.
sarah.oconnor@ft.com