Lack of migrant workers left food rotting in UK fields last year, data reveals

I think we need to accept that there are many processes that robots just can not do. I find it fascinating watching How its Made or Inside the Factor where you have some of the most advanced production lines in the world, but it is still a person who takes them of the conveyor belt and puts them in a box / palette / truck.

The irony is that it is going to be white collar workers that suffer the scourge of automation whilst low paid workers will be generally unaffected. You can't make a robot clean a hotel room for example, but you can replace the hotel manager to an extent.

You'd be surprised at what automation can do these days, but the capital costs are high. I read an interesting article recently which said that Brexit may actually make our economy more like that of France or Germany - in both countries the cost of hiring (and especially firing) is comparatively high, and so levels of automation are higher, leading to higher productivity but with the penalty of fewer jobs. The situation in the UK at present is that it's relatively easy and cheap to hire low skilled workers, so there is less incentive to invest large amounts of capital in automation. If and when labour becomes harder to hire there will be an increase in automation.

True. But it is regulation that causes the costs of hiring to be high. In the UK we are very much of the American, low regulation model. I would imagine that if demand outstrips supply, the government will simply cave in and allow more immigrants to come, just as they have done for the last 20 years. Except they are more likely to be non-EU migrants. Just what the Brexiteers want eh?

Also in the article were some British farmers were moving production overseas some to China so better get those trade talks underway so we can import strawberries that we used to grow in this country before Brexit.

I expect a lot of producers that are making stuff in Britain will look at the difficulties hiring workers after Brexit and decide its more profitable to move production to cheaper countries and import the products from all those countries like India we will have trade deals with.

Exclusive: Brexit fears and falling pound left fruit and vegetable farms short of more than 4,000 workers, with senior MPs warning of a ‘crisis’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/09/lack-of-migrant-workers-left-food-rotting-in-uk-fields-last-year-data-reveals



Come on Leave voters. This is what you have been waiting for. Time to get up and take these jobs. British jobs for british people.

Where are all the fat middle aged gammons volenteering to do these jobs?

I shant be doing these jobs as I don;t want to be getting up at 4am to pic fruit for some farmer. But then again, I didn't vote Leave and I am not against immigration. I don't see why it is up to me to fill the gap made by blokes who think they fought in the war

I propose a third solution. Lets automate these processes. Come on farmers. It seems you can no longer rely on exploiting eastern europeans to make your profit. Lets see some of this capitalist inovation I hear so much about.

Not in the article I posted???



You're presumably aware that this was happening well before Brexit? Twinings even used a £10 million EU grant to effectively move a factory from England to Poland (which was an abuse of the grant and lead to the grant being denied, but the jobs in the UK had already been lost). I know Cadbury's moved a factory from Bristol to Poland as well, despite promising they wouldn't. I'm not strongly pro- or anti-Brexit, but some on the remain side are just as delusional as some on the leave side.

They need to start paying a decent wage if they want british people to get up at 4am and go pick fruit

if fruit are left in the fields it's because greedy employers can't find enough desperate migrants to work for a pittance

raise the wages and british people will come.....

It is indeed regulation that causes hiring to be more expensive, but if a shortage of labour causes labour costs to increase (basic supply and demand) then that effectively leads to the same situation and increases the incentive to automate.

As for getting people to do it, there is a simple solution and that is to take away benefits from those unwilling to work,

British farmer moves fruit-growing to China over Brexit uncertainty

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/11/british-farmer-moves-fruit-growing-to-china-over-brexit-uncertainty

I'm not sure this is going to help the working class leave vote. Or that they voted leave with the intention of moving more jobs to China.

With a turnover exceeding 100 million that british farmer is almost certainly a rich multi millionaire

he can afford to pay people a decent wage, he just doesn't want to because he'll get a few less million

it's GREED making him relocate

what did farmers do before were had tons of immigrants here?

they paid british folk to man the fields.

Exclusive: Brexit fears and falling pound left fruit and vegetable farms short of more than 4,000 workers, with senior MPs warning of a ‘crisis’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/09/lack-of-migrant-workers-left-food-rotting-in-uk-fields-last-year-data-reveals



Come on Leave voters. This is what you have been waiting for. Time to get up and take these jobs. British jobs for british people.

Where are all the fat middle aged gammons volenteering to do these jobs?

I shant be doing these jobs as I don;t want to be getting up at 4am to pic fruit for some farmer. But then again, I didn't vote Leave and I am not against immigration. I don't see why it is up to me to fill the gap made by blokes who think they fought in the war

I propose a third solution. Lets automate these processes. Come on farmers. It seems you can no longer rely on exploiting eastern europeans to make your profit. Lets see some of this capitalist inovation I hear so much about.

The farmers that are ‘exploiting’ low wage Easy European workers could simply offer a competitive wage for pickers.

The title of this article should read, farmers let food rot rather than pay someone a decent wage to pick it.

The EU is still there, you have a long family ancestry here in the UK? Some financial interest that requires you stay?

My guess is no, I’d be willing to bet you are the child of immigrants that is openly sneering at the indigenous populations desire for autonomy like some sort of elitist colonialist. Tell me if I’m wrong. And tell me why you aren’t leaving for the EU, or even, your home continent.

Except that the margins in agriculture are squeezed so much by the supermarkets that they can't. Even if the supermarkets increased what they paid that cost would be passed on to the consumer, who'd then buy the product produced more cheaply overseas. Generally, people are more than happy with the idea of workers being paid more but baulk at the idea of actually paying more themselves.

This is where captalism shines, the competitive nature of the financial model spurs inventiveness and drives down prices.