A commenter on a post of mine at Grist speculated that:

Elimination of GMO crops, pesticides and herbicides is going to take robotic organic farming, it's just too hard to grow grain and soybeans on an industrial ag scale with human labor.

So I thought I'd look into it. And yes, according to Wired, it's real.

Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season.

Someone claims to have a tomato picking robot, but I can't find any video. This is all just so wrong. First they pick our apples and oranges. And then they enslave us. Mark my words.

Photo: Vision Robotics

Labels: farming