The pandemic is making robots more appealing to farmers and investors. But advocates say not everyone is likely to benefit equally from the shift.
It’s a misty morning near Salinas, California and the TX harvester—a lightweight, driverless tractor covered in canvas—is picking strawberries. Like a dot-matrix printer moving along a page, the harvester’s robotic hands move back and forth along the beds, scanning for signs of red. When it identifies a ripe berry, it dives down, gently plucks it from the plant, and places it in a crate.
At the same time, a crew of about two dozen farmworkers […]
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