Robots Take Over Italy's Vineyards as Wineries Struggle With Covid-19 Worker Shortages (wsj.com) 49
Italian winemakers have increasingly relied on migrant workers for the autumn harvest, but travel restrictions and soaring wage costs are pushing many to turn to machines. From a report: Last year's grape harvest was a harrowing scramble at Mirko Cappelli's Tuscan vineyard. With the Italian border closed because of the pandemic, the Eastern European workers he had come to rely on couldn't get into the country. The company he had contracted to supply grape pickers had no one to offer him. He ultimately found just enough workers to bring the grapes in on time. So, this year Mr. Cappelli made sure he wouldn't face the same problem: He spent â85,000, equivalent to $98,000, on a grape-harvesting machine. The coronavirus pandemic is pushing the wine industry toward automation.
Covid-related travel restrictions left severe shortages of agricultural workers last year, as Eastern Europeans and North Africans were unable to reach fields in Western Europe. Though the shortages have eased this year, the difficulty of finding workers has accelerated the shift, which was already under way across the agricultural sector. While harvests of some crops, like soybeans and corn, are already heavily automated, winemakers have been slower to make the switch. Vintners debate whether automated harvesting is more likely to damage grapes, which can affect the quality of the wine. The cost is a deterrent for many small farmers. Some European regions even ban machine harvesting.
For many vintners in Europe and the U.S., however, the difficulty of finding workers -- a problem they say had grown steadily for years but became acute during the pandemic -- has pushed them to take the robot plunge. It is a change that will outlast the pandemic and could shift longstanding migration patterns that bring tens of thousands of foreign workers to Italy, France and Spain for agricultural harvests each year. Ritano Baragli, president of Cantina Sociale colli Fiorentini Valvirgilio, a winemaker's group in Tuscany, said it has been getting harder to find pickers for several years, as locals increasingly shun the physically demanding, low-paid, short-term work while the demand for pickers has increased. But last year was the worst labor shortage of his half-century career in wine. Use of harvesting machines among the group's members increased 20% this year in response, he said.
Covid-related travel restrictions left severe shortages of agricultural workers last year, as Eastern Europeans and North Africans were unable to reach fields in Western Europe. Though the shortages have eased this year, the difficulty of finding workers has accelerated the shift, which was already under way across the agricultural sector. While harvests of some crops, like soybeans and corn, are already heavily automated, winemakers have been slower to make the switch. Vintners debate whether automated harvesting is more likely to damage grapes, which can affect the quality of the wine. The cost is a deterrent for many small farmers. Some European regions even ban machine harvesting.
For many vintners in Europe and the U.S., however, the difficulty of finding workers -- a problem they say had grown steadily for years but became acute during the pandemic -- has pushed them to take the robot plunge. It is a change that will outlast the pandemic and could shift longstanding migration patterns that bring tens of thousands of foreign workers to Italy, France and Spain for agricultural harvests each year. Ritano Baragli, president of Cantina Sociale colli Fiorentini Valvirgilio, a winemaker's group in Tuscany, said it has been getting harder to find pickers for several years, as locals increasingly shun the physically demanding, low-paid, short-term work while the demand for pickers has increased. But last year was the worst labor shortage of his half-century career in wine. Use of harvesting machines among the group's members increased 20% this year in response, he said.
Not robots (Score:3)
The usual.
1. They want to pay little for hard yet essential work. No right to complain.
2. Machines are not as dexterous, so they can only pick hardier, less demanding types of grapes. In that way they replace pickers at the bottom end of the grape market, so they do relieve the labor shortage.
3. But lower end grapes make cheaper wine, so the machines need to be cheaper than human workers too. Which is usually not the case.
4. Once borders open, all of this will be solved by bringing in more cheap labor from abroad, as it has been before (and will likely continue).
P.S. Admittedly, I don't get wine. The weirder and sour-er the taste, the more expensive it is. Give me umeshu any day :/
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Well Slashdotters have always labelled these kind of jobs "undesirable" and a useful justification for unfettered progress and automation. And why not, those "useful" jobs are always going to be plentiful, just need some expensive education to getting in. Naturally wage deflation will not happen nor "they taking mah job" from those already established.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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See this, people? That's exactly the kind of snarky remarks that makes reading Slashdot worthwhile.
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... but someone told me, the market will *always* correct itself and new jobs will be found - just like we have infinite mineral resources for infinite growth, on our planet.
I didn't buy that at the time, but, you know, I'm told by experts that human advancements that result in former jobs being made redundant, *always* balance out, right?
That new job types are formed - and that you just can't know the future, so don't look at NOW - those new jobs will magically appear.
I got confused about this, I looked th
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You completely misunderstand the problem.
The problem is not a lack of jobs for workers but a lack of workers for the jobs.
There is no problem "finding" jobs for the ex-grape-pickers.
The problem is that these people have already found better jobs and are no longer willing to pick grapes.
Re: Not robots (Score:2)
So what do you do about it, pay people for not having skills of any value? Like a basic income someone could live on without a job?
Or do you make work for them? Like ten fewer grape pickers is ten more car waxers and iMac polishers.
You have to pick, you can't just bitch about unskilled jobs going away, you can't make people make jobs. The government could make some BS jobs though, ok that's another choice.
So pick.
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Service economy. If one's not making something, one's servicing those that do. Traditionally lower paying because service is perceived that way. e.g. teacher, etc.
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... also lawyers and doctors, who are well known for providing services rather than producing things.
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Plastic surgery doctors do produce things: better-looking people.
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Plastic surgery doctors do produce things: better-looking people.
To a point. A few selective operations can help but often people can't stop at just one and end up being an actual human that triggers the uncanny valley response.
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True enough. Hollywood in particular is home to quite a number of freakshows. I've seen photos of actresses who were quite beautiful, had plastic surgery that made them 5% better-looking, followed by more plastic surgery that made them look 500% worse than what they started as.
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there are likely better things humans could be doing than picking grapes
Yep, like drinking wine.
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Billions? I don't think there are billions of grape-pickers out looking for new jobs.
But, there are many, many "Better Things" available to the dutiful 18-y/os trying to earn tuition right now.
Pretty much every business I've been to recently is desperate for help. We have fast-food restaurants paying $1000 hiring bonuses. I had a couple packages stuck in Troutdale, OR for almost a week because FedEx is only at about 65% staffing and can't get people to work (to the point where the local hockey rink has a
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It's not about whether there are better things (Score:2)
As it stands when robots take your job you're just homeless and rooting through trash cans. Or I suppose you could learn to code, right?
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Italy's UBI (Reddito di Cittadinanza) it's not really UBI, as it's not granted to anyone but only to low-income households. In that regard it's closer to unemployment or poverty benefits that real UBI.
The highest sum you can get is 780€/mo, which is one of the highest in the EU, but in order to get it you need to be in a household with no income at all, rent to pay and at least three children. So all in a sudden it doesn't look that much anymore, but it definitely helps its recipients.
And about UBI cau
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And about UBI causing labour shortage: if the jobs you offer pay less than 780€/mo, your business sucks and you deserve bankruptcy.
But...but...cheap wine! Really anything we desire to be cheap (food) will make any company "suck" over the long run since cheap runs counter to living wage. e.g. Walmart, etc.
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Except that seeing how many economies one can balance on the head of a pin isn't a good thing long-term.
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Sure, why not be a leech instead of being useful. After all, it's only someone else's money.
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I wouldn't go as far as calling wine "essential".
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Try making your own wine, it's kind of fun and you'll eventually figure out what you like. I make 5 gallons of blackberry wine every year, and occasionally something else if I find cheap/free fruit. My family has made wine for at least 5 generations, and I still use pretty much the same low tech method. our normal mix is 2 pounds of sugar per gallon of liquid. It makes a nice sweet desert wine (with really high alcohol content).
They're Getting a Bargain! (Score:2)
Just did a look-up (loves me some Google) on mechanical grape harvesters: WAY more expensive here in the US!
https://www.liveoakbank.com/wi... [liveoakbank.com]
But not always practical given some of Italy's vineyard terrain:
https://img.gtsstatic.net/reno... [gtsstatic.net]
Migrant workers should be a thing of the past (Score:3)
Automation can help solve a lot of problems, including helping people raise their standard of living while staying in their own country.
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"...raise their standard of living while staying in their own country"
Of course, that is the opposite of the situation cited here. The migrants come to the richer countries and mostly take the money back home. With the robots in the richer countries, the migrants will remain home and impoverished. No one is going to invest in robots in impoverished countries..leaving the people there stuck in poverty.
UBI...here we come (Score:3)
This is just another example of lower skilled jobs that will simply disappear over time. This will happen here in the US with migrant farm workers. It is already happening in restaurants. Supermarkets have been pushing self checkout lines for years. Autonomous vehicles will put truck drivers out of work.
What, then, becomes of these suddenly unemployable people? We cannot simply "retrain" people en mass. Not everyone has the aptitude or the desire to become a computer programmer. Office workers will not be immune to this trend either. I have worked with Robotic Process Automation software before and it is fully capable of replacing a lot of the repeatable and mundane tasks that are today done by humans in offices. Real estate agents will eventually be replaced by services like OpenDoor that allow you to sell your house and cut out the middleman in the process.
I keep hearing that new jobs will replace the old ones but right now I just don't see enough new jobs coming along that lower skilled or unskilled people can easily do. We will be faced with higher unemployment and a more or less permanent underclass. UBI might not be perfect but I think it is inevitable.
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Have to agree. Boston Dynamics Spot is 90% capable of replacing security guards, and there are a lot of people who really can't do anything more complex than walk a patrol, or wash dishes, or clean carpets. Once those jobs are gone there is no where for them to go. Once upon a time the farm laborer could got screw on lug nuts in the factory, but there are no low-skill low-education jobs coming down the pike.
Queue Boston Robotics (Score:2)
Covid-19? Impossible! (Score:2)
Everyone knows that labour shortages are only caused by Brexit!
Harvesting crops with a machine? The horror. (Score:3)
As if a combine harvester is anything near new. Grapes are a bit special, but picking crops with a machine is far from new.
Joe Biden viral quote (Score:2)
The article notes
the difficulty of finding workers
As Joe Biden said "Pay them more."
So virgins are still stomping the grapes? (Score:2)
Skynet (Score:2)