If EU workers go, will robots step in to pick and pack Britain’s dinners?

Automation is on the march on farms across the world, but it is costly, and may not come soon enough to fill the gap

Octopus-like robots are plucking strawberries in Spain, in the US machines are vacuuming apples off the trees, and in the UK they are feeding and milking cows. Robots are taking over fields around the world, and last week food and rural affairs secretary Andrea Leadsom suggested they could help replace the thousands of EU workers who currently help put food on British tables.

And it is not just Brexit that is forcing the agricultural industry to embrace the next phase of mechanisation. Farmers are already having to rethink their operations in the face of higher minimum pay - mainly a result of the national living wage for over-25s, which came into effect last year.

Continue reading...