How we can save some of the jobs destroyed by rise of the machines | Letters
Yvette Cooper's strategy to support workers to move to new, good-quality jobs from those destroyed by the coming technological revolution is commendable (Automation could destroy jobs. We must deal with it now, 7 August). However, it presupposes that such jobs will themselves be enabled by the new technology, and that enough of them can be created. Both are debatable points.
An additional strategy is to support moves into good-quality jobs that depend less, if at all, on technology. An example is food production. In France, pioneering efforts at Bec Hellouin have proved that intensive cultivation of vegetables and fruit with well-designed hand tools can be as productive and profitable per hour worked as large-scale mechanised farming. Crucially, and counterintuitively, these results get better as the cultivated area per person gets smaller. Judging from the pioneers, such work is conducive to physical and mental health, soil health, family life, and time for activities outside work. This is not a return to peasantry.
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