Source: Janice Hoppe-Spiers, FOOD DRINK MAGAZINE, 6/29/17


The agricultural workforce is aging. The most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture in 2012 reported the average age of the U.S. farmer is 57 and the share of farmers 65 years and older has increased from 14 percent in 1945 to 30 percent in 2007. With an aging workforce and a shortage of younger people coming into the industry, where do farmers turn? Robotics. “People don’t want to work in the fields anymore,” says Bob Pitzer, co-founder of Harvest CROO. “There are not a lot of young people willing to go out and do it.”

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