Is it really true that farmworkers are in short supply? America’s southern border has been wide open for decades, but we are still told that there aren’t enough pickers — perhaps at the wage that farmers want to pay.

Automation can solve the problem here, if one exists. Machines are coming into the marketplace that can do all the farming tasks that will very soon make foreign or domestic farmworkers completely unnecessary, as documented here.

In fact, it’s wrong-headed to continue mass immigration based on the idea that America’s need for inexpensive labor will continue. When machines become cheaper, they will replace human employees, from agricultural pickers to financial analysts.

Below, a Russian approach to agriculture:

Technology will soon put an end to much unpleasant physical labor — and the paychecks that accompany it. Just how that effect of advanced machines will be handled in society has gotten little attention from our political leaders.

Below is a video of a new farm robot being tested — warning, the musical audio is a little cloying.