The hands that feed us

As a child, I accompanied my mom to the open markets of my hometown of La Paz, Bolivia. In a weekly ritual, we would weave through the managed chaos of stalls and walking vendors, eventually making our way to one stall in particular, operated by a stout but ever-smiling woman named Candelaria. She had a small farm on the outskirts of town, and to my eye, her produce was always just a little bit juicier and more delicious-looking than her peers’. Each week Candelaria and my mom would engage in a playful verbal dance, a lovely back-and-forth negotiation that ultimately led to loads of produce for us and cash for Candelaria.

When I asked my mom why she went only to Candelaria for her produce, she simply uttered, “Because my mom bought only from Candelaria.”

It took a moment for her words to sink in, but eventually I realized what they meant: For two generations, Candelaria was considered the only trustworthy source for feeding my family. The veggies that were served on my plate had literally been planted, cultivated and harvested by the same hands that gingerly transferred them to my grandmother and, eventually my own mother, week by week. The hands that fed them were the same hands that fed me.

Years later, when I found myself navigating the aisles of a supermarket chain in the United States, I felt a deep sense of detachment, a longing for familiarity and connection. I knew nothing about the food I was purchasing. Questions like "Where has this tomato been before landing in my shopping cart?" became commonplace. The sheer ignorance made my shopping experience feel sterile and a little scary — a far cry from the vibrant experience of my childhood.

As an ecologist, I am acutely aware of the skyrocketing demands an ever-increasing population places on our planet. Nowhere are these demands more closely felt than in our agricultural systems, the very systems that are tasked with cheaply and reliably feeding more mouths with fewer resources. I must admit, albeit reluctantly, that if we are to feed over 9 billion people by 2050, most families will not be able to rely solely on the Candelarias of the world for their food.

To meet the monumental demands on our food system, we will need to find more sustainable and efficient solutions throughout the production chain. These solutions will necessarily run the gamut in focus, from the genetic to the economic and, now, to the robotic.

When “TechKnow” producers drew my attention to a story on robots designed to tackle farm tasks in the field, I was initially dubious. My intrigue was tempered by a skepticism of technologies that might create a deeper detachment between people and the food they eat. But as I dug into the story and talked with people in the industry — farmers and engineers alike — I understood the unique needs and opportunities such technologies are aiming to meet.

Whether it’s maximizing chances for more reliable yields, addressing safety conditions for workers in the field, or reducing environmental impact through minimized and targeted applications of agricultural chemicals, “farmbots” are here with helpful intentions. They are slowly being embraced and may very well become the way of our agricultural future. And what is partly driving their development in the United States is not the desire to replace the workforce with cheaper, more manageable machines but rather the need for viable solutions to worker shortages because of economic and demographic changes in countries that historically supplied a large portion of the worker base.

I realize that my childhood experience was outside the norm, that most of us will never have such a personal connection to the food we consume. It’s the reality of our times. But I don’t believe the question of where our food comes from is a trivial one. The conversation needs to be broadened to include the role of ever-smarter technologies in cultivating and harvesting our food. If the specialists I spoke to are right, we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot of optimism around the notion of agricultural solutions driven, at least in part, by robotics. If increased automation in the field produces food that is equally healthy, equally delicious, equally (or more) affordable and better (or at least not worse) for the environment, perhaps it shouldn’t matter if the hands that feed us are human or machine.

To learn more about farming innovations, watch “TechKnow,” Saturday 7 E.T./4 P.T.