How do you center people amid all the agtech innovation?
When you think about agtech, you don’t think about farmworkers first. Often, tech startups and venture capitalists come to mind. But what if the farmworker’s perspective, ideas and needs were placed front and center while these necessary innovations propel our produce industry forward?
Listen: Alexia Estrada talks about farmworkers in agtech
What if all the agtech innovations we’re seeing can attract workers to agriculture rather than eliminate workers? What if we place the farmworker’s perspective, ideas and needs first, rather than passively seeing what tech startups and venture capitalists have in mind?
Enough with the questions. One woman is asking them and answering as many as she can.
Alexia Estrada, through her organization, Semillero de Ideas (Nursery of Ideas), is hoping to keep farmworkers at the center of technology advances by creating makerspaces where grower-shippers and tech companies can partner with workers.
She hopes that through these discussions, we can find ways to attract workers to agriculture, rather than develop technology that seeks to eliminate them. Estrada challenges the industry to redesign work and use tech to attract young workers, who she says are looking for values-driven work that is aligned to fresh produce.
She invites listeners to this “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast episode to reach out to her via her LinkedIn or website: semilleroideas.org.
