From the Mantis Team: Past, present and future
Mantis is evolving California agriculture
Mantis machines employ smart, cutting-edge technology for producing fresh vegetables. But in some ways, their origins stretch back more than 50 years.
I remember the United Farm Workers strike and subsequent settlement in the 1970s. A lot happened that would prove to hamper early technology efforts to enable growers to meet growing vegetable demand later on, like when President Jimmy Carter cut funding for university research and development on advanced agriculture technologies that would eventually become Mantis smart machines.
What happened with the farm labor situation back then had and still has major implications for how we produce our crops. What hasn’t changed: Labor was then and is now fundamental to our ability to produce the fresh vegetables consumers demand.
Gone are the days of laborers protesting for higher pay to do their critically important jobs. Those days have been replaced by seasons filled with empty fields where labor shortages threaten crop output. The labor picture has changed dramatically.
That change drives what we at Mantis do to connect all the links of the chain, from 1970 to today. It’s all to build a productive, fruitful scenario in which we can enable our vital farm workers to do their jobs even better with the right smart, practical technology. Labor is not as readily available as it was in the ’70s. But that doesn’t mean our farms can’t be productive. It’s just a new equation — Mantis Math — in which man and machine adds up to get the answer we all need, from the farm gate to the consumer.
The farm labor tumult 50 years ago still sticks with me today. We all know how much work it takes to produce our amazing crops, and we want our employees to be efficient, safe and productive in the field. It’s what inspired us to develop the Mantis Smart Thinner and Smart Sprayer, not as replacements for farm employees, but as machines that can complement and supplement what they do best. We’re not replacing farm labor: We’re augmenting its capabilities. And as we’re fond of saying at Mantis, we feel that’s just smart.
That’s exactly what our grower partners need, and what we’re committed to continue providing: Smart solutions to help advance vegetable production in ways that keep everyone from the farm worker to the consumer safe, productive and efficient. We’re just one link in the chain from the farm to the grocery store. But Mantis smart machines are contributing to a bright, productive future for the fresh vegetable industry.
