We've gotten both reactions. People don't want people replaced. At this stage, the way the farms are operating.... We've had conversations with a farmer we work with in the 42nd hour he's been sitting in his combine. They don't have a whole lot of spare employees.
There are a lot of tasks that could be done to improve crop quality that aren't being done because it's too hard to get people to go out in the field. I mean, there's dirt; there are flies, and it's hot. It's really hard work, but a robot could go 24 hours straight. That's what I'm trying to get our robotics partner to do, put a little generator on the thing and make it a kind of hybrid so that it can run 24-7 and have all the sensors you could need to detect powdery mildew or overheating in the crops.
Take soybeans. The soybean is described by Syngenta as a crop that tries to kill itself. The more robust it gets, the hotter it gets, and it dies. A simple idea would be to run smaller robots underneath to detect where the hot areas are and then just shred some leaves above them or something really simple. A lot of these really simple things could be done to help create better crops or create better conditions, and not necessarily replace people.