AP interviews Yarborough for article on machines replacing migrant workers
The Associated Press spoke with David Yarborough, a blueberry specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and professor in the School of Food and Agriculture, for an article about how machines are taking the place of migrant workers in Maine’s blueberry industry. A push toward mechanization is reducing the number of migrant farmers who travel to the state to rake the crop, according to the article. Maine’s blueberry harvest attracted more than 5,000 migrant farmers 10 years ago and it’s down to about 1,500 today, Yarborough said, adding some blueberry operations have gone almost completely mechanized, and more are headed that way. “It’s really gone down considerably,” he said. “It’s subject to drop as we produce more and better machines.” Yahoo News, Portland Press Herald, Miami Herald, Star Tribune, Sun Herald and The Columbus Dispatch carried the AP report.