In an apparent lightning strike of insight, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins offered her solution to what she and her GOP colleagues see as one of America's biggest problems: agriculture's one million or so undocumented workers.

"Ultimately," Rollins explained in a July 7 Washington, D.C. briefing, "the answer on this is automation…"No, it's not. A machine will never pick ripe plum in California's Central Valley, pull a calf on a snowy February night in North Dakota, restore an oxygen-starved river in Iowa, or close its eyes to the soul-nourishing aroma of fresh cut alfalfa in Wisconsin.

Only people with skills, families, values, hopes, and consciences do these–and a million more–crucial tasks.

No "automation" anything ever has or ever will.

And, yes, one-third–if not more–

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