FEBRUARY 2026
CELEBRATING 147 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
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MANUAL LABOUR, ROBOTICS SIDE BY SIDE
AI lends an extra hand
While AI and machine learning are the flavour of the hour, it’s still the case that Canadian horticulture employs about 70,000 temporary foreign workers each year. The reality is that growers need both manual labour and AI-driven equipment in the same field, not necessarily at the same time. As Dylan Streef attests, Streef Produce Ltd. could not grow 3,000 acres of vegetables and cash crops without the devotion of its Jamaican crew. Here, they are planting sweet potato slips near Princeton, Ontario. Photo by Jeff Tribe.
KAREN DAVIDSON Last year, 70,000 temporary foreign workers (TFWs) voted, with skilled hands, two thumbs up for farming jobs in Canada. Alfred Campbell, who retired in 2025 after 30 years at Streef Produce Ltd, is one such example. His work here contributed to his six children going to university back home in Jamaica. “Streef Produce was never just a workplace – it was family!” he said. “I loved watching the next generation grow into taking over the operation.” Brothers Dylan and Nathan Streef, part of that generational change, today support 32 Jamaican TFWs tending to 3,000 acres of potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans and cash crops grown on the family farm near Princeton, Ontario. The operation
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routinely uses big iron to plant and harvest, but as Dylan Streef points out, TFWs work hand in hand with this equipment. “We have invested in an optical potato grader, an optical asparagus grader and roboticized palletizing equipment,” says Streef. “This new technology improves product consistency and operational efficiency while also enhancing workplace safety by reducing physical strain and the risk of injury to our staff.” Looking to comment on the current state of farm automation, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) recently published “The Next Generation of Growth: cultivating a new crop of agricultural talent and innovators.” In discussing the report, Lorna McKercher, RBC director, national agriculture noted that “we predict that one in three jobs in agriculture could be automated in the next decade.”
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Dylan Streef agrees, but with a caveat: agriculture relies on a balanced approach to labour and equipment. Asparagus and sweet potatoes, for example, need a lot of manual labour from planting to harvesting. Technology may be well-suited for repetitive, physically demanding tasks, and improving consistency and worker safety, but people remain essential for oversight, decision-making, problem-solving and quality control. Human judgment is still critically needed. “Once technology is more advanced and goes through a series of bug fixes, I definitely see some farm operations going fully robotic in the future, especially with rising labour and operating costs,” says Streef. “In regards to our own operation, I can say we value our staff and will always need human beings despite automation.” Continued on page 3
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