We, including the meat packing industry, is going in this direction of more automation. The early steam shovels put many, many ditchdiggers out of work. We aren't going back to those good old days.

My connections with the lumber industry is that a computer scans a log, then an algorithm decides on how to cut that log into the most efficient use of lumber. The workers (fewer of them) just make sure the machince are working. It's not a hard stretch to see this technology is a packing plant in the next two decades.

One reason for the slower implentation is the many more processes in meat packing plant than a lumber mill. In a meat plant, a worker can "go down" and be immediately replaced. THe production line keeps moving. But if the line is composed of 100 robots, and one robot goes down--the other 99 robots grind to a halt too.

We need a plan for how we handle low-skilled workers in the future.

Author Marshall Brain has a little story on that:

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/book-review-manna-by-marshall-brain-4fb3faac3dc