(Part 3)
As Pope Leo XIV wrote in Magnifica Humanitas, “It is certainly desirable for technology to relieve humans of arduous, repetitive, or dangerous tasks and to provide intelligent support for human activity. Yet, the protection of employment opportunities and the irreplaceable role of the individual must remain the general rule. The pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs, because the human person is an end, not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good.”
As we started to illustrate in our previous column, a coconut plantation in Palawan, owned and managed by a Danish national married to a Filipina, is an excellent example of subordinating economic order to human dignity and the common good. The company assigns the highest priority to preserving jobs, especially for indigenous people who are among the poorest of the poor in the countryside. They are integrated into the business model. Rather than just employing them, the company leases their ancestral land through agreements with the communities; guarantees employment for host families; shares part of the value created; provides education, medical services, and skills training; and incorporates tribal elders into governance and decision-making, respecting customary practices.
The dignity of the worker is actually enhanced through the use of advanced technology such as digitalization and industrial engineering. By applying time and motion studies, standardized work procedures, digital performance measurement, and continuous upskilling and reskilling, the company makes the workers more productive without the fear of losing their jobs. Instead of employing fewer workers, the company increases the value produced by each worker. As can be expected in many rural areas in the Philippines, many of the employees had never held formal jobs before. Digital tools provide standardized work instructions, productivity tracking, immediate feedback, and quality control. This enables people with little or no formal education to master sophisticated production methods while steadily improving their skills.
The value of the work of the employees is greatly enhanced because Lionheart Farms does not export raw coconuts, copra, or even coconut oil, which are at the lowest levels of the value chain. Instead, it processes coconut sap into premium products — such as coconut nectar, coconut sugar, and coconut aminos — within the province of Palawan. This creates many additional jobs in food processing, quality control, packaging, logistics, maintenance, administration, and export operations. The result is greater employment than simply producing copra.
Lionheart has demonstrated that the Philippines does not have to choose between high technology and high employment. Instead, it uses Industry 4.0 technologies — AI, digitalization, cloud computing, and data analytics — to make labor-intensive agriculture far more productive. As owner Christian Eyde Moeller has emphasized, digital tools increase transparency and efficiency, while enabling the company to employ around 2,000 local workers whose incomes have risen several times above their previous earnings (mostly from the sale of copra).
This farm model — which requires the consolidation of small farm units previously fragmented through agrarian reform — aligns closely with the social doctrine found in both St. John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens and Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas: technology should serve the human person, not replace them unnecessarily. Capital and technology become instruments that enhance the dignity and productivity of labor rather than substitute for it. Lionheart Farms provides a practical Philippine example of how modern technology can be used to promote both economic efficiency and human development.
Fortunately, there are other examples of enterprises (both here and abroad) that use advanced technology to augment workers rather than replace them. The following are a few of the notable examples:
1. Human Nature (Philippines): Human Nature, the social enterprise founded by Gawad Kalinga leaders, combines modern manufacturing and quality control systems, digital supply-chain management, and e-commerce while sourcing ingredients from thousands of smallholder farmers across the Philippine archipelago. Rather than replacing farmers, technology enables them to participate in higher-value markets and earn higher incomes. The company also invests in continuous training and community development.
2. Olam Food Ingredients (Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Indonesia): Olam uses satellite imagery, GPS mapping, mobile-phone applications, and digital traceability systems to help hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers improve yields and product quality. The technology provides advice on planting, fertilization, and pest management while leaving cultivation and harvesting in the hands of small farmers, thereby increasing productivity without reducing employment.
3. Araku Coffee (India): Araku Coffee works with thousands of indigenous tribal farmers in Andhra Pradesh. It employs GPS mapping, digital farm records, scientific soil analysis, and modern quality-testing laboratories while keeping coffee cultivation, harvesting, and processing labor-intensive. The result has been higher farmer incomes, improved environmental sustainability, and the production of internationally recognized specialty coffee.
4. John Deere’s “precision agriculture” (the United States of America and other countries): John Deere has pioneered GPS-guided tractors, AI-assisted crop monitoring, drones, and precision fertilizer application while continuing to employ skilled farmers. The highly automated technologies do not eliminate the workers. Instead, they reduce waste, improve yields, and increase the productivity of farm workers. This clearly illustrates how digitalization can complement rather than replace human labor.
5. Toyota Production System (Japan): Outside agriculture, Toyota offers perhaps the world’s best-known example: This automotive company uses robotics, automation, AI, and digital quality monitoring, but continues to rely heavily on skilled workers to solve problems, improve processes (kaizen), and ensure quality. Automation is introduced to remove dangerous or repetitive tasks while empowering workers to contribute more effectively. This “human-centered automation” has influenced manufacturers all over the world.
These very concrete and practical examples here and abroad are very useful guides for our employers to heed the following advice of Pope Leo XIV in Magnifica Humanitas: “At this time of transition, it is not enough to react only when jobs disappear; we must oversee the transformation in advance. One viable path is, first of all, to establish social criteria for innovation. Here, every introduction of innovation and AI should be accompanied by verifiable measures to protect the employment, retraining, and participation of workers. In this way, technology will be oriented toward freeing up human time and capabilities, rather than producing exclusion. Second, we need proactive policies that make continuous training and professional transitions accessible to all, ensuring that the cost of adaptation does not fall solely on individuals. Finally, there needs to be a corporate commitment to include quality and dignity of work among its indicators of success. When these conditions are present, innovation can serve as an ally of safer, more creative and dignified work; without them, innovation tends to become an accelerator of injustice.”