"Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200" is a 2023 science fiction short story by Trinidadian author R. S. A. Garcia. It was first published in Uncanny Magazine.
An elderly Trinidadian woman is given a robotic farmhand made of nanotechnology, with unexpected results â including that it is repeatedly eaten by her goat.
"Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200" won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story of 2023 and the 2024 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.
Garcia has described the story as having been inspired by an online conversation about how goats will eat anything.