A Florida-based technology company that’s been developing a strawberry-picking robot for years has finally started unveiling the product—first for newssegments, and next month, with a demo for growers attending an annual industry convention in Orlando. That’s potentially a big deal. Grain farmers have harvested their fields with autonomous, self-driving combines—with varying levels of success—since John Deere debuted its first model over 20 years ago. Produce, however, requires a lighter touch, and berries, in particular, are damn near impossible to pick robotically.
Hence the need for human hands. The United States is the world’s biggest strawberry producer, growing 3 billion pounds of the fruit each year. In California, where most of those strawberries are grown, 400 farmers depend on 55,000 farm workers to work their fields, according to the California Strawberry Association, an industry group. (Florida is the country’s second-largest strawberry state.) But harvesting strawberries is back-breaking work. As farm workers roll small carts between rows of plants, hunching over to pluck berries off the stems, they must intuitively understand which fruits are ready to be picked by sizing up attributes like color, size, and texture. They have to work briskly, and yet gentle handling is required to prevent bruising. According to one Colorado State University study, participants who were brought out to the fields to pick strawberries themselves found the grueling experience completely changed their point of view about immigrant labor.
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