Berry 5.1

If you grew up on a farm picking fruit like I did….

Or, if you dig robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence…

Or, if you did grad work alongside U.C. Davis ag extension agents…

Or, if you just like eating strawberries, oranges, apples and grapes…

Then this story – from the current issue of the New Yorker – is for you.

 

Not your grandfather's Berry 5.1
Wish Farms, in Florida, picks, chills, and ships some twenty million strawberries at peak season.  As harvest-time labor has become much more scarce, and more expensive, farmers are turning to automation to fill the gap.

 

“Nobody wants hydraulic fluid on their strawberries.”

 

Which begs the question:  Are free-range strawberries happier strawberries?

 

Berry 5.1
Berry 5.1 in action.

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