Our farm purchased several New Zealand asparagus sorting machines back in the 90s and they were quite excellent. They would size the spears by laser, and could

Our farm purchased several New Zealand asparagus sorting machines back in the 90s and they were quite excellent. They would size the spears by laser, and could do color analysis as well. There was still a significant manual component, but half the workers could manage the same throughput. Sadly we no longer use these machines, as there is no market for growing asparagus in the US these days. Labor costs have caused all the acreage to move into Mexico. I’m not sure I’d agree the US is overall behind in automation compared to other countries, but I think we probably do have automation in different places. Farm labor is certainly not cheap in California. Our blueberry pickers averaged about $23 an hour this year. I admit I have no context for what would be an acceptable rate in New Zealand or Europe, but I can’t imagine it’s much more than that.