[tosser0001]

I know little about farming or harvesting, but I’m curious what types of crops actually require manual harvesting?

Do we really need to rely on stoop labor to hand-pick crops, or has a relatively cheap labor pool allowed farmers to avoid the costs of automation?

If labor is to be in perennial short supply in the future, I wonder if American farmers will simply be forced to turn to crops that allow machine harvesting.

[comrade1234]

There are some crops that they've been trying for years to harvest robotically but they just require too many input variables that a human can see in seconds but a robot just can't do it yet. Do a search on harvesting cabbages with robots, for example they're close but not yet there.

[korse]

Things that are grown on trees and bushes and are also delicate. Most cereal crops and plenty of ground/root vegetable cultivation is already mostly automated.

[analog31]

Anything that's processed into something else is likely to be more readily automated, such as grains and canned or frozen produce.