Vegetables

Abstract

Abstract Americans consume a half pound of fresh vegetables daily. Some of the major fresh vegetables are harvested by machine, including carrots, bulb onions, sweet corn, and leaf lettuces, but almost all broccoli, cucumbers, iceberg lettuce, bell peppers, and fresh tomatoes are hand-harvested. The typically large grower-shippers of lettuce use hand workers efficiently, placing machines in front of harvesters who cut and place the heads of lettuce on conveyor belts, with the lettuce packed for consumers in the field. There are fewer mechanical aids in watermelons and cantaloupes, whose US production is shrinking due to rising Mexican and Central American imports. Field production of hand-picked fresh tomatoes is shrinking in the face of rising imports from Mexico and Canada and more production in US greenhouses closer to consumers.