Balancing the Scales: Finding Relative Advantage Incentives for Mechanization of Specialty Crops

There is widespread recognition that the cost and availability of labor form one of the leading challenges for U.S. specialty crop growers (e.g., Calvin, Martin, and Simnitt, 2022; IFPA, 2023; USDA-ERS, 2023; Martin, 2024). On average, labor expenses account for 12% of total gross cash farm income across all U.S. farms (USDA-ERS, 2023). While this average share has changed very little over time, even as total costs have increased, the labor landscape looks very different for most specialty crops. From 2003 to 2020, nursery and greenhouse industries spent the largest portion of their total gross cash farm income on labor, averaging 34% (Figure 1). The fruit and tree nut industries followed closely behind at about 30% of gross income. Differences among individual specialty crops are even more notable. For example, labor expenses expressed as a percentage of gross income are estimated to be as high as 50% for almonds and 60% for table olives (Niederholzer, Ott, and Jarvis-Shean, 2024; Cicek, 2011).