ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of the costs and benefits generated by the electronic tomato sorter, a new capital intensive technology currently being introduced into the California processing tomato industry. Although introduction of the electronic sorter has sparked intense debate over the pros and cons of agricultural mechanization in general, there has been very little careful study of the costs and benefits generated by this particular innovation. A case study of the electronic tomato sorter represents an opportunity to study a type of mechanization which occurs regularly in American agriculture, but which has been grossly underrepresented in the existing cost-benefit literature on technological innovation in farming. While evaluating the electronic tomato sorter, it is important to keep in mind that this innovation is only the latest 1n a long series of technological changes adopted by tomato growers in the post World War II period.
