Specialty Crop Mechanization Prize Challenge of 2018
Referred to the Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Oct 30, 2018
Specialty Crop Mechanization Prize Challenge of 2018
This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a Specialty Crop Mechanization Challenges program to carry out prize competitions for the mechanization of specialty crop production. (Specialty crops are fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture.)
The program must include at least one prize competition for solutions to automate or alleviate stresses on the workforce during each of the following:
the planting of specialty crops,
tasks associated with the management of specialty crops,
the harvesting of specialty crops, and
processing and preparing specialty crops for distribution.
USDA must assemble prize committees to determine the scope, details, requirements, judging criteria, and incentives for each competition.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 11, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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