Why The ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund Supported Fieldwork Robotics: Tackling Labor Shortages and Food Waste at the Source

In the United States, an estimated 27% of agricultural produce that is fit for human consumption is left in the field because it does not meet cosmetic standards for sale. Another 22% meets marketable quality standards but is never harvested due to factors like insufficient labor, rising costs, or simply missed passes during harvest. Together, that represents nearly half of edible produce going unharvested before it even has a chance to reach consumers.

At the same time, farmers are facing mounting workforce challenges. In 2024, there were an estimated 2.4 million open agricultural jobs in the U.S., with more than half of farmers reporting labor shortages. With production expenses expected to stay at record highs, the USDA projects net farm income will slip lower in 2026 and remain roughly 24% below the record highs reached in 2022. For growers operating on these tight margins, production cost pressures make it harder to harvest crops fully and profitably.

This intersection—high levels of on-farm food loss and structural labor constraints—signals a clear need for new technology, equipment, and business models. That’s why we funded Fieldwork Robotics through the ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund.

Fieldwork Robotics has developed autonomous harvesting robots designed to reduce on-farm food loss, and they are starting with raspberries, one of the most delicate and labor-intensive crops to harvest. Raspberries are highly perishable and easily damaged, with up to 20% of crops often lost during harvesting due to labor shortages or handling challenges. When there aren’t enough skilled workers available at the right moment, this fruit can overripen or go unpicked. By addressing raspberries first, Fieldwork is building a technical foundation that can be adapted for other high-value, high-loss specialty crops. Their modular robotic design will allow components to be reconfigured for different fruits, increasing long-term scalability and market potential.

Fieldwork’s robots are designed to operate autonomously, harvesting 24/7 without fatigue. This continuous operation helps reduce waste, improve fruit quality, and create new market opportunities for growers, including exports and processing channels that require consistent supply and quality. The system is also designed to be cost-competitive, with projected harvesting costs of approximately $0.90 per kilogram compared to $1–$2 per kilogram for manual labor.

What differentiates Fieldwork’s technology is its proprietary vision system. Using advanced multispectral imaging, the robot can detect ripeness with a level of precision beyond human capability. This enables more accurate fruit selection and gentler handling, reducing damage and increasing pack-out rates. Their intellectual property enhances autonomy not only in identifying fruit but also in making real-time harvesting decisions, reducing the need for human oversight.

Collaboration with growers is central to their approach. Fieldwork Robotics is working closely with Driscoll’s to co-design automation-ready growing environments, including the use of polytunnels optimized for robotic harvesting. This partnership ensures that product development is directly informed by real-world deployment conditions. Rather than building technology in isolation, the team is aligning innovation with grower needs from the outset.

At the same time, the company continues to advance its next-generation platform, Fieldworker 3.0, which remains on track to deliver a 30% reduction in bill-of-materials costs. Lowering hardware costs is critical to making automation accessible to more growers and accelerating adoption across the industry.

Our funding will be used to further develop and deploy Fieldwork’s autonomous robots in the U.S. By supporting the advancement of their next-generation platform and farm-level adoption trials, we aim to accelerate real-world impact in American and global markets. As Fieldwork expands, the broader opportunity becomes clear: automation that reduces food loss can simultaneously improve farm economics and reduce climate emissions associated with wasted production.

Addressing on-farm food loss requires solutions that tackle root causes. In this case, insufficient and increasingly expensive labor is a driver of waste. By increasing harvesting capacity, improving quality, and lowering costs, autonomous robotics offers a pathway to reduce loss while strengthening grower economics.

We look forward to seeing what Fieldwork Robotics will unlock for the produce industry. Reducing waste at the field level not only has climate benefits, but it can also drive meaningful cost savings and revenue gains for growers operating in a challenging environment.

David Fulton, CEO of Fieldwork Robotics, commented:

“We’re incredibly grateful for the support from partners like ReFED, whose collaboration helps us to accelerate multi-robot deployment and strengthen farm-level adoption. This investment will be used to further develop and deploy our autonomous harvesting robots as we transition into commercial trials, demonstrating how automation can boost productivity, protect grower margins, and reduce on-farm waste in the U.S. and globally.”

Dan Yordanov, Head of Fresh at Place UK, highlighted the strength of their partnership with Fieldwork:

"As a leading grower of berries in the UK, it’s been exciting for Place UK to see how Fieldwork’s technology continues to develop in real-world growing environments. Having worked closely with David and the team, we’ve seen firsthand the potential for robotics to support growers with one of the most challenging parts of production—harvesting delicate crops like raspberries. By helping ensure more fruit is picked at the right moment, solutions like this could play an important role in reducing waste in the field while helping growers maintain productivity as labor pressures continue to rise."

About Fieldwork Robotics

Fieldwork Robotics is developing the world’s first autonomous raspberry harvesting robot. Designed to harvest at the same quality as the average fruit picker and to significantly boost the productivity of growers, the technology combines cutting-edge hardware and software to create highly advanced harvesting robots that provide growers with efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable harvesting solutions.

We lead the market globally in the robotic harvesting of fresh raspberries and have strong commercial partnerships with key raspberry industry players in our target markets to support our product development.

Learn more at: www.fieldworkrobotics.com

About ReFED and the Catalytic Grant Fund

ReFED is a U.S.-based nonprofit working to catalyze the food system toward evidence-based action to stop wasting food. The ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund is designed to accelerate the development and implementation of food waste solutions across the full food system by providing non-recoverable and recoverable grants and post-grant support to initiatives with high impact potential as measured by food waste and GHG emissions reduced. The Catalytic Grant Fund focuses on opportunities where its funding and support can unlock additional capital and/or impact that might not otherwise have been possible. For more information, visit https://grantfund.refed.org/.

Disclosure
This publication is for informational purposes only, and nothing contained herein constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any interest in any funding vehicle managed by ReFED or any organization in which ReFED or its affiliates have funded. Information provided reflects ReFED’s views as of a particular time and is subject to change without notice. You should obtain relevant and specific professional advice before making any funding decision. ReFED undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. Past performance is not indicative of future results; no representation is being made that any funding or transaction will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those achieved in the past, or that significant losses will be avoided.