and a clear sense of what you plan to grow. I recommend beginning with something easy, reliable, and versatile — like lettuce. Most lettuce varieties are very forgiving. They can thrive in most ...

Above: The Lettuce Bot team takes its prototype out for its first field trip in January 2012 ... We’re very close. Our plan is to charge for the acres. The farmer does not buy the machine out right.

Irrigation water, which is necessary to grow crops in areas that don’t get a lot of rain, creates a pathway for contamination, especially if the lettuce field is near livestock farms.

The FDA testing program will focus on the commercial cooler and cold storage facilities where field heat ... The agency plans to collect and test about 500 samples of romaine lettuce.