Strawberry Fields May Not Be Forever
The phasing out of one of the nation’s most widely used pesticides will begin taking a bite out of California’s strawberry business this year, experts say, raising costs, lowering yields and giving Mexican imports a competitive advantage.
Researchers at UC Davis estimate that California’s nearly $850-million strawberry industry, which produces most of the nation’s crop, will lose 20% of its production with the ban on the fumigant methyl bromide.
Other treatments for combating the same insects, weeds and diseases that afflict strawberry plants are in short supply or their use is restricted in certain areas.
However, environmentalists and researchers say growers can still produce ripe, juicy strawberries, free of pests and disease, without using the ozone-thinning chemical in their fields.
Some growers are expected to go organic, using chemical-free methods to banish pests. But experts say most will simply revert to using older pesticides, such as metam sodium or chloropicrin, or wait for new pesticides, such as the experimental InLine, to become available in California.
In the short term, however, scientists say strawberry farmers will struggle to find enough of any one product to do the job.
“Really, the availability at this point of material to cover all of the market isn’t there,” said Husein A. Ajwa, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research scientist in Fresno who is studying alternatives to methyl bromide.
Under requirements of the federal Clean Air Act, growers were supposed to have cut back on use of the chemical by 25% in 1999. That reduction has not resulted in any serious crop loss or business failures, said Dave Riggs, president of the California Strawberry Commission.
But the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered growers to cut use of the chemical in half this year, and by 70% starting in 2003, with an outright ban beginning in 2005.
When the full impact of the ban is felt over the course of the next few years, it will mean lost acreage and fewer jobs for the berry industry’s 25,000 workers, said Colin Carter, a UC Davis agricultural economics professor who authored a report measuring the ban’s impact in California.
Carter expects California strawberry revenues to decline 17% to 28% as more fields lie fallow or are affected by soil diseases or pests.
Riggs expects growers, especially smaller operators, to begin feeling the pinch this year, both from lower yields and rising chemical costs.
“Those who get hurt most by something like this are the farmers on more limited resources, that don’t have as many years in the industry,” Riggs said. “They are usually not on the best land and not well-financed.”
The cost of methyl bromide, which is made by three U.S. and international companies, already has doubled from 1995 prices to more than $2 a pound, he said.
Methyl bromide is injected into the soil before planting to sterilize it and kill pests. The soil is then covered with plastic tarps to slow the leakage of the gas into the atmosphere. But 80% to 95% of the methyl bromide injected into the soil for row crops eventually enters the atmosphere, the EPA says, whether or not the fields are covered.
Although many environmental and consumer groups worry about methyl bromide residue on food, the biggest risk, experts say, is to workers fumigating the fields.
Exposure to the chemical can result in central nervous system and respiratory failure, as well as severe reactions in the eyes, lungs and skin. It also has been tied to birth defects, and high concentrations have resulted in a number of deaths.
The chemical is used on more than 100 crops, but California strawberry growers use it the most, applying about 6.7 tons of the fumigant annually to their fields. In fact, strawberries are the most heavily treated of all food crops, largely because of the large amounts of methyl bromide used, according to a report by the San Francisco-based Pesticide Action Network.
Developing nations such as Mexico and China, which compete with U.S. production, particularly in the frozen strawberry market, have until 2015 to begin reducing their own use of methyl bromide.
California growers say that timetable disparity puts them at a serious competitive disadvantage.
“It’s frustrating because these [other] countries are becoming big producers really fast,” said Cecil Martinez, who grows strawberries on 88 acres in Oxnard. “How can I compete with my competitor to the south who pays [workers] $4 an hour and doesn’t have to adhere to the same rules and regulations?”
The EPA argues that as developed countries phase out methyl bromide, less of the chemical will be available on the world market, driving up prices to unattractive levels for growers elsewhere, thereby leveling the playing field.
The phaseout results from an international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol, agreed upon in the late 1980s. It is aimed at controlling use of ozone-depleting substances, such as the CFCs in aerosol sprays. More than 160 nations have signed the protocol.
Methyl bromide in the atmosphere is estimated to be responsible for about 4% of the ozone-layer depletion over the last 20 years, with about half of that blamed on agricultural fumigation, according to the EPA. The agency cautions that the pesticide could contribute 5% to 15% to future ozone depletion if it is not phased out.
Environmentalists say the growers’ situation is not as dire as some researchers portray it.
“I think we’ve seen this several times where [they] say, ‘The sky is going to fall if we get rid of this pesticide,’ ” said Anne Schonfield of Pesticide Action Network. “We saw that with DDT. Farmers are very innovative, and, with a lot of assistance, they can get rid of these dangerous pesticides.”
The biggest impact of the methyl bromide ban will be felt in the next two years, experts say, after this year’s 50% cut in usage begins to take effect and soil diseases and other pests become reestablished in untreated fields.
In 2003, with use of the chemical cut by 70%, it will be all but eliminated as an option for growers, the Strawberry Commission’s Riggs said.
“This year and next year will be pivotal in terms of who is able to weather the changes and survive,” he said.
Irvine grower A.G. Kawamura said the industry’s best hope may be in finding hardier, disease-resistant plant stock and more creative ways to package and market berries in the future.
“At this point, we’re just relying on different research programs to help us come up with alternatives,” he said.
