Going both ways: More chemicals, more organics, and the significance of land in post-methyl bromide fumigation decisions for California's strawberry industry

Abstract

Recent years have seen heightened restrictions on the use of several chemical fumigants of great concern to California's lucrative strawberry industry. This study sought to investigate what fumigation chemicals and methods growers were using in this rapidly shifting regulatory context and what shaped their decisions. The primary methods involved tracking fumigant use through California's pesticide surveillance program and interviewing strawberry growers in the four counties that contain the major strawberry regions in California. Many growers have compensated for the loss of methyl bromide by a lateral shift to the use of other fumigants despite more stringent mitigation measures. Some have also changed their fumigation regimes from broadcast fumigation to bed fumigation. At the same time, increasing numbers of growers are also converting acreage to organics, although mainly in response to market considerations. Growers' decisions about what road to take are in part based on how they weigh concerns with efficacy, safety, and costs, although cost considerations dominate the decision-making of low resource growers. In addition, the study found that the cost and availability of suitable land and the conditions under which it is available play a significant role in many growers' decisions, considerations that has received little attention in the social science literature about grower decision-making around pesticide use. Since land dynamics create both opportunities and obstacles that tend to thwart regulatory goals, addressing the dynamics of land markets may be an important arena for future policy interventions around fumigant use.