It's Strawberry Season!

You know, there's nothing like fresh picked strawberries. Not raspberries. Not blueberries. Nothing. Nolan and I discussed strawberry picking this morning as we passed the local berry patch on the way to daycare. We held a plebiscite on the matter and voted overwhelmingly in favour of strawberry picking this weekend. Hopefully it goes much better than last year when I vowed I'd never take him again. Of course, I do hold the power of veto in all matters.



I also received this email from Transition Town Peterborough today...

Methyl bromide is the California strawberry grower's dream chemical.

Injected into the soil with a specialized tractor, it acts like both chemotherapy and steroids for strawberries. Not only does it kill every potential pathogen, it boosts the plants' vigour and yield.

Problem is, it's highly toxic. Listed as a "category one acute toxin" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it attacks the nervous system. Every year, hundreds of people report headaches, sore throats and burning eyes after a nearby field is treated.

But it poses a bigger global threat. Methyl bromide eats the ozone layer - the stratospheric band of oxygen that acts as the earth's sunscreen. It was internationally banned by in 1987. But every year, the United States successfully secures a critical-use exemption for California strawberry growers. Next year, they will use 1,000 tonnes - about one-sixth of the total allotment left to the developed world.

Few, if any, berry growers fumigate in Ontario. Instead, they rotate crops - planting a former strawberry field with squash or wheat to starve out most pathogens before planting strawberries again.

In California, strawberry growers are specialists, growing only strawberries on expensive rented land. Most start the year heavily in debt.

"Methyl bromide is really good from the bankers perspective," says Carolee Bull, a plant pathologist at the United States Department of Agriculture. "If the grower want a loan, the banker has more confidence they will be successful."

Many growers question the science behind the ban.

"There is no reason whatsoever to ban it. None," says Doug Shaw, Davis' leading strawberry breeder.

California sociology professor Melanie Dupuis has a different take: "Between skin cancer and eating strawberries only four months of the year, I tend to choose less strawberries."

Nolan and I are going to pick lots of Ontario strawberries this weekend.