FarmNorthwest and Ranch
In this issue
Farmers market season in full swing around region/PAGE 2
WSU livestock management platform named ‘AI for Good’ winner/PAGE 4
Popular Whatcom County family farm to close next fall/PAGE 5
Uncertainty reigns in 2025 grain forecast/PAGE 6
New UI professor fascinated by the ‘magic’ of farming/PAGE 8
Protein for people, better lives for livestock/PAGE 9
Iconic California avocado is in trouble/PAGE 10
Farmers market season in full swing around region
Inland 360
Here are details about farmers markets around the region. For most, the season began in May.
OROFINO FARMERS MARKET
orofinofarmersmarket.org
4:30-6:30 p.m. starting May 15 through Sept. 11.
Orofino City Park, 155 Wisconsin St.
Hours are extended during four themed Market Parties on June 12, July 3, Aug. 7 and Sept. 11, when festivities move to the streets of downtown Orofino where a full band will perform until 7:30 p.m.
COLFAX FARMERS MARKET
explorecolfaxwa.com/ colfax-farmers-market
4-7 p.m. first and third Thursdays May through September.
Downtown Colfax at 101 N. Main St. and Spring Street between Main and Mill streets.
LAWYER CREEK FARMERS MARKET
bit.ly/lawyercreekFB
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through September.
1428 Ridgewood Drive, Kamiah.
This privately owned market is at a small Kamiah farm where Lewis County Commissioner Mike Tornatore raises Scottish Highland cattle.
“It’s really a true little farmers market atmosphere,” Tornatore said.
Visitors can purchase something to eat then explore the grounds, where some of the cows have spring calves, Tornatore said.
MOSCOW FARMERS MARKET
ci.moscow.id.us/197/ Farmers-Market
8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays May through October.
Main Street and Friendship Square.
The granddaddy of them all when it comes to area farmers markets, Moscow’s market, founded in 1976, offers a substantial
variety of weekly vendors and live music.
TUESDAY MARKET
tuesdaymarketid.com
4-7 p.m. every Tuesday June through October.
Latah County Fair and Event Center, 1021 Harold St., Moscow.
The eighth annual market
offers produce vendors and a beer garden, live music, food cart and youth activities. Information about becoming a vendor is available by emailing tuesdaymarket@uidaho. edu or calling (208) 883-2267.
PULLMAN MARKET MONDAY
pullmangoodfoodcoop.com
Pullman Market Monday, formerly the Pullman Farmers Market, uses an online portal for customers to connect with local and regional meat, produce and other food vendors. Orders placed on rekohub.com by noon Saturday will be available for pickup at Terracotta Pullman in Downtown Pullman from 4-6 p.m. the following Monday.
LEWISTON FARMERS MARKET
facebook .com/ LewistonIDFarmersMarket
8 a.m. to noon Saturdays June 7 to Sept. 27.
Old Shopko building parking lot, 2120 Thain Grade.
Lewiston’s market is in its second year at this location. Anyone interested in being a vendor can email lewistonfarmersmarket@hotmail.com.
CLARKSTON FARMERS MARKET
bit.ly/ClarkstonMarket
Mondays 4-7 p.m. JuneSeptember. Granite Lake Park, 845 Port Way.
Clarkston will have a hybrid online and in-person market this season, with the same online ordering app Pullman Monday Market uses, rekohub.com, and a new physical location.
The market accepts Washington Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
Liesbeth Powers/Moscow-Pullman Daily News
Joe Seidman, of Lewiston, looks at two cuts of bacon from Michelle Heuett-Fluckiger, right, at the Ee-Ii-Ee-Ii-Oo Ranch tent at the Lewiston Farmers Market in 2024.
or SNAP/EBT, Market Match and Washington Senior/Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, benefits.
POTLATCH IDAHO FARMERS MARKET
PotlatchMarket.com
4-7 p.m. Wednesdays, June through September.
Next to the WI&M Depot, 185 Sixth St.
This weekly market includes crafters, bakers, prepared food, live music and kids activities and accepts EBT cards.
GARFIELD’S FARMERS MARKET AND CRAFT FAIR
bit.ly/garfieldmarket
noon to 6 p.m. every second and fourth Sunday
Garfield City Park, 604 W. Spokane St.
The market moved to the city park in June. Vendors can participate at no charge during the markets at the park.
August Frank/Lewiston Tribune
People walk down Main Street at the Moscow Farmers Market in 2024.
LATAH FARMERS MARKET
latahfarmersmarket.com
4:30-7:30 p.m. Saturdays
June 7 through Oct. 4.
Troy City Park, 100 Idaho
State Highway 8, Troy.
Market organizer Jamin
Smitchger, of Viola, said the biggest change for Troy’s market this year is a move from morning to evening, allowing vendors like himself to participate in both Moscow’s market and this one.
Anyone who wants to come set up and sell is welcome to do so, Smitchger said, with no vendor
fees charged. Between 10 and 30 vendors are expected throughout the season.
GRANGEVILLE FARMERS MARKET
grangevillefm.com
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays June 21-Oct 4.
Pioneer Park, along Park Street.
The market hosts local musicians throughout the season and offers a program to encourage healthy lifestyle and eating habits, the Grub Club, for children ages 5-12.
Vendors can participate in the market at no charge.
POMEROY SUMMER MARKET
pomeroy-summer-market. square.site
4-7 p.m. second and fourth Wednesdays June through September.
Pomeroy City Park, 212 State Highway 128.
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WSU livestock management platform named Microsoft ‘AI for Good’ winner
By Angela Sams Washington State University
REDMOND, Wash. — A livestock grazing management tool developed by researchers at Washington State University, the University of Arizona, and the U.S. Forest Service is one of 20 projects to receive recognition and support through Microsoft’s $5 million “AI for Good” program.
Launched in early 2025, AI For Good supports academic institutions, individuals, startups and other Washington state organizations that use AI to promote sustainability, public health and human rights. As a winner, StockSmart will receive $100,000 in Microsoft Azure cloud computing credits, and its creators will have an opportunity to work with AI for Good Lab scientists.
“I’m excited to use high-level computing technology to explore further applications of StockSmart,” said Sonia Hall, WSU agricultural climate resilience specialist and StockSmart project co-leader. “In addition to AI, technologies like virtual fencing open new avenues for informing grazing decisions via more finely tuned information and the ability to respond in real time. The value of rangelands is sometimes unappreciated, so it’s a great opportunity to contribute to their sustainable management.”
Using detailed, remotely sensed geospatial data with user-provided fences and water locations, StockSmart helps livestock owners and land agency managers in the western U.S. determine how much forage is available to their livestock, and where.
The researchers hope the tool can soon be utilized for other rangeland health benefits like wildfire risk mitigation, said project co-leader and WSU Rangeland and Livestock Extension Specialist Tip Hudson.
Wildfires spread quickly in Washington state’s low-elevation grassland and shrub-steppe landscapes, and mitigation via herbicides and mechanical thinning can be costly. A reduction in fine fuels like dried grass, twigs, leaves, and pine needles could change fire behavior, potential-
ly lowering the carbon footprint of wildfires and decreasing the amount of public funds spent on their suppression.
That’s where the StockSmartMicrosoft collaboration comes in. StockSmart’s creators plan to leverage
the tech giant’s machine learning and AI expertise to analyze satellite and virtual fence animal sensor data. The results will help them determine specific regions where targeted grazing could help with fine fuels reduction.
“We’d like to use Microsoft’s AI
capabilities to improve StockSmart’s fire behavior and prediction models,” Hudson said. “We hope to combine fire behavior models with forage calculations to see where a grazed fire break would impact fire behavior like flame length, height, and temperature. By seeing how many livestock could be sustained for how long, we’ll be able to determine how many animals would need to graze in a certain area to achieve the target level of fuel reduction.”
The Microsoft partnership also coincides with the recent debut of StockSmart 2.0. Users can now select more comprehensive year ranges for underlying forage production data; they also have additional options for visualizing forage density and volume, among other improvements.
“On large landscapes, sustainable grazing means ensuring that forage harvest doesn’t exceed forage supply,” Hudson said. “The West has a tremendous diversity of soils, plant communities, and landscapes. One acre of land might have 1,000 pounds of forage, while 20 steps away, that can decrease to 200 pounds.”
Usable forage depends on factors like proximity to water and landscape steepness, which impact whether an animal is willing to walk to a food source.
“StockSmart integrates these factors effectively to calculate how much food is really available to livestock in the area that the user defines,” Hall said. “Its power lies in its ability to provide easy access to remotely sensed data on forage production and variability.”
For Hudson, StockSmart is a perfect example of WSU Extension’s mission to help communities in Washington state.
“Extension’s job is to use applied science to solve real-world problems for people whose livelihoods depend on it,” Hudson said. “StockSmart’s grazing management tools already do that, and the platform could soon provide another public benefit — wildfire mitigation. We may literally be able to change fire risk into food by converting flammable vegetation into meat.”
Project co-leader and WSU Rangeland and Livestock Extension Specialist Tip Hudson.
Popular Whatcom County family farm to close next fall after 65 years in business
By Alyse Smith
The Bellingham (Wash.) Herald
FERNDALE, Wash.
— Boxx Berry Farm, a family-owned business in Ferndale that has been a Whatcom County staple for 65 years, is closing this year as the owners have agreed to sell the land to the Port of Bellingham.
Bill and Charlene Boxx purchased the farm in 1965. Their son, Mike Boxx, and his wife, Crystal, took over operations in 2022.
“Boxx Berry Farm has not only been a place where we have provided fresh berries and vegetables and flowers to the community, but also where families have come to make memories for the past 65 years,”
Crystal Boxx told The Herald.
“Last night the Whatcom County Council unanimously approved the Economic Development Investment Board’s recommendation to provide funding to support a Port of Bellingham’s property acquisition to develop an agricultural research
station in partnership with the local agricultural community,”
Mike Hogan, the Port of Bellingham’s public affairs administrator, told The Herald on May 15.
A $3 million agricultural research center is coming to Whatcom County
The Boxx family decided to sell the farm after so many years so that Mike Boxx could retire, Crystal said.
“We are excited for the farm’s next chapter and how it will support and improve local agriculture. ... With it being used as a research center to all of Whatcom County agriculture — including berry, potatoes, dairy, small farms, etc. — it will be there to support innovation and the changing of agriculture needs in the future,”
Crystal said.
“This is a terrific project which will provide farmers and collaborating scientists the facility it needs to innovate and adapt to changing pressures on agricultural commodities and the market,” Hogan
said. “Whatcom County’s agricultural community includes over 1,700 farms and supports thousands of jobs, so it’s a very important part of our regional economy.”
“The Port is in the process of finalizing the purchase and sale documents and, with full funding now in place, we anticipate completing this property acquisition in the coming months,” Hogan said.
Boxx Berry Farm will be open for one last berry season this summer and will close permanently Oct. 1.
“We will be open for normal business operations starting with strawberry season, which starts approximately the beginning of June,” Crystal said. “We will then continue with raspberry and blueberry season, and we will also be growing flowers and corn. Our u-pick fields will also be open for each berry throughout the summer.”
Boxx Berry Farm is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 6211 Northwest Road in Ferndale.
Bellingham Herald
Boxx Berry Farm owner Mike Boxx is picured with his dog Bella in 2010.
Uncertainty reigns
in Lewiston. Farmers around the region are concerned about the recent hot, dry weather.
Farmers of the Inland Northwest aren’t sure how markets will shape up because of tariffs — but the main worry is hot, dry weather
Uncertainty reigns
By Dean Ferguson For Farm & Ranch
This region’s crop outlook boils down to this: 1) a cool, soaking rain right now would help yields and 2) the markets are unsettled.
Crop conditions: Need rain now
Cutting your hay is like daring the sky to rain on it and ruin it. That’s why one Palouse farmer asked their neighbor to hurry and cut hay, joked Todd Scholz, vice president for research and member services at the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council in Pullman.
“We haven’t had rain in forever, it seems like,” said Scholz, who also farms near Colfax.
During a June 9 interview, Scholz noted that chick peas, green peas and lentils — known as pulse crops — were looking OK. But if the recent hot weather and lack of significant rain continued, it would hurt the peas that just started to bloom.
“The hot weather just shuts off the boom,” Scholz said. He noted that chick peas, aka garbonzos, were more tolerant to drought than peas.
Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative Chief Operating Officer Sam White said during a June 10 interview that all of the crops on the Palouse and down into the Tammany area of Lewiston needed water soon.
“I would say we are at a very crucial point right now with this hot weather that’s come about and the dryness,” White said. “It’s definitely a concern and if we don’t have a decent rain in the next week or so it starts chewing into overall yields.”
White noted that the impact of a lack of moisture is becoming visible in crops planted in shallower soils.
The National Weather Service: abnormally dry
Valerie Thaler, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Spokane, said that the region including the Palouse, the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, Anatone and the Camas Prairie, are being characterized as “abnormally dry conditions.”
“It’s quite dry,” Thaler said, “with the tendency toward drought development.”
If the dry weather continues for a month, forecasters are likely to start characterizing the region as being in drought, with the expectations that the conditions last through summer.
August Frank/Lewiston Tribune
ABOVE AND AT LEFT: Wheat grows this month in Lewiston. Farmers around the region are concerned about the recent hot, dry weather.
Outlook in the markets: uncertainty amid trade deals, tariffs
Both White and Scholz characterize the global market for area crops as uncertain.
Amid “lackluster markets and prices,” White said, “there’s lots of non-direction. It’s ‘wait and see’ what’s going on in the political realm.”
Global politics, world weather and crop failures will all define a market move. But nothing is clear right now. For instance, White said there is some talk about it being “too dry” in China. Since China’s wheat production generally stays in-country, crop failure there could benefit wheat producers in the Pacific Northwest.
“If there is some kind of deal made and there’s a trade agreement with China, they could buy a lot of wheat off the West Coast in a hurry,” White said. “But it’s hard to foresee those things at this time.”
Scholz said that the pulse crops are also facing uncertain markets.
He noted that the reliable Canada,
Mexico and European markets are now uncertain. President Donald Trump has upended established markets across many sectors when he started imposing tariffs April 2.
“Tariffs are a problem and even some of the ports are having trouble with transportation,” Scholz said. “One of our biggest customers is India and we’re hoping for a trade agreement.”
Scholz also said a colleague returned from an Asian trade conference, noting that all the other countries don’t know what to do because they don’t know what the United States will do.
“The whole market place is unsettled because the U.S. is unsettled,” Scholz said.
In the meantime, the markets are less of a concern than the weather.
“We’re hoping as harvest comes about that everybody is safe and that everybody has been praying for rain,” White said.
Ferguson can be reached at dferguson@lmtribune. com.
“I would say we are at a very crucial point right now with this hot weather that’s come about and the dryness. It’s definitely a concern and if we don’t have a decent rain in the next week or so it starts chewing into overall yields.”
SAM WHITE, PACIFIC NORTHWEST FARMERS COOPERATIVE CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
University of Idaho
Producing crops has always seemed like magic to Pramod Acharya, who joined University of Idaho in January as an assistant professor and Extension forage agronomy specialist.
Acharya was raised on a subsistence-scale farm in Nepal, where his family raised vegetables, grain and a few cattle.
“I was always interested in how one tiny seed would turn into a whole plant, feeding both people and livestock,” Acharya said. “That magic stuck with me. Farming wasn’t just how we lived; it was what shaped how we saw the world.”
In his new role, Acharya will work his magic on behalf of Idaho dairymen, cattlemen and forage producers, advancing sustainable, resource-efficient, eco-friendly and economic approaches to forage production, storage and utilization.
His research and Extension interests include understanding produc-
New UI professor fascinated by the ‘magic’ of farming
Pramod Acharya was hired earlier this year as forage agronomy specialist
tivity and nutritive values of annual and perennial forages, soil nutrient management, soil health and carbon management, and resource-efficient and climate-resilient forage production. He has always been fascinated by how soil, plants and livestock all connect to the bigger picture, and aims to solve the complex web of these components.
He’ll be based at UI’s Kimberly Research and Extension Center and will also be heavily involved in research at the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Idaho CAFE), which will include the nation’s largest research dairy in Rupert and should be milking cows by early 2026.
Acharya earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 2014 from Tribhuvan University in Lamjung, Nepal. He earned a master’s degree in biology in 2019 from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, N.M., followed by a doctorate in plant and environmental sciences from New Mexico State University in Las
Cruces, N.M., in 2023.
While pursuing his master’s, Acharya researched how the use of cover cropping and dairy compost in crop production systems influenced soil health. Like Idaho, eastern New Mexico and western Texas had many large dairies and heavy forage production. This marked the point at which he directed his research toward forage agronomy.
His dissertation entailed understanding the ecosystem services of cover cropping in silage corn and sorghum rotations. Cover crops are crops that are planted primarily for soil-health benefits rather than solely for commercial harvest, and they sometimes include blends of different plant species. He found the region’s producers were skeptical about using cover crops, concerned they would deplete nutrients and soil moisture for subsequent silage crops. Instead, Acharya found that cover crops improved soil organic matter, nutrient recycling, soil water infiltration and soil retention, and
subsequent silage yield, more than offsetting the water and nutrients that they used.
Acharya has been evaluating several potential research projects benefiting Idaho forage farmers and livestock producers. He plans to evaluate how well the different varieties of perennial, non-bloating legumes — sainfoin, cicer milkvetch and birdsfoot trefoil — establish and provide forage in southern Idaho for comparison with alfalfa. He also intends to evaluate various blends of the legumes and grass species with alfalfa to identify combinations that reduce bloating in cattle while delivering the proper nutrition.
Another trial on his list of potential projects would evaluate if there’s sufficient time to raise cover crops as additional forage for grazing immediately after 95-day silage corn in Magic Valley’s climate.
Acharya’s wife, Manisha, is also an agricultural researcher. They have a 2-year-old daughter, Shreya.
University of Idaho
Pramod Acharya becomes the new forage agronomist and Extension specialist in the University of Idaho’s Department of Plant Sciences in January.
Protein for people, better lives for livestock
beef from their farm to individuals in need through local food banks and other organizations.
It was then that they learned the true extent of the need for healthy protein options in North Idaho.
By Hailey Hill Coeur d’Alene Press
Michelle Paxton and Wade Traphagan have long been generous with the products of their farm, which sits on about 50 acres in rural Bonner County.
After the introduction of a boar named Giovanni left the couple with more pigs — and more pork — than they knew what to do with a few years ago, they began giving much of it away for free.
“We ended up giving it to friends and family who were raving about it,” Traphagan said.
Eventually, they decided to begin donating the extra pork and
“What we found working with some of these food banks and senior organizations is that what’s really hard for them to get for their food pantries is protein,” Traphagan said.
Traphagan explained that while food banks are an invaluable community resource, much of the food tends to be prepackaged or processed, making fresh protein harder to come by for those who can’t afford grocery store prices.
“Meat has gotten much more expensive over the past few years,” Traphagan said.
As the couple began working with an increasing number of area food banks and nonprofits, Paxton said they received “an
overwhelming response.”
“I’ve seen more than one person brought to tears because there’s just such a need and they’re so passionate about the people they work with,” Paxton said.
Until recently, all costs associated with raising their livestock and butchering it to then donate has been out of pocket for the couple — even so, they dreamt of expanding their reach in the community.
“We decided we’d really love to scale up and help more people,” Traphagan said.
Over the last few months, the couple has officially incorporated their farm as Jewel Lake Ranch, a new nonprofit organization.
By forming a nonprofit, they’re able to apply for grants and take donations.
They’re also able to continue providing a high quality of life for their animals, which was the main driver for the couple to begin raising their own livestock in the
first place. They’ve even started taking in some animals from people who could not provide adequate care.
The pigs and cattle at Jewel Lake Ranch are raised in large open spaces and graze freely on the land. Their diets are supplemented with organic, non-GMO feed.
In contrast, the average amount of space a single pig has to move around on a commercial farm is usually 8-10 feet for a finishing pig weighing 120-180 pounds, and a mere 2-4 square feet for a weaned nursery pig weighing up to 60 pounds, according to Paxton.
Cattle typically have 20-40 square feet per head in bedded confinement, Paxton added.
“It’s really kind of tragic, the way those animals are raised,” Traphagan said. “Here, we give them a really great life up until it’s time for them to go off and feed people.”
More details can be found at jewellakeranch.com.
The iconic California avocado is in trouble, and this farmer is fighting to save it
Avocado grower trying to overcome Mexico’s domination in the field
By Daniel Miller Los Angeles Times
VALLEY CENTER, Calif. —
Norman Kachuck stood on a loamy ridge overlooking his inheritance.
Avocado trees blanketed the hillsides of ACA Groves in three directions, just a portion of a 372-acre spread studded with 16,000 specimens, many of them dense with branches weighed down by that quintessential California fruit.
The serene San Diego County property felt far from the chaotic epicenter of the global avocado industry in Mexico.
Violence, corruption and environmental degradation have saturated the avocado trade there, causing the U.S. to briefly stop imports and senators to agitate for action by the federal government.
“Mexican avocado imports are tainted conflict fruit,” said Kachuck, 70, a former neurologist who heads his family’s business. “The Mexican avocado industry is corrupt and ungoverned — and the American consumer is being deceived.”
A deluge of inexpensive avocados from Mexico has imperiled the livelihoods of California growers, Kachuck among them.
A quirky and voluble man, Kachuck is on a quest to save the California avocado, taking political and legal action against entrenched interests he sees as an impediment to farmers like him. He calls himself a “Neuroavocado Warrior.”
“You’ve got to be an activist, you’ve got to be proactive and you have to defend your strengths and buttress your weaknesses in everything you do,” said Kachuck, a married father of three adult children.
“Everything has adversarial components to it. But the operative part is making peace.”
As recently as the 1990s, the U.S. did not import Mexican avocados. But 1994’s North American Free Trade Agreement opened the floodgates: now roughly 90% of the avocados consumed here are imported. And the bulk of that fruit — again, roughly 90% — comes from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
At the same time, Southern California farmers must survive in a drought-prone state, and extreme weather brought on by climate change has meant irregular crop yields, among other challenges.
Dylan Marschall, a real estate broker who specializes in avocado properties, said the market dynamics are brutally simple: “Yeah, California has better-quality avocados, but retailers are in the business to make money. And if they can get (better) prices from Mexico, they aren’t going to pay for California fruit.”
Amid the tumult, Kachuck has battled with the California Avocado Commission, accusing it of insufficiently aiding growers. Now he is bracing for President Donald Trump’s trade policies, unsure what they might do to his business.
Kachuck said he would welcome a tariff, but pointed out that another major Trump initiative — deporting millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — could seriously deplete his and other farmers’ labor forces.
Change can’t come soon enough. Kachuck’s line of credit is tapped out and he’s had to draw hundreds of thousands of dollars from his retirement account to keep the business afloat.
Amid the avalanche of foreign fruit, the seasons spanning 2019 through 2023 were “just awful,”
L.A. Times
ACA Groves owner Norman Kachuck, shown in May 2024, is fighting for the survival of the California avocado.
Kachuck said. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified the problems. But he presses on.
“Yeah, I’m taking chances. And I’m stupid enough to not know when quitting is correct,” he said. “I just have this general sense of optimism — or hubris — that I can figure it out.”
The quintessence of California
Kachuck took over his family’s business in 2010, making the long drive to San Diego County from his home in Valley Village. He had just walked away from a career in medicine — he’d practiced as a neurologist at USC for 20 years — to aid his ailing father.
Israel Kachuck, a onetime astronautics engineer and general contractor, bought more than 450 acres of mostly barren land in the 1960s and began planting avocado trees.
“He had been a restless soul for as long as I was aware,” Kachuck said. “lt was part and parcel with what he was doing: moving things around in his brain to accommodate problem solving that was interesting and remunerative.”
The son had a similar wandering spirit.
“My avocado did not fall too far from the tree,” Kachuck acknowledged.
He studied music composition and briefly played keyboard — three days in 1976 — with the Pointer Sisters. He then moved to New York to compose music for a girlfriend’s dance company until his curiosity about how the brain works led him to neurology. Next came medical school, graduating from USC in 1987.
When he got involved in ACA Groves about 15 years ago, his dad was grateful. “For the first time in his life, he was finally sharing the business with somebody,” Kachuck said.
Before long, though, Israel was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He died in 2021 at 92. Though he’d been addled by the ailment, he understood that his son had managed to preserve the family business.
“The saving of the family legacy was a very important obligation I felt,” said Kachuck, who added, with a laugh, that he had also hoped the business would ensure his children “had more than just a neurologist’s income to support their lifestyles.”
Kachuck immersed himself in a wide-ranging education in avocados, from their agronomy to the unlikely backstory of their California triumph.
Once known as the alligator pear,
the avocado traces its history to southern Mexico, where the fruit, according to some experts, was first cultivated about 5,000 years ago. (In Nahuatl, avocado is ahuacatl, sometimes defined as “testicle.”)
Though it is not native to California, the avocado is arguably as tied to the state’s identity as the orange once was. This is thanks to the venerable Hass variety, discovered in the 1920s by a Pasadena mail carrier-turned-grower, Rudolph Hass. His namesake variety accounts for 95% of avocados consumed in the U.S.
The proliferation of Mexican and other Latin cuisines cemented the avocado’s position as an American staple — largely via guacamole. But the fruit hit some speed bumps on its path to ubiquity. Amid an obsession with low-fat diets in the 1980s, avocados were spurned by many — even though their fats are mostly unsaturated.
Enter: the California Avocado Commission, which is overseen by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and whose main responsibility is to market and promote the state’s fruit. In the 1990s, the
commission — which is funded by an assessment of the gross dollar value of California avocados sold — invested in research to establish the fruit’s health efficacy, said avocado farmer Duane Urquhart, a commission board member at the time.
Once the avocado’s nutritiousness was established, Urquhart said, the commission launched a marketing and education campaign to teach consumers how to use them, even working with cooking schools to develop recipes. “That,” he said, “was when we really created the U.S. market for California avocados.”
Now praised as a superfood, avocados are at turns revered and vilified. Consider the endless disparaging of millennials over their avocado toast. But that hasn’t stopped anyone from eating them.
The avocado’s rise had an unintended consequence: Business interests in Mexico took notice.
Board machinations
As inexpensive Mexican avocados flooded the state, many California growers looked to the avocado com-
mission for help. But Kachuck felt its board of directors made major missteps.
In late 2020, an agricultural trade attorney advised the commission’s board that it could petition the United States International Trade Commission for import relief, which can include tariffs.
Such a complaint, the attorney said, could prompt an investigation and have a “chilling effect on foreign competitors,” recalled avocado farmer John Cornell, then a board member.
But the avocado commission never took action.
Writing in the commission’s “From the Grove” publication in 2023, the board’s then-chairman, Rob Grether, derided what he termed “fanciful fixes for foreign fruit flow.”
The California avocado industry’s retail and food-service partners would oppose such efforts, he wrote.
Kachuck was incredulous: “There was so much information about malfeasance in the Mexican avocado industry.”
L.A. Times
Manuel Aquino totes a satchel full of avocados at ACA Groves.
Continued from Page 11
Complicating matters were competing interests.
Though many California growers complained about Mexican imports, some of their peers had avocado groves or related businesses in Mexico too. Other issues pitted farmers in the north — Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties — against those south in San Diego and Riverside.
This all came to a head when Growing Coachella Valley, a nonprofit advocacy group, asked the commission in 2021 to support California legislation that sought to hold imported agriculture to state health and environmental standards.
But the commission’s board never even voted on whether to support the legislation. According to minutes from a board meeting, a staff member said he and legal counsel determined that AB 710 was not in the commission’s “best interest” in part because it would put the group in “a precarious position” with important retailers.
Kachuck fumed. In February 2024, he called out the commission’s board of directors at its meeting in Oxnard: “You betrayed my trust, that of our avocado growing community, and as well that of the American consumer.”
The California Avocado Commission did not respond to multiple interview requests; instead, a staff member referred The Times to minutes from its board meetings.
Kachuck’s comments at the Oxnard meeting galvanized a loose
coalition of other unhappy growers, most of them in the San Diego area. They decided to fight the issue through the 2024 board election, with six seats up for grabs on a body composed of 20 members and alternates.
‘Borrowed money’ and ballot failures
Kachuck believed the election presented a realistic opportunity to shake up the commission.
He sent out mailers and posted a get-out-the-vote appeal on the website of American Avocado Farmers, a group he and other growers formed last year.
But only 14% of eligible voters cast ballots, Kachuck said, and
“You’ve got to be an activist, you’ve got to be proactive and you have to defend your strengths and buttress your weaknesses in everything you do.”
— NORMAN KACHUCK, ACA GROVES OWNER
between the northern and southern poles of the industry is so wide that each region might be better served by having its own commission.
Others are gearing up for a different vote: Every five years, the state’s food and agriculture department holds a referendum that allows growers to decide whether the commission should continue to serve them. The next one will be held in spring 2026, a department spokesman said.
And then there is the big elephant in the boardroom: President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs.
just one of the candidates he and a handful of like-minded farmers had backed was elected. “It’s awful,” he said. “I’m spending money I don’t have — it’s borrowed money. At this point I am 80% through my retirement account.”
Kachuck’s failure at the ballot box may stem in part from the geographical divide. In addition to comparatively plentiful and inexpensive water, northern farmers enjoy another advantage: a later summer harvest, which means their fruit is picked after the Mexican crop has inundated the market. The Southern California avocado harvest roughly coincides with that flood.
Some farmers wonder if the gulf
Kachuck pivoted to a new strategy in the meantime: In February, he and three other farmers sued Fresh Del Monte Produce, Calavo Growers and Mission Produce in federal court, alleging they violated the California Business and Professions Code by falsely marketing their avocados as “sustainably and responsibly sourced” when they actually come from Mexican orchards planted on deforested land.
Jennifer Church, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the case “is really about the American public being misled to the detriment of our local farmers.”
Fresh Del Monte, Calavo and Mission did not respond to requests for comment. But in May, the companies filed a joint motion to dismiss the growers’ lawsuit, arguing in part that the challenged statements are typical “corporate puffery,” a legal term for exaggerated marketing claims that may not be objectively factual but are generally permissible.
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