California has led the way in passing the strongest environmental regulations of pesticides in the United States. But what is the use of these regulations if we allow imported avocados to be grown using these same pesticides and other harmful chemicals? By doing so, we are turning a blind eye to the suffering of foreign workers and their families, whom studies have shown urinate pesticides and die from related cancers. The cost of eating these imported avocados will come back to haunt us in the future. We must recognize the real costs of consuming foreign fruit and focus on holding foreign producers and importers to the same standards to which we hold ourselves. As the pandemic has reminded us, we all share this planet. We must not only take personal responsibility for our own health but for the health of our neighbors as well. If we set sound environmental and health regulations for ourselves, we must demand that importers and foreign producers meet them as well. ​ Please sign our petition in support of AB-710 at https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-california-ab-710

The same old group is back again asking you to support CAC with millions of your hard earned dollars. Why? According to these entrenched grove managers, CAC is the only organization marketing California avocados... implying that somehow the domestic industry would be lost without CAC's "robust" marketing and research efforts. But where is their proof? Where are the econometric models supporting their claims? The authors below have not pointed to one recent economic study supporting their assertion that CAC's promotion, educational, and research activities have increased the profitability of the California stakeholders compared to what would have occurred in the absence of CAC's activities? Before voting to continue CAC, growers should ask themselves why CAC has not provided the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) for its programs for the past three years? Is it because the BCR is negative? Many of these same men have suggested that if a grower is not making a profit today, they should get out of the avocado industry and switch crops. I would argue that if CAC can not demonstrate their programs increase the profitability of California stakeholders, then CAC should get out. Let's save our money and put it toward the real costs of running an orchard, such as water and labor costs!