ABSTRACT
The central coast of California, with its Mediterranean climate, is one of the most important strawberry growing regions in the world. On approximately 5,400 ha, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties together produced more than US$800 million worth of strawberries in 2007 (Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner, 2008; Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner, 2008), about 60% of the total California crop. Conventional strawberry production here, as in many other locales, is highly dependent on expensive, energy-intensive, and often environmentally harmful off-farm inputs.
