Advertisement

The iconic California avocado is in trouble, and this farmer is fighting to save it

A photo collage of avocado farmers on a distressed background.
(Photo illustration by Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times; Photos by Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
  • Though it is not native to California, the avocado is arguably as tied to the state’s identity as the orange once was.
  • Avocado farmers face multiple challenges: occasional drought, irregular crop yields because of extreme weather and cheap imports.

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.”

Advertisement

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.”

A man in a red shirt stands on an avocado farm with trees in the background.
ACA Groves’ Norman Kachuck, shown in May 2024, is fighting for the survival of the California avocado.

“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.”

Advertisement

Amid the tumult, Kachuck has battled with the California Avocado Commission, accusing it of insufficiently aiding growers. Now he is bracing for President Trump’s trade policies, unsure what they might do to his business.

A worker picks avocados.
A worker picks avocados at ACA Groves.

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,” 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.”

Advertisement

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.

A worker fills a satchel with avocados.
An ACA Groves worker fills a satchel with avocados.

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.

Advertisement

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.

A worker prepares to climb a ladder.
An ACA Groves worker prepares to climb a ladder to pick avocados.

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.

Advertisement

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 commission 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.

A man carries a bag of avocadoes on his back.
Manuel Aquino totes a satchel full of avocados at ACA Groves.

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.

Advertisement

Kachuck was incredulous: “There was so much information about malfeasance in the Mexican avocado industry.”

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.”

A worker chops fallen tree branches.
A worker at ACA Groves chops fallen branches.
Advertisement

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 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.”

A container filled with harvested avocados.
Avocados are harvested at ACA Groves.
Advertisement

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 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.

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.”

Advertisement

Fresh Del Monte, Calavo and Mission did not respond to requests for comment. But this month 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.

A better avocado

The fight over California’s avocado industry has become Kachuck’s focus — to the detriment of other pursuits. There are things he wishes he could work on, like cultivating the Reed avocado, a little-known variety that’s about the size and shape of a grapefruit.

“It’s the most luscious, creamy, large and delicious avocado I’ve ever tasted,” he said.

He maintains 50 Reed trees, but doesn’t sell the fruit, instead giving it away to friends and family. The Reed, Kachuck said, spoils quickly after being picked, but could be made hardier via genetic intervention, such as cross-breeding.

A man in a red shirt sits on the ground holding an avocado that hangs from a tree branch.
Kachuck sits in the shade of a Reed avocado tree; he has 50 on his farm in San Diego County.

Kachuck was in his element showing off the Reed trees during a visit to ACA Groves, taking obvious pleasure in the ranch’s pastoral tableau. He crunched across alluvial soil in scuffed sneakers. A gust of wind turned an avocado tree into a viridescent blur.

“I would love to concentrate on making a better avocado for us,” Kachuck said.

He noted that Reed avocados have something unique going for them: They are not commercially grown in Mexico.

Advertisement

At least not yet.

Advertisement
universo-virtual.com
buytrendz.net
thisforall.net
benchpressgains.com
qthzb.com
mindhunter9.com
dwjqp1.com
secure-signup.net
ahaayy.com
soxtry.com
tressesindia.com
puresybian.com
krpano-chs.com
cre8workshop.com
hdkino.org
peixun021.com
qz786.com
utahperformingartscenter.org
maw-pr.com
zaaksen.com
ypxsptbfd7.com
worldqrmconference.com
shangyuwh.com
eejssdfsdfdfjsd.com
playminecraftfreeonline.com
trekvietnamtour.com
your-business-articles.com
essaywritingservice10.com
hindusamaaj.com
joggingvideo.com
wandercoups.com
onlinenewsofindia.com
worldgraphic-team.com
bnsrz.com
wormblaster.net
tongchengchuyange0004.com
internetknowing.com
breachurch.com
peachesnginburlesque.com
dataarchitectoo.com
clientfunnelformula.com
30pps.com
cherylroll.com
ks2252.com
webmanicura.com
osostore.com
softsmob.com
sofietsshotel.com
facetorch.com
nylawyerreview.com
apapromotions.com
shareparelli.com
goeaglepointe.com
thegreenmanpubphuket.com
karotorossian.com
publicsensor.com
taiwandefence.com
epcsur.com
odskc.com
inzziln.info
leaiiln.info
cq-oa.com
dqtianshun.com
southstills.com
tvtv98.com
thewellington-hotel.com
bccaipiao.com
colectoresindustrialesgs.com
shenanddcg.com
capriartfilmfestival.com
replicabreitlingsale.com
thaiamarinnewtoncorner.com
gkmcww.com
mbnkbj.com
andrewbrennandesign.com
cod54.com
luobinzhang.com
bartoysdirect.com
taquerialoscompadresdc.com
aaoodln.info
amcckln.info
drvrnln.info
dwabmln.info
fcsjoln.info
hlonxln.info
kcmeiln.info
kplrrln.info
fatcatoons.com
91guoys.com
signupforfreehosting.com
faithfirst.net
zjyc28.com
tongchengjinyeyouyue0004.com
nhuan6.com
oldgardensflowers.com
lightupthefloor.com
bahamamamas-stjohns.com
ly2818.com
905onthebay.com
fonemenu.com
notanothermovie.com
ukrainehighclassescort.com
meincmagazine.com
av-5858.com
yallerdawg.com
donkeythemovie.com
corporatehospitalitygroup.com
boboyy88.com
miteinander-lernen.com
dannayconsulting.com
officialtomsshoesoutletstore.com
forsale-amoxil-amoxicillin.net
generictadalafil-canada.net
guitarlessonseastlondon.com
lesliesrestaurants.com
mattyno9.com
nri-homeloans.com
rtgvisas-qatar.com
salbutamolventolinonline.net
sportsinjuries.info
topsedu.xyz
xmxm7.com
x332.xyz
sportstrainingblog.com
autopartspares.com
readguy.net
soniasegreto.com
bobbygdavis.com
wedsna.com
rgkntk.com
bkkmarketplace.com
zxqcwx.com
breakupprogram.com
boxcardc.com
unblockyoutubeindonesia.com
fabulousbookmark.com
beat-the.com
guatemala-sailfishing-vacations-charters.com
magie-marketing.com
kingstonliteracy.com
guitaraffinity.com
eurelookinggoodapparel.com
howtolosecheekfat.net
marioncma.org
oliviadavismusic.com
shantelcampbellrealestate.com
shopleborn13.com
topindiafree.com
v-visitors.net
qazwsxedcokmijn.com
parabis.net
terriesandelin.com
luxuryhomme.com
studyexpanse.com
ronoom.com
djjky.com
053hh.com
originbluei.com
baucishotel.com
33kkn.com
intrinsiqresearch.com
mariaescort-kiev.com
mymaguk.com
sponsored4u.com
crimsonclass.com
bataillenavale.com
searchtile.com
ze-stribrnych-struh.com
zenithalhype.com
modalpkv.com
bouisset-lafforgue.com
useupload.com
37r.net
autoankauf-muenster.com
bantinbongda.net
bilgius.com
brabustermagazine.com
indigrow.org
miicrosofts.net
mysmiletravel.com
selinasims.com
spellcubesapp.com
usa-faction.com
snn01.com
hope-kelley.com
bancodeprofissionais.com
zjccp99.com
liturgycreator.com
weedsmj.com
majorelenco.com
colcollect.com
androidnews-jp.com
hypoallergenicdogsnames.com
dailyupdatez.com
foodphotographyreviews.com
cricutcom-setup.com
chprowebdesign.com
katyrealty-kanepa.com
tasramar.com
bilgipinari.org
four-am.com
indiarepublicday.com
inquick-enbooks.com
iracmpi.com
kakaschoenen.com
lsm99flash.com
nana1255.com
ngen-niagara.com
technwzs.com
virtualonlinecasino1345.com
wallpapertop.net
nova-click.com
abeautifulcrazylife.com
diggmobile.com
denochemexicana.com
eventhalfkg.com
medcon-taiwan.com
life-himawari.com
myriamshomes.com
nightmarevue.com
allstarsru.com
bestofthebuckeyestate.com
bestofthefirststate.com
bestwireless7.com
declarationintermittent.com
findhereall.com
jingyou888.com
lsm99deal.com
lsm99galaxy.com
moozatech.com
nuagh.com
patliyo.com
philomenamagikz.net
rckouba.net
saturnunipessoallda.com
tallahasseefrolics.com
thematurehardcore.net
totalenvironment-inthatquietearth.com
velislavakaymakanova.com
vermontenergetic.com
sizam-design.com
kakakpintar.com
begorgeouslady.com
1800birks4u.com
2wheelstogo.com
6strip4you.com
bigdata-world.net
emailandco.net
gacapal.com
jharpost.com
krishnaastro.com
lsm99credit.com
mascalzonicampani.com
sitemapxml.org
thecityslums.net
topagh.com
flairnetwebdesign.com
bangkaeair.com
beneventocoupon.com
noternet.org
oqtive.com
smilebrightrx.com
decollage-etiquette.com
1millionbestdownloads.com
7658.info
bidbass.com
devlopworldtech.com
digitalmarketingrajkot.com
fluginfo.net
naqlafshk.com
passion-decouverte.com
playsirius.com
spacceleratorintl.com
stikyballs.com
top10way.com
yokidsyogurt.com
zszyhl.com
16firthcrescent.com
abogadolaboralistamd.com
apk2wap.com
aromacremeria.com
banparacard.com
bosmanraws.com
businessproviderblog.com
caltonosa.com
calvaryrevivalchurch.org
chastenedsoulwithabrokenheart.com
cheminotsgardcevennes.com
cooksspot.com
cqxzpt.com
deesywig.com
deltacartoonmaps.com
despixelsetdeshommes.com
duocoracaobrasileiro.com
fareshopbd.com
goodpainspills.com
kobisitecdn.com
makaigoods.com
mgs1454.com
piccadillyresidences.com
radiolaondafresca.com
rubendorf.com
searchengineimprov.com
sellmyhrvahome.com
shugahouseessentials.com
sonihullquad.com
subtractkilos.com
valeriekelmansky.com
vipasdigitalmarketing.com
voolivrerj.com
zeelonggroup.com
1015southrockhill.com
10x10b.com
111-online-casinos.com
191cb.com
3665arpentunitd.com
aitesonics.com
bag-shokunin.com
brightotech.com
communication-digitale-services.com
covoakland.org
dariaprimapack.com
freefortniteaccountss.com
gatebizglobal.com
global1entertainmentnews.com
greatytene.com
hiroshiwakita.com
iktodaypk.com
jahatsakong.com
meadowbrookgolfgroup.com
newsbharati.net
platinumstudiosdesign.com
slotxogamesplay.com
strikestaruk.com
trucosdefortnite.com
ufabetrune.com
weddedtowhitmore.com
12940brycecanyonunitb.com
1311dietrichoaks.com
2monarchtraceunit303.com
601legendhill.com
850elaine.com
adieusolasomade.com
andora-ke.com
bestslotxogames.com
cannagomcallen.com
endlesslyhot.com
iestpjva.com
ouqprint.com
pwmaplefest.com
qtylmr.com
rb88betting.com
buscadogues.com
1007macfm.com
born-wild.com
growthinvests.com
promocode-casino.com
proyectogalgoargentina.com
wbthompson-art.com
whitemountainwheels.com
7thavehvl.com
developmethis.com
funkydogbowties.com
travelodgegrandjunction.com
gao-town.com
globalmarketsuite.com
blogshippo.com
hdbka.com
proboards67.com
outletonline-michaelkors.com
kalkis-research.com
thuthuatit.net
buckcash.com
hollistercanada.com
docterror.com
asadart.com
vmayke.org
erwincomputers.com
dirimart.org
okkii.com
loteriasdecehegin.com
mountanalog.com
healingtaobritain.com
ttxmonitor.com
bamthemes.com
nwordpress.com
11bolabonanza.com
avgo.top