The industry also benefits from mainstream appeal.
Avocado growers face difficulties both unique to their industry and common to all farmers.
Growers must also contend with thieves who raid their groves at night and smugglers who bring cheap fruit up from Mexico to sell along roadsides and at restaurant back doors. In Mexico, there are native insects that eat the fruit and predators on those pests that aren't yet widespread in California, said Mark Hoddle, an entomologist with the University of California at Riverside. You will not be charged to look for stories, only to retrieve one.