Despite Recent Freeze, Avacados will be Plentiful for Super Bowl

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 24, 2007 at 12:40 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The recent freeze destroyed much of the Southern California avocado crop. But there should be plenty of the fruit for Super Bowl Sunday. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce tells us Mexican avocados will be sold i

The recent freeze destroyed much of the Southern California avocado crop. But there should be plenty of the fruit for Super Bowl Sunday. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce tells us Mexican avocados will be sold in local stores. Americans eat roughly 50 million pounds of avocados on Super Bowl Sunday - much of it as guacamole dip. Subfreezing temperatures clobbered the local avocado crop. But local residents shouldn’t have a problem scoring avocados from Mexico. Mexican avocados were banned from the state. Farmers feared the fruit would carry insects that would destroy the state’s avocado groves. Eric Larson is with the San Diego County Farm Bureau. He says after years of testing, state officials have lifted the ban on Mexican avocados.

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Larson: The fact that we’re going to have less avocados to pick in California - consumers might not see any shortage. I don’t expect that they will because the Mexican growers can now sell in this market as well and they’ll fill in any gaps.”

Larson says it’s a coincidence that the state ban on Mexican avocados has been lifted now. He says the decision was made several years ago.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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