| This dissertation is a presentation of a descriptive model for evaluating and measuring the effect of the California Strawberry Commission's marketing order on economic variables which influence supply, demand, real prices, farm income, and growers' cost and profitability and a history of the revolution in California strawberry pomology, horticulture, and marketing, from 1945 to 2005.; Many patented varieties developed by the U of C, Davis caused an increase in acreage and per acre yields resulting in California emergence as a preeminent world producer and licensee of plants. An unintended consequence is China becoming a major strawberry producer with seemingly unlimited land and labor.; Revolutionary horticulture methodology including sprinkler and drip irrigation, methyl bromide and chloropicrin soil fumigation, plastic mulching, slow release fertilizer and placement, annual planting, and implementation of high elevation and high latitude nurseries, has enabled yields to greatly expand and production costs to decline.; A descriptive model is used to evaluate the California Strawberry Commission's agricultural research and marketing policies and is suggested for providing accountability to growers. The model addresses the question of whether the CSC mandatory checkoff assessment has caused demand and supply to increase. These outcomes will be measured by specific barometers and include growers' real prices and total crop value and "proxies for sales" such as attitude changes, strawberry market share at the retail and food service level, category contribution to total produce dollars, and the number of retail ads. Total production per acre and grower profitability, as affected by CSC policies, are evaluated.; CSC policies in pomology and horticulture resulted in increased production and reduced cost per acre permitting augmented grower returns even as real prices declined. Grower profitability is dependent on production per acre and market timing of their respective harvest.; CSC marketing programs have not caused improvement in real prices and farm income although proxies for sales barometers, such as consumers' attitudes toward strawberries, and strawberry percentage of chain store sales, are positive. Any correlation with CSC policies cannot be made but are probably the effect of the increase in total volume and private industry sales and promotion practices. |
