By Dan Charles

May is the month for strawberries and for strawberry festivals in every corner of the country. But 80% of Americas strawberries come from one state， California. Growers there typically harvest 10 times more berries from a single acre than farmers in， say， New York or Michigan. Its a miracle of agricultural technology. But that technology is not as universally loved as the fruit.

That California strawberry you just bought at the supermarket probably came from a tiny sliver of plant tissue that somebody cut from the tip of a growing strawberry stem five years ago. That little sliver went into a little glass 1）petri dish and grew into a new plant， guaranteed free of disease. Then it sent out dozens， maybe a hundred， so-called runners—little daughter plants.

五月是草莓之月，在全國各地到處都有草莓節(jié)。不過，美國80%的草莓都來自加利福尼亞州。一般來說，那里的果農(nóng)從每英畝（約6.07畝）收獲的產(chǎn)量比紐約州或密歇根州的果農(nóng)多十倍。這是農(nóng)業(yè)科技帶來的奇跡，但帶來這種成果的技術(shù)并不像草莓那樣廣受歡迎。

你剛剛在超市買的加州草莓的源頭是一點點銀色的植物組織，那可能是五年前從一枝正在生長的草莓植株莖尖上剪下的。那一小點銀色的植物組織會被放在小玻璃培養(yǎng)皿里，繼而長成一棵絕對不會有病蟲害的新植物。接下來，它變成了數(shù)十棵，甚至是數(shù)百棵草莓纖匐枝，也就是小棵的后代植物。

Daren Gee （Strawberry Grower）： Those runners are basically clones of the mother. And then they plant those and then they take the daughters off of that one， and do it again and again and again.

This takes years. The plants are multiplied first in carefully-controlled greenhouses， then in fields in the heat of Californias Central Valley. And finally in fields along the California-Oregon border， up in the mountains. Its cold up there， which is the key. Somehow the cold gets these plants primed for maximum production.

Daren： And then theyll dig up these mother plants and all of the daughters， and theyll throw the mothers away. And then theyll send me the daughters.

Its those daughters that produce Californias monster strawberry crop. And all along this chain of clones， from petri dish to final harvest， people are working obsessively， fanatically， to protect these plants from disease because Californias strawberry growers dont want to take any risk that their crop will fail. They have too much money invested， especially in expensive land in prime growing areas along the coast.

So every year， a month before planting， 2）fumigation machines move slowly across the fields injecting chemicals into the soil and sealing in the fumes with sheets of plastic. The chemicals kill weeds， insects， and 3）fungi.

Now， organic strawberry growers dont fumigate； they stay a step ahead of diseases by moving from field to field. But even organic growers buy their strawberry plants from nurseries that do use fumigation.

達林·吉（果農(nóng)）：這些草莓纖匐枝基本上就是母枝的克隆后代。然后，他們種下這些草莓纖匐枝，再從它們的枝上剪下新的草莓纖匐枝，就這樣一次又一次地重復這個過程。

整個過程要花好幾年的時間。這些植物先是在被嚴格監(jiān)控的溫室里繁殖，然后被植于加州中部炎熱的山谷地里。最終會移栽到加州和俄勒岡州交界處山上的地里。山上很冷，而這一點正是關(guān)鍵。不知怎地，寒冷的天氣能讓草莓達到最高產(chǎn)量。

達林：然后，他們會挖起所有的母枝和纖匐枝，把母枝全部扔掉，把纖匐枝給我。

我眼前這些就是可以生長出加州巨型草莓的纖匐枝。而從培養(yǎng)皿到最后的收獲，在這一系列克隆技術(shù)生產(chǎn)鏈條的每個步驟中，人們不管不顧，發(fā)了瘋似地埋頭保護草莓不受病蟲的侵害。加州的果農(nóng)在這上面，特別是在沿著海岸最好的昂貴農(nóng)田上投入了大量的資金，因此不愿意冒這個險。

于是，每年在草莓種下的前一個月，熏煙消毒機就在地里緩慢地移動，把化學劑噴入土壤中，再用塑料薄膜把煙罩在里面。這些化學劑可以除雜草、昆蟲和真菌。

當然，有機果農(nóng)是不會進行煙熏殺蟲的，他們用從一塊地移到下一塊地的方法來預防病蟲害。但是，即使是有機果農(nóng)也從那些使用煙熏方法殺蟲的草莓苗圃買草莓的植株。

This technology has done wonders for strawberry production， but its under attack and it may have to change. The most powerful fumigant， 4）methyl bromide， is getting phased out gradually because it can eat away at Earths ozone layer.

Were looking at some of those possible alternatives in a research plot near Watsonville， center of strawberry production.

Dan Legard （California Strawberry Commission）： As you look at the field， it looks like a regular strawberry field. You dont see any differences.

The same raised beds covered with black plastic and strawberry plants poking out of holes in the plastic. But those plants arent actually rooted in soil at all. Theyre growing in a foot-wide trough thats lined with fabric and filled with 5）peat—or something called coconut 6）coir.

Dan： So heres the coconut coir； its the fibers from the outside of a coconut. And its wet and it has good water-holding capacity， and it 7）mimics soil.

But its not soil， which is the point. There arent any scary fungi in there， so no need for fumigants to drive them away. There are other approaches， too. Using the heat of the sun to 8）sterilize the soil or ground-up seeds of 9）canola plants. Those seeds release a chemical that suppresses the harmful fungi for a while.

But commercial strawberry growers are skeptical about all these methods. The ones that work reliably， like growing plants in coconut coir， are really expensive. And the ones that are cheap sometimes fail. Dan： It may work four out of five times and that looks great to a researcher， but that means 20% of the growers fail. And no growers is going to take that 20% risk when hes investing a million dollars.

這種草莓種植技術(shù)為草莓的產(chǎn)量帶來了不可思議的成果，但如今，這種方法受到了抨擊，也許將不得不發(fā)生變化。最有效的煙熏劑是溴化甲烷，它因為造成地球的臭氧層變薄，正在慢慢退出人們的視野。

沃森維爾是加州草莓生產(chǎn)的中心，我們正在附近的一塊研究試驗地里察看一些其他的種植方式。

丹·萊加德（加州草莓委員會）：你看看這塊地，它表面上與其他草莓地一樣。你不會看出什么異樣。

同樣是隆起的苗床，上面罩著黑色的薄膜，草莓植株戳破薄膜，鉆了出來。但這些植株根本就不是長在土里。它們是長在一英尺寬的槽里，槽里填滿了泥炭和纖維，或者說一些叫椰殼粗纖維的東西。

丹：這些是椰殼粗纖維，是椰子殼外面的那層纖維。這些東西潮濕，保水能力強，與土壤相仿。但關(guān)鍵是，它不是土壤。因此，里面沒有那些讓人生畏的真菌，不需要使用煙熏劑。當然，還有其他方法。比如說用太陽的高溫對土壤或者碾碎的油菜籽進行消毒，這些油菜籽會釋放一種化學物，可在一段時間里抑制有害真菌的生長。

但商業(yè)果農(nóng)對這些方法都抱懷疑態(tài)度。一些可靠的方法非常昂貴，如在椰子殼纖維里種植；而比較便宜的辦法卻不時會失敗。丹：這些方法在五次的實驗中可能會有四次成功，這對于研究者來說已經(jīng)很不錯了，但那意味著有20%的果農(nóng)會失敗。如果果農(nóng)為此投入了一百萬美元，那就不會有人愿意冒這20%的險。

So for now， most of Californias strawberry growers are sticking with the chemicals. Its been a key to their success—producing more strawberries for a lower cost than anywhere else in the world.

因此就目前來講，加利福尼亞州的大部分果農(nóng)繼續(xù)采取用化學劑消毒的辦法。因為老方法是他們一直以來取得成功的關(guān)鍵，他們可以借此以比世界上其他任何一個地方都低得多的成本，得到更大的草莓產(chǎn)出。

翻譯：旭文