The liberation of threatened and marginalized fruit remains a problem in the homeland, while people are encouraged to eat subsidized “edible food-like substances”, in the words of Michael Pollan. These urbane vigilantes are taking the harvest into their own hands, with a mature avocado tree in the middle of a construction site. While "gardeners" who "mow, blow and go" often rake and remove the avocados natural mulch,
the UC Agricultural research division found that "70 Percent Reduction in Yard Waste Going to Landfills in Ventura County. Not only has the green waste helped in controlling a terrible avocado disease, using the green waste in avocado orchards has reduced significantly the amount of materials going to landfills. The integrated control methods have allowed growers to rely less on fungicides while achieving greater control than with fungicides alone. These practices have done much to maintain the productivity of the $350 million a year avocado crop, saving growers as much as $50 million annually from avocado root rot".
http://ucanr.org/delivers/impactview.cfm?impactnum=577
