内容摘要：Jones plans to hold out in Basin. He owns two other businesses there — a café next to the pharmacy and a grocery store, for which he cashed in some of his retirement accounts to keep it from closing.

Jones plans to hold out in Basin. He owns two other businesses there — a café next to the pharmacy and a grocery store, for which he cashed in some of his retirement accounts to keep it from closing.

While California farmers often rattle off a list of challenges they face including high labor costs,and overseas competition, many avocado growers say they have a good thing going. A key reason may come as a surprise to some — Mexican imports.

When the United States lifted its ban on Mexican avocados in 1997, California growers worried at first that the imported fruit would displace their production.But the steady flow of avocados has wound up helping, not hurting, their sales by allowing for a year-round supply to markets and restaurants that has fomented demand, farmers say. Before the influx, most American consumers considered avocados to be specialty items — and when they came into season in California, industry officials had to work to rev up widespread interest in order to sell them.Avocado consumption has been booming in the United States over the past two decades. The amount of fruit available per person tripled to more than 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) between 2000 and 2021, federal statistics show. Avocado toast and guacamole are regular offerings not just in culinary hubs like NYC but at cafes around the Midwest and the South.

Andreas Tompros holds ripe avocados grown at his avocado farm, Ridgecrest Avocados, in Somis, Calif., on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)Andreas Tompros holds ripe avocados grown at his avocado farm, Ridgecrest Avocados, in Somis, Calif., on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

On a steep, sun-soaked hillside northwest of Los Angeles, Tompros is replanting nearly 300 avocado trees with the belief that Americans’ hunger for the fruit — and his orchard — will continue to grow.

“It will come back, and I believe it will become better than it was,” Tompros, who previously ran a software company in Hollywood, said of the orchard he took over five years ago in the tiny community of Somis.ADA’s Kessler said the FDA’s plan “will be particularly harmful to the most vulnerable and those who lack access to care.”

The FDA regulates most dental products, including fluoride-containing toothpastes, supplements, mouthwashes and rinses. But in Tuesday’s press release, the FDA said the ingestible products targeted by the agency have “never been approved.” The agency’s plan wouldn’t affect toothpastes, mouthwash or fluoride treatments used by adults or those offered in dentists’ offices.In recent weeks fluoride-containing products have increasingly been targeted with lawsuits and legal actions.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation early this month into the marketing of fluoride toothpastes by Colgate-Palmolive and Proctor and Gamble. A press release from his office described the companies’ promotions as “misleading, deceptive and dangerous.”The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.