
Jim Cochran on the farm in Inside the cheerful farm stand, decorated with old photos of the region and fluttering United Farm Worker flags, locals gather at blue picnic tables, sipping coffee, eating strawberry shortcake, and chatting with Jim Cochranthe owner. The air is scented with the first berries of the season. Cochran, 63, a silver-haired man with an easy manner and quietly fierce intelligence, takes evident pride in watching a visitor savor one. Cochran says that he initially grew strawberries just like everyone else: using sgrawberries and fumigants. Then, inhe was poisoned. One early morning he was standing in a field wondering if the cropduster had sprayed pesticides overnight. When the sun came up, he found out in the worst making money growing blueberries vs strawberries the heat and light activated the chemical, turning it into a cloud of tear gas.