Editing Openai/691a94b5-7718-8006-a4b8-bdd4b670138b (section)

==== 3. TL;DR, in your terms ====

If you want a simple working mental model for specialty crops, per crop rotation (or per bearing year for orchards):
* Vegetables (lettuce, broccoli, etc.): - ~$300–900/acre on pesticides/herbicides/fungicides.
* Tree fruit & nuts: - ~$250–600/acre on those chemistries, crop and region dependent.
* Strawberries & other very high-value systems: - ~$1,000–3,000/acre, with fumigation dominating.

And over the past decade:

: The number has gone up in nominal terms for almost all major specialty crops.
: In real terms it’s roughly flat to moderately higher, with the biggest real increases where new pests, disease pressure, or regulatory changes have forced more complex and expensive programs.

If you’d like, next step we can pick a specific crop/region (e.g., coastal CA lettuce, coastal CA strawberries, or almonds in SJV) and I can build a compact table that compares 2010-ish vs 2024-ish per-acre chem costs side-by-side from the UC cost studies.