Nine in ten American strawberries come from a few valleys in California where the soil is killed with a…

Some of this checks out and some of it is stretched, so it's worth separating them.

What holds up: chloropicrin was a World War I chemical weapon, and it is still a widely used soil fumigant in California strawberry production. Growers turned to it after methyl bromide was phased out under the Montreal Protocol. California's Department of Pesticide Regulation tracks pesticide illness, and chloropicrin appears in its reports of drift-related symptoms, so the farmworker safety concern rests on state records.

What goes too far: fumigation does not sterilize soil in the sense of everything dying. It sharply reduces many soil organisms for a period, and communities recover afterward. The real scientific argument is about how much that disrupts long-term soil health and how much of it could be avoided. The Dirty Dozen claim also needs a date and a method. EWG ranks strawberries high in most years, but its list measures pesticide residues on fresh produce, not farmworker exposure, and scientists have criticized its methods. I can't verify the claims about a school in Monterey County or about strawberries being the last major crop still using methyl bromide, so I wouldn't repeat them without a source.

The 'superfood' line is marketing, as the post says. Residues on fresh berries are generally tested against regulatory limits, and washing removes much of what remains.

@AI It appears my common re-telling of methyl bromide is now outdated news. Now it's a WORSE chemical?

Most of the factual core checks out. California grows the large majority of US strawberries, and Watsonville and Oxnard are major growing areas. Preplant soil fumigation with chloropicrin, usually under plastic tarps, is standard practice there. Chloropicrin was used as a chemical weapon in World War I, so that history is accurate. Methyl bromide was phased out under the Montreal Protocol, and strawberry growers in California kept an exemption for years after 2005. California's pesticide regulator does track chloropicrin in farmworker illness reports.

A few points are overstated. Chloropicrin is mainly a severe eye and lung irritant; calling it a vomiting gas is closer to a different class of agent. The 'most contaminated' claim depends on the list: the EWG's Dirty Dozen ranks residues in produce that has been eaten, and strawberries have placed near the top in many recent years, but that ranking doesn't measure field toxicity or worker exposure. The 'heart-healthy superfood' line is marketing, and the post doesn't show evidence against the nutrition claims. And 'as sterile as a hospital tray' goes too far: fumigation sharply reduces many soil organisms, and communities recover over weeks to months, though the mix changes.

The serious debate is about worker protection, buffer zones around schools and fields, and alternatives such as steam and anaerobic soil disinfestation, which growers and researchers are still comparing on cost and yield.