Ventura County farmers aren't overstating the situation when they say there are no viable, cost-effective alternatives to the fumigants they're using to treat locally grown strawberries, experts say.

"There's no alternative as good as methyl bromide," said Dr. Oleg Daugovish, an organic and sustainable agriculture coordinator at the UC Cooperative Extension in Santa Paula. "It was kind of one of those silver bullets that cannot be replaced."

Finding a replacement for methyl bromide, the odorless, colorless gas used to fumigate, has confounded California growers who have spent millions researching alternatives, only to learn that it will take a package of substitutes to do the same job, and it won't be as effective.

The California Strawberry Commission has spent more than $10 million searching, said Rick Tomlinson, the commission's director of public policy.

"There are no alternatives that produce the same yields," he said. "Basically, you get about a 50 percent loss in yield and then you have a higher risk of crop failure."

Regardless, the federal government is forcing growers to phase out methyl bromide because it depletes the stratospheric ozone layer.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methyl bromide is toxic, and human exposure to high concentrations can damage the central nervous and respiratory systems as well as cause severe damage to the lungs, eyes and skin.

Responding to a 2006 federal court ruling, the state Department of Pesticide Regulation is being forced to reduce air pollution from pesticides. The agency has proposed cutbacks that could leave from 3,000 to 4,000 acres of strawberries untreated in Ventura County, causing an estimated $11 million to $31 million revenue loss to growers, according to UC Davis. The loss estimates are significantly lower than the initial estimate of about $80 million by the Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Growers have until Jan. 1 to comply.

Emissions from fumigants used to sterilize soil before planting can lead to smog, which is linked to chronic lung disease. Fumigants are used not only on strawberries but also on flowers and peppers.

Strawberries are the top revenue-generator among all crops in the county's $1.2 billion agricultural industry.

Growers, about to lose their best strawberry fumigant, foresee lost revenue on the horizon and are up in arms, concerned that they'll go out of business.

They have raised concerns about the information used by the judge who issued the 2006 court order. Tomlinson said the court did not have accurate data on Ventura County's air quality compliance rate.

The farmers were not made parties to the case. It was brought by a group of nonprofit organizations against state environmental agencies, so farmers weren't heard, Tomlinson said.

The judge "did not receive any information about Ventura being in compliance," he said.

The Wishtoyo Foundation and Ventura Coastkeeper were plaintiffs.

Mati Waiya, founder and executive directive director of Wishtoyo, has little sympathy for growers, whom he believes have become greedy, willing to trade residents' health for the profits that strawberries generate.

"The thing that really bothers me is that in lieu of a healthy environment for the people of Ventura County, they're trying to substitute that with a product that is really a dessert," he said.

"We don't need strawberries. Is it only about economic value instead of the health of Ventura County residents?"

If the strawberry crops were rotated as in the past with a mix of seasonal items like celery, onion and cilantro, he said, growers could use less-harmful fumigants. "They'd still be making money," he said.

It mustn't be overlooked that any health impacts that the current fumigants might cause would result in an economic impact as well, Waiya said.

"It's not a must that we need strawberries," he said. "It's economic. It's all about the bank."