The Pits Side of the Avocado

Social media influencers and dietitians alike have made avocados the quintessential health food. Pinterest boards of the abundant ways to eat avocados--from guacamole to avocado toast-- have increased sales and popularity of the fruit. While seeming like a harmless commodity, this growth in demand has had environmental justice implications for the farmers who grow these fruits. The battle for water against large avocado corporations doesn't make this fight any easier and that’s just a start to the negative impacts they cause on the environment. 

With avocados being highly popular, one would think avocados are easily grown, but avocados are highly water intensive and temperamental fruits, requiring about a thousand liters of water for one kilogram. They cannot grow in cold environments which is one of the reasons that most plantations are in Latin America. Avocados have been considered green gold by Latin American countries because of the massive increase they bring to their economies, but there is a price they pay for it.

In Chile, avocados plantations go on for hundreds of acres even though there’s a scarcity of water. Due to the high volumes of water an avocado plant needs to grow, Chileans experience even higher rates of water insecurity and leads for water to be considered a luxury product. 

In the province of Petorca in Chile, farming irrigation canals and river beds have disappeared because of avocados, and villagers have their water brought in on trucks at the expense of the taxpayer. Water is considered private property in Chile’s constitution and therefore corporations are able to buy lands with water or have the government give them property in exchange for other resources or benefits. While the people of Chile fight in order to gain their rights to water, corporations are given water by the government and find that it isn’t enough so they create contraptions to steal water from nearby villagers. This creates disputes between the communities living nearby and corporations that have the government on their side.

When communities decide to stand up to companies and corporations who steal their water, the punishment is quite minimal. As a result of the privatization of water, the risk of stealing it is at most a citation of twelve hundred euros. Activist groups such as Movimiento de Defensa por el Protección Ambiente (Movement for the Defense of Water, Land, and Environmental Protection- MODATIMA) fight for communities’ rights to water, protesting outside of mayor’s and governor’s offices, only to receive death threats by the government, corporations, and the community themselves.  

Water is obviously something that is needed for daily use, but in Chile the villagers and government set a cap on the daily intake of water used to drink, for food, for farmer’s plantations, and for necessities like laundry. Limitations on water consumption get even worse in the summer during severe droughts, and the water that does exist is prioritized for the avocado plantations. 80% of water goes to agriculture in Chile and the agricultural lands continue to grow, while the water for the villages in these places diminish. The need for water rises with the demand from consumers, and that only leads corporations to take more water from villagers. When villagers ask for corporations to give up some of their water during the summer, they are turned down because that water is key to their multi-million dollar companies.

Further up north in Mexico, farmers thin mature pine trees in order to grow young avocado trees causing about 30% to 40% of the annual forest loss. Michoacán being one of the largest avocado producers, transforms almost 20,000 acres of forest land into agricultural land. Water streams begin to travel smaller distances because there’s less of it. This not only affects the villagers who will eventually have to walk farther or find a new place to get water, but also the biodiversity near these riverbeds.

In addition to the negative impacts that the lack of water has, there also come other issues that have an impact on the environment. The deforestation that occurs to plant fruits that are highly demanded can lead to the point where the Pollutant Standards Index can reach far above three hundred which is considered hazardous. One might think that it primarily affects residents who are nearby and the biodiversity that inhabit the forests, and it is true since it causes impacts on the ecosystem and the health of community members, but it can travel long distances. This can even become a transboundary issue that affects more than just the people who reside near the forests. The burning of forests releases greenhouse gases and with the trees that absorb carbon dioxide gone, it becomes an even bigger problem. 

There is also the issue of cargo ships travelling long distances to ship the avocados, adding to greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the avocados from Chile travel to Europe, and the ones in Mexico travel all throughout North America. These are large distances travelled in order to continue to satisfy the demands of the consumer, but it all means that there is a large release of carbon dioxide. This results in ocean acidification that can lead to coral bleaching and loss of ocean biodiversity, adding to the issue of global warming. 

While the growth of avocados impacts these communities, the solution is not as simple as boycotting the avocado as the industry is the backbone of many livelihoods. Even though the farmers are underpaid, this is a way for them to put some food on the table. The farmers shouldn’t be the ones to pay, but rather the companies who take away their resources. In order to continue to support Chile’s and Michoacán’s economy, one can find fruits that grow all year. Although it wouldn’t eliminate the GHG emissions, by buying fruits native to these places like prickly pears from Chile (which grow no matter their water intake), there would be a support for their economy and the native fruits without the need for deforestation. 

One can also find places that have the right climate, soil, and factors necessary to grow avocados easier like the Philippines which has the tropical climate and necessary soil to grow them. A consumer can also support the fight for water and environmental rights in these places by donating, supporting, and contacting social activists groups like MODATIMA. 

Avocados don’t need to be abandoned completely, but instead we can shop more sustainably, and step out of their comfort zones by trying new fruits and vegetables that support the economy and farmers from Chile and Mexico.