The Truth About Avocados

The forests of Michoacán, Mexico are being invaded, burned by arsonists and illegally logged to serve our insatiable appetite for guacamole. Not even the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is safe! Deforestation is expected to double by 2050 if Michuacán’s avocado plantations continue to expand. U.S. companies are profiting from the “green gold” rush while turning a blind eye to the devastation caused by the avocado boom. They can stop the deforestation by refusing to buy avocados grown on recently cleared land. If your avocado isn’t organic and fair trade (or from California)… It came from land that was recently, probably illegally, deforested, land that was stolen or cleared in an act of arson, or land that was stripped of its oak-pine forests or oyamel fir trees (the winter roosts of monarch butterflies). It was irrigated with water siphoned without a permit away from the local community that now can’t grow their own food or bathe and have to buy water, even to drink, or abandon their land altogether. It traveled a supply chain that involved cartels that extorted “protection money” from the avocado farm or the packer, or hijacked the truck that was taking it to market, or murdered the indigenous forest guardians who spoke out about the stolen land, the burned forest and the siphoned water. This is why we should only eat California-grown organic avocados and Mexican-grown organic and fair trade avocados.

US Avocado Sellers Fail to End Sourcing from Illegally Deforested Land in Mexico (Climate Rights International)

Avocado Goldrush Links US Companies With Mexico’s Deforestation Disaster (Reuters)

Read the OCA’s Press Release