Hello guys!
Today I just want to talk to you about a social problem: the extreme consumption of avocados and the consequences that it has in the world.
Today, avocados are everywhere: special avocados restaurants are opening everywhere, avocados are used in more and more recipes and it is even recommended in beauty products. I don't know if you have noticed, but this trend just starts a few years ago. When I was little, maybe I saw like no more than 10 avocados throughout these years. But since 2010, the consumption of avocados has tripled, while each Western countries increased its importation of these fruits.
I think that if you are reading this article, it's certainly because you are an avocados aficionado and wondering what is wrong with eating it, so please excuse me for what is following. Moreover, I'm not talking about a complete shutdown of avocados but more of a reduction of the consumption.
So I explain: like as said earlier, avocados are used more and more and have a reputation of having a lot of benefit for our health: it is "good fat", and so on. This brings us to an explosion of the avocados consumption and production: the avocados importations have tripled since 2003. Mexico (once again) is the largest avocados producer in the world, by representing one-third of the world production. This is a huge market for them because it represents like 1,2 milliard euros and they produce several millions of tons of that fruit.
The consequences
First, it has a bad consequence for Mexico: the Mexican population is used to eat avocados since forever, and these the continuing increase of avocados consumption in the world makes the avocados prices in Mexico really high. The prices are so high that Mexico is considering the fact that they should import avocados!
Second, to increase the avocados production, producers sometimes destroy pine forests to plant avocados. These productions require a lot of water, and we fall again in the overexploitation of groundwaters (like in the article I wrote last week about Coca-Cola in Mexico: https://steemit.com/world/@jarendesta/want-to-understand-2-coca-cola-in-mexico).
Third, the big money mass that is produced by the avocado market attract dealers, who don't hesitate to attack the avocado producers and they spread terror among them. They have to organize a protection of their culture and some watching operations. It is mostly members of those cartels who begin illegal avocado productions in pin forests, destroying the ecosystem and the Mexican landscapes. It leads to an increase in organized crimes: there were criminal fires, murders,... These fires, in addition to destroying avocados culture, also contribute to the massive deforestation that is happening right now.
But the increase in price is not the only issue for the Mexican population: the avocados production consumes a lot of agro-chemical products, and it has disastrous consequences on the health of the population. One can see an increase of respiratory and digestive diseases, and rivers are also highly polluted.
Mexican producers see in avocados an easy way to make a lot of money: an avocado producer can earn 5,000 dollars per years by selling avocados. Like every social problem in the world, what benefits to some people can be very bad for others.
The cause?
I have read somewhere that the main cause of this social problem is "just" linked to an aggressive marketing strategy, realized by 19,000 Mexican producers and exporting-avocados companies. They had built it in 2013, and they have to spend once again a lot of money to diffuse a advertising for avocado during the Super Bowl.
So, as I was saying earlier, I do not say that you have to completely stop avocados for the rest of your life! But maybe considering the fact that our consumption is too excessive and put that in question can be a good thing. Moreover, there are some labels for avocados that assure you that you are eating an avocado raised in ecological conditions, so that can also be a good solution if you are not capable of reducing!