A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #346 - Ecology, Green Gold: Avocado, subtle flavor for a bitter business (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Avocado is currently consumed massively all over the world. If its 
consumption can have multiple interests, its production system has 
multiple dramatic effects. Translation of an article by a comrade from 
the Unión AnarcoComunista. ---- The avocado is as fashionable as bananas 
and chocolate were in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. 
Symbols of freedom. "Welcome to the free world" with bananas and 
chocolate. Today, avocado is "green gold".
Technically, it is a nutrient-rich fruit that allows you to prepare 
delicious and varied dishes. But before getting there, we have to go 
back to the end of the 1980s, when the American market began to 
strengthen national production because it considered avocado as an 
element of a healthy diet.

The largest avocado producer, Michoacán (Mexico), was banned from 
exporting avocados for seventy years, until the 1990s, when cultivation 
moved in the opposite direction. U.S. production expanded, transferring 
its activity to Mexican lands, which gave rise to a local culture that 
complies with U.S. quality standards and the North American Free Trade 
Agreement (NAFTA). of 1994 having a crucial aspect, putting an end to 
the veto on the Mexican product. Production costs have fallen, as the 
climatic conditions of Michoacán are ideal for this crop.

The different recipes for dishes prepared with this fruit have reached a 
global reach, through television or advertising which have promoted it 
as the favorite breakfast of this century. New York, France and Germany 
offer innovative avocado-based cuisine.

In 2021, the Milenio newspaper estimated that every seven minutes, a 
truck leaves Michoacán for the United States. At the end of the season, 
the figure of 1.27 million tonnes was reached. Other countries such as 
Peru, Chile and the Dominican Republic compete to be among the top 
producers, but it is the Mexican state that is the "king of the avocado".

High water consumption
Avocado seeds take up to fourteen years before they can begin to be 
harvested, but if trees are planted, the wait is reduced to five years 
and the consequences are undeniable and destructive.

An avocado requires 0.75 tonnes of water, seven times more than other 
fruits and up to 40 times more than pineapple, for example, leading to 
huge water shortages in regional areas. used for avocado plantations. 
Avocado trees cannot be grown on a large scale without irrigation. 
Although irrigation reduces water requirements by 20%, the environmental 
impact leads to deforestation due to the large portions of land needed 
for sufficient production and to cover the global avocado market.

Farmers are acquiring more and more land, cutting down trees and burning 
forests to gain more and more space. The Global Forest Observatory 
report indicates that 98% of deforestation in Mexico is due to 
agricultural expansion and also shows the area of forest cover lost to 
fire, amounting to more than 340 km² of land.

The felling of forest trees causes intense climate change. Avocado 
cultivation cannot compensate for the loss of other trees because the 
avocado tree absorbs only minimal amounts of carbon. Furthermore, 
avocado production is monoculture (the practice of growing a single crop 
repeatedly) which damages the soil by stripping it of nutrients, reduces 
organic matter and causes erosion.

Farmers use chemical fertilizers. Herbicides damage soils in the long 
term, put pollinators at risk of extinction, modify the microbial 
landscape of the soil and leave a carbon footprint, i.e. greenhouse gas 
emissions. It's Fresh research showed that two avocados emit 846 grams 
of CO2[1].

Transporting avocados thousands of kilometers, called "food miles," 
pollutes and adds to the negative impact on the environment. CO2 
emissions strongly accentuate global warming and climate change. In 
addition, producers use non-biodegradable packaging to protect avocados 
during transport.

This packaging includes plastic bags and crates also lined with plastic 
which are not recyclable and therefore further increase greenhouse gas 
emissions.

The global demand for avocados harms the food security of producing 
countries by causing price inflation.

The bitter flavor
Mexico's avocado growers face exploitation by cartels, routinely 
inspecting plantations and intimidating farmers by extorting protection 
money. Harvesters work long hours and face violence in a 
multimillion-dollar business. The center of "green gold," Michoacán, is 
also a center for the production of synthetic and natural drugs, 
primarily methamphetamines and marijuana.

Cocaine travels on all the roads of Michoacán. These illegal activities 
are inexorably accompanied by extortion, disappearances, thefts, 
murders, arms trafficking, and unofficial tax collections with the 
complacency of the authorities. Anyone who opposes the cartels is in 
danger, farmers who resisted the cartels have been tortured and killed.

According to the Food Empowerment Project, in 2019, 19 people were 
murdered and their bodies found in the town of Uruapan, Michoacán, with 
some bodies displayed on a bridge as a warning from the Cartel of 
Jalisco - New Generation, which claimed responsibility for the murders. 
Avocado production in other places also attracts attention due to human 
rights violations, such as the Kakuzi farm in Kenya or Petorca in Chile.

These new organizations were born from the split of the criminal group 
La Familia Michoacana which gave birth in 2011 to a group known as Los 
Caballeros Templararios, imitating their clothing and religion. They 
sowed fear and charged producers millions of dollars in fees.

In 2013, this group was brought under control through armed uprisings.

Currently, these companies are in the hands of new organizations which 
do not attack large avocado entrepreneurs, but small producers. This is 
in order to take their land, the harvesters, the workers who make a 
living from it, by imposing minimal wages on them, 12-hour work days for 
$120.

Global demand for avocados makes 100% sustainable production difficult, 
but advances in sustainability include restoring tree cover through 
reforestation, community water conservation, recyclable packaging 
materials, changes in the use of toxic fertilizers and insecticides.

What future for the lawyer?
In 2019, it was possible to sequence the genome of the Criollo avocado 
in order to genetically modify it, thicken its shell, reduce its size to 
reduce its high water consumption (National Genomics Laboratory for 
Biodiversity, Iruapato ).

It is undeniable that avocado is a very healthy fruit due to the amount 
of nutrients it contains. A 190-gram avocado contains healthy fats and 
carbohydrates that improve the immune system and stabilize blood sugar 
levels. Fiber increases the number of healthy bacteria in the digestive 
system. Avocado also contains three types of short-chain fatty 
acid-producing bacteria: Faecalibacterium, Lachnuspira and Alistipes. It 
is very rich in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds and is an 
excellent raw material for beauty products. This great versatility 
increases its marketability.

There are several types of avocado such as Bacon, Reed, Zutano, Lamb, 
Pinkerton, Nabal, Lachnuspira and Alistipes. The main types of avocados 
for export are Hess and Fuerte.

Although organic production has increased, it is not sufficient and the 
market price for the consumer is high.

If planting, irrigation and fertilization continue to be carried out 
inconsistently in order to increase production, avocado tree diseases 
and pests will become more and more common. The largest and most 
widespread problem is root rot caused by the pathogen Phytophthora 
cinnamomi. The fight against this pathogen is extremely difficult. Poor 
drainage and soils that retain water encourage the spread of pathogens.

Another disease of avocado trees is bacterial cancer caused by fungal 
pathogens. The main pests of the avocado tree are Mediterranean fruit 
flies, red spiders and lice.

If measures are not taken to ensure the irrigation and fertilization 
process so that avocado plantations receive minerals and vitamins in a 
healthy way, the risk is more than considerable.

The problems linked to this "green gold", also called "the new blood 
diamond", are numerous and serious. The first thing to do is to support 
organic farming by purchasing organic products and reduce the 
consumption of those that are the "new blood diamonds".

Ana López Khi, Union AnarcoCommunista España

Validate
[1]More precisely, a study commissioned by this food tech company, 
notably reproduced here: "Your delicious avocado brunches are destroying 
the planet"; July 2017, Metro.co.uk.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Or-vert-L-avocat-subtile-saveur-pour-un-commerce-amer
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