Avocados, also known as avocados, camphor pears, avocados, are mainly produced in Mexico. In ancient times, the fat-rich fruit of avocado has become the food of ancient large animals such as mammoths, mastodons, and glyptodonts, and when they need to replenish energy after long-distance migration, this fat-rich fruit has become a snack for animals. Large animals swallow green avocados raw, their powerful digestive system can crush the concave and convex hard skin of the fruit, absorb the nutrients of the pulp, but there is "helpless" for the huge core, can only excrete it out of the body, spread around, avocado is in this way to continue the group.
For humans, avocados are also a fruit that is beneficial to health. It is rich in nutrients and is listed as the most nutritious fruit by the World Encyclopedia. In addition, avocados are rich in fiber, potassium, vitamin C and unsaturated fats that help lower levels of harmful cholesterol and can prevent cardiovascular disease. In addition to being nutritious in itself, avocados are also a nutrient booster that helps us absorb other nutrients, especially vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Of all the countries, the United States is the largest consumer of avocados, and avocados are now eaten as American meals, Cobb Salad, which can be without onions, roasted bacon or chicken breasts, but must be indispensable to avocados. Burger King and Subway have also added it to their own food. Avocados are very popular in the United States, Germany, Canada and other European and American countries. The data shows that as the craziest consumer, the United States maintains an annual growth of 10% to 30% in avocado consumption. Imports in 2014 were nearly 730,000 tonnes, accounting for 46% of global avocado imports, and per capita annual consumption increased from 1.1 pounds in 1999 to 5.8 pounds. In 2020, the United States consumed a total of about 1.17 million tons of avocados, an increase of nearly 6 times from 35 years ago (1985).
The avocados in the United States are mainly from Central America, and 85% of the avocados are imported from Mexico. Mexico is the world's largest producer of avocados, five times more than Indonesia and the United States combining.
American consumption of avocados is leading to environmental damage and refugee crises in Central and South America.
According to Mexico's National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Fisheries, it takes 2,000 litres to produce one kilogram of avocados, four times as much water as an orange of the same weight, which can lead to water shortages in local rivers and affect plants and animals that depend on water. However, mexico's arid or semi-arid areas, which account for two-thirds of the country's land area, combined with water pollution and groundwater over-exploitation, have caused relative shortages of available water resources, severe desertification and urban water shortages.
With the exception of Mexico, other countries that mainly grow avocados, such as Peru, Chile, Dominica and Colombia, are themselves short of water resources. However, due to the export demand for avocados, local farmers have made great efforts to develop land to grow avocados.
Most of Mexico's avocados are produced in Michoacan, where overculted avocados have fueled deforestation. In Michoacan, avocados grow at the same altitude and climate as pine and fir trees. In order to plant avocado saplings, local farmers cut down trees, which seriously damaged the ecology of the forest.
Long before the avocado boom, the area under cultivation had increased from 31,000 hectares in 1980 to more than 106,000 hectares in 2009. Throughout the 21st century, Mexico has lost about 6.9 square kilometres of woods, about the same size as Hong Kong's entire Yau Tsim Mong district, as it expands into land growing avocados.
An important production area in Mexico has created a huge void under the surface due to excessive cultivation, and earthquakes have been frequent last year. Over-reclamation is also very serious for the cultivation of fruit trees. In addition, the main exporters of avocados are concentrated in the tropics, and the transportation process produces much more carbon dioxide than other fruits. It will exacerbate global warming.
And because of the high demand for avocados in the United States, every year, just selling avocados to the United States can bring Mexico $2.4 billion in revenue. Mexican drug cartels also covet lucrative avocado exports. In the beginning, they mainly extorted and demanded protection fees from avocado growers. Those who do not cooperate are either kidnapped or killed. Then there is the hijacking of avocado carts, which, according to official statistics, are hijacked on average every day.
They even took the initiative to cut down protected primary forests to force the local people to grow avocados, and they "provoked a bloody war" in the local area for the billions of avocado industries. Leaving many people homeless.
In other words, the consumption of avocados in the United States has indirectly led to chaos and even wars in South America. And the destruction of the ecological environment in South America is devastating!