Ah, avocados: From toppings for Millennials’ toast to a tortilla chip’s perfect pairing, it’s impossible to ignore their steadily increasing demand.
Americans consume nearly 80 million pounds of avocados on Super Bowl Sunday alone. While guacamole might be a regular addition to your rotation of choice dips, confronting its environmental and economic implications might be more difficult to swallow.
“The invisible costs such as water depletion and rapid deforestation of farming avocado are taken on by small-scale producers. These costs have a significant impact on the viability of their businesses, especially when it is not reflected in the price paid by consumers,” said Santiago Machado, country director for sustainable landscapes in Mexico for Rainforest Alliance (RA), a nonprofit focused on helping businesses become more sustainable. RA is a partner of the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) initiative, a global collaborative that supports rural sustainable development and conservation.
Jalisco State is Mexico’s second-largest avocado exporter, and the unregulated clearing of its forested lands to meet market demand for avocados has severely impacted the region’s soil and water quality, ultimately threatening the sustainability of the very product farmers are racing to grow. The development of avocado orchards resulted in at least 12,744 acres of deforestation in Jalisco between 2017 and 2022.
Efforts to mitigate this vicious cycle within the state’s Sierra de Tapalpa landscape, a geographically, culturally and biologically rich region spanning nearly 80,000 square miles, have been noble. Public-private partnerships featuring large agricultural companies have successfully funded reforestation efforts, and more established agro-industrial farms can access bank loans to support investments in drip-irrigation systems that help conserve water. But this type of financing is typically only afforded to those who can meet the strict criteria set by banks and other risk-averse funding sources. Advocates like Machado say that small- and medium-scale producers must be part of the equation to ensure a future for this landscape. But without access to funding, a sustainable future remains out of reach for the region’s more rural farmers.
“You have small-scale farmers that are trying their best to promote sustainable practices, but to transition from a conventional system to a more sustainable one, you’re going to need some investments,” said Machado. “The route to securing those investments for small- and medium-scale producers is more challenging than that of agro-industrial farms.”
Continue reading the story on Forbes.com.
This story was written by EcoAg’s Communications Manager, Shannon Sutherland. The full story was originally posted on Forbes EQ Brand Voice on February 1st, 2024.