Avocado
The Washington Post pronounced it America’s new favourite fruit. In the U.S. alone, 4.25 billion avocados were consumed last year. That’s more than twice the amount eaten in 2005 and almost four times the amount in 2000. With surging demand come surging prices.
As the planet’s biggest avocado producer, Mexico has stood to reap the rewards of our cravings for the creamy fruit. Its environment not so much.
Data from Mexico’s National Institute for Forestry, Farming and Fisheries Research suggests that all that demand has meant forested land is being rapidly cleared to plant avocado trees – about 800 hectares a year between 2000 and 2010. Mexican authorities have also found illegal clear-cuts for small avocado plots in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, the World Heritage site where more than half of eastern Canada’s monarch butterflies over-winter.
On the forestry front, the country has a poor track record. According to Greenpeace, Mexico is one of the world’s top five worst deforesting nations, with intensive cattle farming being the main culprit.
Says Greenpeace, “Beyond the displacement of forests and the effects on water retention, the high use of agricultural chemicals and the large volumes of wood needed to pack and ship avocados are other factors that could have negative effects on the area’s environment and the well-being of its inhabitants.”
But Mexico’s avocados aren’t the only trendy food wreaking havoc on the environment.
Sugar rush
Are the winding lineups outside ice cream joints and trendy baked good shops a sign of the coming sugar apocalypse? The USDA says soaring global sugar consumption is still outpacing production despite the fact that sugar-producing tropical countries are churning out 4 million more tons of sugarcane this year. The World Wildlife Fund says, “Sugarcane plantations… have led to perhaps the largest losses of biodiversity caused by any single agricultural product.” Looking for companies that use certified fair trade, organically sourced sugar should reduce your impact and some of the guilt around that sugar binge.
Trans-fat-free everything
There may be unforeseen collateral damage now that virtually every packaged food on shelves is being labelled trans fat-free and the U.S. has officially announced a ban on industrially produced trans fats in its battle against heart disease. That’s because palm oil is the most common replacement for trans fats in processed foods like cookies, crackers and chips. Palm oil imports skyrocketed around 2006 when the U.S. FDA started requiring trans fats foods to be labelled. That helps expliain why palm oil became a leading cause of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, despite promises to curb clear-cuts.
Pork shoulder, ramen and bone broth
Toronto is flocking to Southern BBQ and pork-packed ramen joints in record numbers, and health nuts are cooking up beef bone broth as cure for every disease that ails you. A Google report says we’re also increasingly pigging out on trendy uncured bacon and pork shoulder. In short, the planet is ODing on meat. Researchers at the UK’s Oxford Martin School found that just sticking to national health guidelines on meat consumption could cut global food-related CO2 emissions by a third by 2050, and widespread adoption of a vegetarian diet would slash them by 63 per cent. Try googling cauliflower rice instead.
ecoholic@nowtoronto.com | @ecoholicnation
