Avocados: More Than What Meets The Toast
It’s got it all: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.
Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Is all my brain and body need
Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Very good indeed
When Ian Dury wrote Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll in 1977, he wouldn’t have imagined that it could become the avocado theme song. Let me explain.
It’s believed that Mesoamerican tribes first domesticated the avocado tree. They referred to avocado as "ahuacatl," which means testicle, due to its shape, and they believed the fruit to be an aphrodisiac - here’s the sex part. And I wouldn’t blame them.
Michoacan, Mexico, is the largest exporter of avocados to the United States, with exports totaling over $2.8 billion yearly. An amount so lucrative that the Mexican cartels have gotten involved - as they do with any green commodity with high demand in the U.S. - the drugs part.
Avocados are more than 10,000 years old, making them as old as the invention of the wheel. It’s old enough to appear in a Flintstones episode - the rock part. And today, Americans consume three times as many avocados as they did two decades ago - it’s on a roll part.
The question to ask here isn’t why. It’s why not. If someone decided to make a movie on Avocados, it would get more Oscars than DiCaprio.
Avocados took time to ripen though
Avocados were patented until 1952 - the Hass variety of it. It wasn’t until the accidental discovery of the Hass Avocado in 1935 that made avocados commercially viable for cultivation. But it wasn’t called by that name earlier. In 1915, a group of farmers got together and changed the name from Alligator Pear to Avocado.
Things were seemingly quiet until the 1990’s. Avocado consumption took a hit with America’s anti-fat culture in the 80s. Avocados are high in fat, the good kind, but at this point, all fat was considered bad fat. The same group of farmers, now known as the California Avocado Commission, entered the field again to combat this. They hired a P.R. firm, and things started to roll. Say hola to Mr.Ripe Guy - a mascot introduced by the commission to educate the public about avocados and make it fun.
Smooth like butter
That’s the journey avocados have had since the turn of the millennium. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a 90-year-old ban to allow the importation of Mexican avocados to all 50 states. Avocados became a status symbol over the next ten years. You know that things are imbibed in the culture when Miley Cyrus gets a tattoo of it.
The group of farmers didn’t stop there. In 2016, avocado became the first ever produce to be featured in a Super Bowl ad. Over 105 million pounds of avocados are consumed on Super Bowl Sunday. It’s become a Super Bowl ritual. The same year, people petitioned for an avocado emoji and got it 🥑.
But this still doesn’t answer how, in less than 100 years, a group of farmers could create a superfood.
A (food) class apart
The answer lies in its moat. According to Investopedia:
Moat refers to a business's ability to maintain competitive advantages over its competitors to protect its long-term profits and market share.
Avocado’s competitive advantage lies in its unique nutritional profile. Avocados are classified as fruits. Fruits are known to be high in carbs, but avocados are high in fat. Higher than almost every other food item. Here’s a table showing a comparison:
But that’s not the only thing. Avocado’s fat content is the good kind - 60% of it is monounsaturated or “good” fat. Compare that to butter, a fat source with only 26% of its fat content making up the good fats. Moreover, 100 grams of butter comes up to 700 calories, while 100 grams of avocado comes up to only 160 calories.
It’s smooth like butter but healthy like kale.
Stairway to status
How do you tell if someone recently had an Avocado? They’ll tell you about it.
Avocados sit right in the middle of consumerism and luxury. This segment in fashion is labeled as “bridge-to-luxury”. It bridges the gap between the aspirations of consumers and the allure of luxury. It doesn’t scream Louis Vuitton, but it doesn’t yell tomatoes, either. You consume avocados for the same reason you would buy an iPhone. It’s a symbol in society. When you say you consume avocados, you signal that you eat healthy and are affluent. And you can’t just pick it up and eat it. It makes you wait - it’s not straightforward to judge if an avocado is ripe for consumption. And you can still be wrong. That’s the risk you take, which makes it status-worthy. It shouldn’t be accessible to everyone at any time - otherwise, how will you feel special?
This allure comes at a cost. The environment bears this cost for you. Avocados are expensive because they are expensive to produce. And it’s getting more expensive every year. Currently, they are at a 24-year high - just like the iPhone.
It’s Economics 101: more demand, less supply, price increases. The global demand exceeds the supply - Avocado trees take three to four years to reach maturity. And it’s not easy growing avocados. They take up a ton of water. Water required per tonne of avocado is much higher than a tonne of citrus fruits. And the weather is a significant factor. Droughts and extreme temperatures impact fruit yields. In addition, they only last for seven to 10 days once they are picked. So there’s high transportation cost as well.
Avocado trees are thirsty, and so are the cartels
Every 75 seconds, a tree is felled illegally in the mountains of Jalisco, Mexico, to establish avocado plantations in its place. Cartels are clearing forests for avocado orchards and usurping privately owned land. They also impose a tax at various stages of production. They deal with individuals who do not comply in a way that a cartel deals with individuals who do not comply.
The future of avocados is uncertain. What will happen to avocados in the next two decades? What will the environmental impact and the demand be? Is your avocado toast worth more than the soil?
We’ll find out, but the guac is here to stay for now. It might be time to change the song lyrics though.
Sex and drugs and rock and roll and avo toast
Is all my brain and body need
Sex and drugs and rock and roll and guac
Very good indeed