Are avocados bad for the environment?
Sustainability is a hotly debated topic, especially when it comes to avocados. Avocados are often criticised and portrayed as an ecological disaster. So, are they really that bad?
Anyone who enjoys eating avocados (Persea americana) has most been made aware of this fruit’s carbon footprint. From a sustainability perspective, avocados do not have a very good reputation. But are they really as bad as people make them out to be? Find out how the avocado fares in terms of sustainability.
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How sustainable are avocados?
The question of whether avocados are bad for the environment depends first and foremost on how you are comparing them and what you are comparing them to. There are various things to consider, including water consumption, the avocado’s origin, deforestation for cultivation, storage and post-ripening.
Origin of avocados
A rarity in our part of the world just a few years ago, the avocado is now available nationwide all year round. In winter, avocados are imported from Brazil, Chile and Spain, while in summer they come from South Africa and Peru. For many, the avocado has therefore become as commonplace as a potato. As much as we love our avocado toast and guacamole, our taste for avocado can be problematic for the environment. Due to strong demand and rising prices, it has become extremely attractive for farmers to grow this fruit. But the avocado boom has led to illegal deforestation in South America to make room for plantations. The long transport routes also worsen the avocado’s carbon footprint. And as this fruit bruises easily, it is always transported with plenty of padding, which means lots of packaging material. For this reason, only the unripe fruits are transported, and then ripened in the countries of sale so that they can be sold as ready-to-eat avocados in the shops. This in turn requires a lot of energy, as the avocado needs considerable heat to ripen.
However, it is worth noting that other exotic foods, such as bananas, also require long transport routes and a lot of packaging material. Animal feed, which is needed for the production of animal products such as butter or eggs, is often imported from abroad and must also travel long distances. So, from a sustainable standpoint, regional and seasonal fruit and vegetables are preferable to avocados because of their origin, but animal products as well as fruit and vegetables from abroad have to travel similar distances as avocados.
Conclusion: How sustainable are avocados based on their origin? The origin of the avocado is no more problematic than that of other tropical fruits. However, domestic, preferably regional, fruit or vegetables are usually more sensible from an ecological point of view.
Avocados & water consumption
There is no doubt that avocados consume a lot of water, but precisely how much water does it actually take to grow an avocado? While 1 kg of tomatoes needs on average about 180 litres of water, 1 kg of avocados need up to 1,000 litres. Compared to animal products such as cheese, eggs or meat, however, the avocado uses less water. Even fair and cautious estimates still assume 4,000 to 5,000 litres of water for 1 kg of pork or beef. And coffee, which is also transported long distances, takes up to 20,000 litres of water per kg of coffee powder and is consumed in much larger quantities. What’s more, the avocado has a high nutritional value, and if you look at the water consumption per kilocalorie, the balance is tipped in favour of the avocado.
Nevertheless, the amount of water it takes to grow avocados is problematic for the countries they come from. Since avocado plants need a lot of sun to grow and produce fruit, it tends to be dry on the plantations. Especially in countries like Spain, rainwater is in short supply, and water has to come from other sources. This means that a lot of water must be supplied to grow crops like avocados. Drinking water is often scarce enough in the countries where avocados are grown, and avocado cultivation usually makes the situation even worse. On top of that, the increase in the use of pesticides and chemical plant protection products pollutes the already valuable and scarce drinking water.
Conclusion: How sustainable are avocados in terms of water consumption? If you look at the total amount of water required to grow avocados, they are hardly comparable with other water-intensive products such as coffee, meat or milk, which require far greater quantities of water. That said, avocados do cause environmental problems in the countries where they are grown. Buying certified organic products can help.
Impact on the landscape
One common criticism against avocados is that forests are cleared for their cultivation. Forest lands are replaced with monocultures of avocado trees, which are additionally problematic from a sustainable point of view. When they are amongst other trees in mixed forests, the plants have a positive influence on each other, and the culture is much more robust against weather changes. The avocado plant is not native to dry, sunny regions like southern Spain and is not adapted to the prevailing conditions. Tree plantations can have positive effects on such dry soils, as they offer shade and provide a cool microclimate, but in monocultures the benefit is miniscule. That said, monoculture cultivation is not only a problem with avocados, but with almost all crops grown on a large scale.
Can avocados be sustainable?
Enjoying avocados in moderation and preferably opting for organic produce is a first step in the right direction. It is also best not to buy avocados as ripe, ready-to-eat fruit, but rather when they are still very hard. You can easily encourage them to ripen at home in by wrapping them up in some newspaper. You can also speed up the ripening process by keeping the avocado near an apple, which give off a fruit-ripening hormone known as ethylene. Generally, it is best to have avocados as a treat and not to consume them en masse. Substituting butter or eggs for avocado reduces your overall ecological footprint, because such animal products take far more water and CO2. If, on the other hand, you consume avocados in addition to those animal products, instead of regional fruit or vegetables, it is better to treat them as a luxury good or delicacy.
Tip: Seasonal and regional fruit and vegetables are always the best choice in terms of sustainability. Use a seasonal calendar, to keep up to date on which fruits and vegetables are in season.
To really make use of all parts of the avocado, you can use the skin as a growing container for seeds. Read our article on how to plant an avocado pit to find out how to start growing your own avocado plant.
