As the Super Bowl approaches, there could be problems for guacamole, a favorite game-time food in America: A lack of rain and warmer temperatures has resulted in fewer avocados being shipped from Mexico.
The western state of Michoacan, which supplies almost 90% of the creamy textured fruit for the big game, has suffered a hotter, drier climate that has led to a lack of water in growing areas.
Lakes in the state are literally drying up: Desperate , sparking conflicts. The state received about half the rain it normally gets last year, and reservoirs are at about 40% of capacity, with no rain in sight for months.
Meanwhile, To top it all off, a 鈥� is starting to cause problems too.
The whole situation is not good for avocados. Last year, avocado exports from Michoacan for the Super Bowl grew by 20% to 140,000 tons. This year, that number actually declined by 2,000 tons, despite increased planting; meaning fewer of the fruit in U.S. produce departments. Alejandro M茅ndez, the state secretary of the environment, estimates 30% of avocado orchards in Michoacan are now water-stressed.
Something鈥檚 got to give, and with consumers demanding more environmentally conscious produce, state officials are finally putting together a sustainable certification program.
The certification program would presumably result in growers improving their water use, enabling them to offer consumers both greener avocados and more of them.
Coming soon to a grocery store near you: fruit with a sticker saying something like 鈥渢his avocado wasn鈥檛 grown on deforested land,鈥� or 鈥渢his avocado used water responsibly.鈥�
Officials are still working on a catchy slogan for the greener avocados. But given that it鈥檚 coming from the same people who brought you years of Super Bowl ads about avocados from Mexico, a catchy slogan is highly likely.
鈥淭he idea is that there is going to be a certification sticker with a QR code that you can scan with your telephone, and that link will take you to a page with a satellite photo of the orchard 鈥� and the forest associated with the orchard,鈥� said M茅ndez.
Because they use more water than pine forests, growers will have to contribute to a fund that ensures several acres of forest are preserved for each acre of orchard.
鈥淪o with that orchard, you can be assured the dollar you paid for this avocado is going to preserve this piece of forest,鈥� said M茅ndez, who estimates about 70% of the orchards in place before 2011 were planted on old farmland, not forests. , he complains.
The decision to act comes not a moment too soon. The Center for Biological Diversity said Thursday that more than 28,000 people have signed an online petition calling on grocery chains to adopt more sustainable avocado-sourcing policies.
鈥淢any people in Mexico have lost their forests and water because of the 304 million pounds of avocados we鈥檒l be eating on Super Bowl Sunday,鈥� said Stephanie Feldstein, the center鈥檚 director for population and sustainability. 鈥淥ur obsession with avocados has a horrific hidden cost. It鈥檚 time for grocery chains to take responsibility and make sure they鈥檙e not buying avocados grown in deforested areas.鈥�
Up to now, there hasn鈥檛 been much consumers could do. There are few certified sustainable avocados available year round on the market, and if you want guacamole, there鈥檚 not much else you can use. That鈥檚 despite all the news coverage about how avocado growers and packers have to pay protection money to drug cartels.
Julio Santoyo, a front-line anti-logging activist in Villa Madero, Michoacan, says he鈥檚 taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the new certification program. Until then, Super Bowl this year 鈥� like every year 鈥� was 鈥渁 kick in the pants,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he growth in illegal orchards continues unabated,鈥� Santoyo said. 鈥淲e assume that more than half of the avocados consumed around the Super Bowl are from illegal planting.
鈥淯p to now, the Mexican government has not taken practical steps to certify environmentally sustainable avocado production,鈥� he said.
The crisis is clear in the once heavily forested, lake-dotted state. Lake Cuitzeo, Mexico鈥檚 second largest, was once a vast sheet of water reflecting blue skies near the state capital; it is now about 60% dry, exposing kilometers (miles) of dry ground and grass.
And poor Michoacan faces new threats from U.S. consumers: Part of the state next to neighboring Jalisco is certified to grow the blue Weber agave, the only plant from which true tequila can be distilled.
While agave likes drier, hotter, poorer soils than avocados, growers are still cutting down native scrub and low, thorny woods to plant the spikey-leafed seedlings, whose barrel-like centers will later be cooked down and fermented.
It鈥檚 a relatively new problem, fed by rising demand for tequila.
鈥淚n the last two years, the price for a kilo of agave went up a lot, it went up to almost 35 or 40 pesos per kilo (about a dollar per pound),鈥� M茅ndez said.
鈥淲e have 50 million agave plants,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 grown a lot, and we have started to see deforestation as well in that area.鈥�
Mark Stevenson, The Associated Press
