Our love of avocado has catastrophic consequences in Mexico/is wreaking havoc in Mexico.

Decimated forests, pollution, disease : NGOs and the Mexican population increasingly concerned over “green fever”.

Liliana Carmona misses the pine forests of her childhood. In this part of Mexico, currently in the grip of “green fever”, trees are replaced by avocado trees in order to meet a constantly - increasing international demand for the fruit. The 36 year old mother lives close to Uruapan, the avocado capital. Plantations, which stripe the landscape, have invaded the surrounding mountains. Deforestation has brought about a rise in temperatures, but most worrying for Liliana are the possible health risks linked to agrochemical products.

“When they spray their chemicals, we can’t stop sneezing,” she said, ruefully.

The panorama is alarming : according to official figures, around 340,000 acres of the State of Michoacan (west) have been turned over to avocado. Jaime Navia, head of the environmental NGO GIRA, explains that half the avocado trees have been planted in the forests, due to legal loopholes which make it possible to buy the land.

The financial windfall created by the avocado has even attracted the drug cartels. According to a source in the local authorities, contacted by AFP, there are members of the cartels among the producers who invade the land and cut down the forests to grow the “green gold”.

A thirtyfold increase in exports

Avocado growing had its first boom in the 1970s, but the development of growing in the wild dates back to the early 2000s, Jaime Navia notes. According to the Ministry of Economy’s figures, since 2003 the demand from the United States and the rest of the world hasn’t slowed down/hasn’t stopped rising. The total exports of this “green gold”, full of vitamins, protein and fatty acids, and which sells for between 1.8 and 2.6 dollars a kilo, have increased thirtyfold in that time, going from 58 million dollars in 2003 to 1.5 billion dollars last year. In Japan alone, where avocado is a classic ingredient in sushi, the total exports went from 40 million dollars to 106 million dollars in that same period. Of all the different types of avocado tree, the Hass variety, created by an American farmer in the 1920s, is by now the most widespread in Michoacan.

Respiratory diseases

You can see the avocado covered mountains from the windows of a primary school, situated on a square in Jujucato. // At the primary school situated on a square in Jujucato, from whence the avocado-covered mountains are visible, the teacher, Salvador Sales, explains that over the last fifteen years, there has been an increase in cases of respiratory and digestive diseases in his pupils, coinciding with the crop’s uncontrolled expansion,. “We think it’s because of the (agrochemical) products they use,” he said. He is also concerned about water pollution.

The avocado plantations climb up to an altitude of 8500 feet (2,600 metres), and yet, at that altitude, “they’re not as productive,” says Jaime Navia. He lives in Tzararacua, where the inhabitants also grow avocados, but in a more responsible way. Two acres of avocado trees bring in $5,377 a year.

Polluted environment

Alberto Gomez Tagle, the author of a study into the pollution linked to avocado farming in the region, also suggests there is a link between agrochemical products and diseases. “We believe there is pollution, not only of the groundwater table, but also of the rivers and streams which come from these cultivated mountainous zones,” he explains. He tells of how a village situated on the shores of a lake had appealed to researchers when several of its inhabitants started to suffer from “liver and kidney problems… about the time when the orchards started to spread and all sorts of pesticides were used.”

The fightback

Villagers and small farmers have come together to try to limit the invasion of this crop in the forests, and to claim back cultivated areas. The authorities are also fighting against the phenomenon and deforestation, which adds up to 2.5% every year, according to the environmental NGO Gira. Since this summer, the police have carried out several operations to take back about 200 acres that had been annexed illegally for avocado farming, and legal proceedings have been started against the farmers, AFP was told by Ricardo Luna, the environmental officer for Michoacan state. A label/special designation has also been created to identify the farms that respect the environment. / are environmentally friendly.