The RISE and FALL of Avocados

Today we’re going to be telling the very interesting story of how this little fruit took over a country, and how it might be speeding out of control...

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Script: Jaz Papadopoulos
Editor: Melody David
Lead Editor: Kirsten Stanley
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand

[FutureProofTV]

Hey y'all! Had to re-upload this one because of an export issue so thanks for your support and patience! Remember to check out Hot House Tomatoes in the description!

[danyramos]

Mexican here! The other types of avocadoes are SO GOOD! There's even one that you can eat without taking the skin off, like a peach!

[MexicanNuke]

Me coming from a Mexican/Salvadoran house, avocados were kind of a stable for my house but year by year it's getting more expensive to the point that getting avocados are like a blue moon. I remember avocados being so affordable back in the early 2010's as kid.

[AussieTVMusic]

In Australia in the 30s, 40s and 50s there were avocado trees everywhere in people's yards. They used to call it poor man's butter because butter was too expensive so people just used avocados. They were just dropping off the trees. So they went from poor peoples food to rich foods.

[sarahwatts]

I did my undergrad thesis on quinoa in 2013 (the year of the quinoa, by the way), and it is indeed wild. Not only did a lot of rookie farmers try growing quinoa (incurring a lot of the damage to the soil talked about in the video), but a lot of the "peruvian" quinoa on the market was (at the time, at least) from Bolivia. It was grown in Bolivia but packaged in Peru, so the label said "from Peru" on them. I'm not sure if it constituted a black market or just informal commerce, but there you are. Plus there were the usual nastiness from buyers skinning farmers of their produce - if you can't get your yields to market, you have to take what prices you can get, which is often a pretty poor deal. However, there are now programs in place to try to preserve the incredible number of varieties of quinoa - it doesn't just come in white, black, and red, plus natives to the Andes will use different kinds of quinoa for different recipes - check out Bioversity International for that.

[patricialange]

I'm 73. I've been familiar with avocadoes my entire life, but we ate a larger variety that was grown in Florida. I noticed that variety being crowded out by Hass in the 80s. Thank you for the video explaining what happened.

[RespectfullyCurious]

I’m from Michoacán. Avocados are part of who I am. My only issue is how expensive they have become. You used to be able to buy a box of them for a price of one avocado toast today.

[dajosh]

That's kinda wild... I just found your channel maybe less than an hour or so ago. I watched the TEMU episode, (which is what made me Subscribe to the channel) and then your Vaping episode...
I just finished that one, and suddenly I notice that you'd uploaded "1 Minute Ago".
I dig the style and info you're bringing to the table here. You've def got a new sub! :D

[TimKapow]

As a South African that grew up on the Eastern coast where avos were always grown I (38) grew up eating avo on toast, my Mom grew up eating avo on toast and my Gran (passed in 2015 at 85) grew up eating avo on toast. Not sure how it has only been a thing since 2013 from Gwyneth Paltrow since it has been a thing here since forever. 🤔 The USA shares a border with the country of origin and avo is seemingly bigger here in SA?

[lostboy]

Well technically if you are sponsored by a tomato company you wouldn't by sponsored by a vegetable but a fruit.

[prismaticqueenx]

Here in Brazil, we're #7 in world avocado production, our most common type of avocado is different from the one you guys have in North America. It's bigger (kinda the size of an American football's ball), the peel is very smooth and the pulp tastes sweeter. I have very fond memories of my dad making me avocado smoothie as a child, but my American friends thought of avocado smoothie as insane when I tried to explain the concept lol. Besides being sold on every grocery store and farmer's market, it's also very common to find our avocado growing on trees - in fact, once it fell from a tree right into my windshield and it scared the shit out of me.

[Michaela]

Personally, I hate it when a food or thing I like and have long used becomes super popular. It's like a dog breed becoming super popular - over/in breeding ruins the breed. I love avocado and hope that the same thing doesn't happen where suddenly, we find out that they have lost their nutritional value or children are being murdered over avocados, etc. I just want to eat my avocado in peace, thank you very much.

[jadedDoll]

Chiming in for parts of the Caribbean here: we grew up calling them “pear” (because of the shape) and it’s definitely a food staple. It’s eaten with most dishes like curry chicken, brown stew chicken, curry goat etc. to help offset all the meat and rice.

Grew up absolutely loving it, even more so when I found out about all the health benefits.

[TshepoMohasoane]

As a South Africa with relatives that live in Mpumalanga/Limpopo, my granny had an avocado tree and we ate it regularly even though I didn’t like it. I was also shocked during the craze because I just assumed everyone had access to them.

[mockturtle]

This has already happened. Australians were eating avocados in the 60s, and they were ruinously expensive (my mum wouldn't let me taste the ones she bought for a dinner party, and my mum let me taste everything). The growers planted them like crazy, and 15 years later you could by a bag of them for $1 by the roadside.

Australians are still enjoying avocado toast.

[AlejandroPuenteMX]

How big is the avocados market? Here in Mexico are cartels dedicated to farmers extortion. They steal their crops, kills whoever talks about it and many times the authorities are colluded in this activities It's a sad situation for them 'cause is really delicious fruit and really cheap, about $1.50 - $2.50 USD per kilo. I like to eat it directly from the skin with a little of salt and a spoon.

[Dr.DevX]

Great video. I would very much love to talk about quinoa next

[immuno_martin]

I loved you made a video about the amazingly tasty avocados (or Paltas as we call them in Chile). I was missing a bit on the environmental aspect of growing avocados (as it is usually part of your videos). Back in my home country (Chile), the extensive use of land and water in certain regions have driven whole communities in environmental crisis with lack of water (for human consumption) and loss of biodiversity just to produce enough avocado for international demand. I would have loved a sentence on this, but overall great video! ☺

[gligarguy]

How Avacados TOOK OVER Future Proof, making him post about them twice.

[Autofill]

In Mexico there's some people that even have grown guilt over eating avocado or the overconsumption/exploitation of it because of the involvement of cartels, in the same way people feel guilty of consuming certain types of 'medicinal plants'. For me it's always been a must in our meals since I was a kid and it surprises me how much American culture inflates certain stuff while in other places its 'status' remains the same. I worked at a vegan restaurant and people saw (and priced) avocado as if it was gold, but back in Mexico it's just as any other fruit in the market.