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Caribbean-Latin America
How many people were kidnapped, tortured and murdered for your avocado? Violent Mexican cartels have realised the fashionable fruit is more profitable than drugs
2020-02-23
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Mexico grows almost half avocados sold globally, nicknamed as 'green gold'

  • US sales have risen almost fivefold this century and have also surged in the UK

  • Almost all of Mexico’s avocados are grown in fertile volcanic soil of Michoacán

  • About 20 gangs, including Los Viagras and Jalisco New Generation, have seized 35 per cent of the £1.9 billion sector in this state alone

  • One collective of 40 farmers is being forced to pay £500K a month to gangsters

  • Michoacán became one of the most blood-soaked parts of our planet after cartels fought to control vast profits from cocaine, heroin and cannabis

  • The price of heroin has crashed due to synthetic opioid alternatives, cannabis is legal in much of North America – and violence has surged in Mexico with a record toll of murders as gangs diversify into avocados and mining
Posted by:Skidmark

#6  Abu Uluque, will that change now that President Trump has ordered more water be released to the farmers?
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-02-23 20:31  

#5  Fallbrook, CA used to be the Avacodo Capital of the world. But increasing cost of water made Fallbrook avocados too expensive.

From the San Diego Union Tribune, April 2014:

Just 10 years ago, there were nearly 30,000 acres of avocado trees growing in such places as Fallbrook, Valley Center, Bonsall and the San Pasqual and Pauma valleys.

Today that number has dwindled to between 18,000 and 22,000 acres, experts say, and the trend is expected to continue downward for the next couple years before stabilizing at around 15,000.

The big farmers — the ones with groves ranging from 40 to 800 acres — will survive as they keep investing in their business by replanting for higher density and upgrading to more efficient irrigation methods.

The good news is that some of the groves are being replaced by vineyards that produce some pretty good wine which will only get better as the vines become better established and the roots grow deeper.

Bad news is you may feel a pang of guilt as you dip your chip into your guacamole.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2020-02-23 15:25  

#4  Obviously we need to legalize avocados.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2020-02-23 12:14  

#3  If avocados are "green gold" are strawberries "red diamonds"?
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2020-02-23 11:24  

#2  Gotta have that avocado toast while watching a bad movie on the Slave iPhone.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2020-02-23 08:43  

#1  The daily mail changed the names of some of the vigilantes to protect them ,unlike some other prominent news outlets.
Posted by: Bill Borgia6417   2020-02-23 03:50  

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