You've heard that avocados are the reason millennials are killing the housing industry, and everyone has been bombarded with the health benefits of the buttery fruit's good fats. However, few know that an avocado costs more than US$1.50 for extra guacamole.
North America and the UK import avocados, which are popular. The greater the impact of eating food far from its source.
First, avocados require energy, water, fertiliser, and pesticides, which have environmental impacts.
Tom Cumberlege, Carbon Trust Associate Director, says other impacts include packaging, processing, transporting, and cooling avocados.
They need twice as much water as oranges and are grown in water-scarce areas.
Avocados use a lot of water, worsening Mexico and California's droughts and heatwaves, making them harder to grow, requiring more deforestation to farm the fruit, and so on.
Since becoming a superfood and a breakfast obsession, global production has doubled over the past two decades to meet demand.