John,
People in the United States eat 3 billion pounds of avocados a year — almost all of which are imported from Mexico. Feeding that demand has fueled deforestation, water hoarding and violence. For the past decade, an estimated 10-plus football fields per day of Mexican forests have been cleared to expand avocado production — destroying vast swaths of land including where millions of monarch butterflies migrate to spend the winter and other imperiled wildlife struggle to survive.
And the industry keeps eating up more land. The area of land used for avocado production is predicted to grow 70% by 2050. Nearly 2,400 acres of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve have already been destroyed. Sadly this year’s monarch population count was the second lowest ever recorded. If their winter home disappears, so will the butterflies.
Tell U.S. officials to protect Mexico’s forests by halting avocado imports from recently deforested land.
Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, recently stated that avocados produced on plantations created by illegal deforestation shouldn’t have a place in the U.S. market. It’s time to turn those words into action.
The United States has made numerous international pledges to halt deforestation including commodity-driven deforestation. But it continues to allow the importation and promotion of Mexican avocados from deforested lands.
Since most avocados come from legal, longstanding avocado farms, banning imports associated with deforestation won’t hurt the livelihoods of law-abiding avocado producers or keep people in the United States from eating avocado toast and guacamole.
Tell the United States it’s time to protect butterflies by keeping avocados from recently deforested lands out of the U.S. market.
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