By Cassandra Garrison
URUAPAN, Mexico (Reuters) – On a sweltering July afternoon, two large yellow bulldozers dug into the brown soil at the bottom of a lush avocado orchard near the small town of Madero, located in Mexico’s central state of Michoacan.
Drone footage recorded by Reuters captured the earthmovers hollowing out the ground, in what Mexican environmental group Guardian Forestal – which works with Michoacan’s state government – and an activist who reviewed the video described as an attempt to build a water reservoir.
Mexican law requires an environmental impact study and a permit for the storage and use of water for resource-intensive avocado cultivation. Data from the national water authority Conagua showed that only 42 reservoirs and wells in Madero were registered with a permit. However, two activists interviewed by Reuters said there were hundreds of similar waterholes in the area.
With Michoacan experiencing drought, avocado growers often resort to drawing water from lakes or community basins, draining the water to worrying lows, according to three local and state officials.
Illegal practices in Mexico’s avocado growing area, which is rapidly expanding to meet growing demand in the United States, are coming at the expense of nearby forests, according to Michoacan government officials.
The environmental damage has prompted US non-profit organization Organic Consumers Association to file lawsuits against privately held West Pak Avocado Inc and another major avocado importer Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc for labeling Mexican avocados as ‘sustainable’ or ‘responsibly produced’.
“Contrary to West Pak’s claims, the avocados are neither responsibly sourced nor environmentally sustainable,” the Organic Consumers Association, a Minnesota-based lobby group that has sued several food and agriculture companies over marketing claims, said in one of the lawsuits.
West Pak declined to comment and Fresh Del Monte did not respond to questions for this story.
The US lawsuits filed in DC Superior Court on Monday put a spotlight on the supply chains of some US companies active in the Mexican avocado industry.
Although the sector is lucrative for growers, it is under increasing pressure from organized crime groups and faces accusations of increasing environmental damage.
Reuters in July visited two orchards that an analysis of satellite images by the US nonprofit Climate Rights International showed had been illegally deforested in Madero after 2015.
Climate Rights International found that these two orchards only sold avocados to West Pak in December and January, according to Mexican government shipment data also reviewed by Reuters.
During a visit in July, the news agency’s journalists saw the agricultural machines digging a water reservoir on one of them.
The lawsuits, filed by Irvington, New York-based law firm Richman Law and Policy on behalf of the Organic Consumers Association, seek an injunction that would require West Pak and Fresh Del Monte to drop their marketing claims about a sustainable supply chain . , citing water scarcity, climate change and a decline in the migration of endangered monarch butterflies that flock to Michoacan annually.
The Organic Consumers Association is also asking the court to declare that the two avocado importers violated the District of Columbia’s consumer protection law, and to enjoin them from continuing such conduct.
AVOCADO ASK SKYROCKETS
According to US trade data, avocado exports to the United States have increased by 48% since 2019. The U.S. market accounts for about 80% of total Mexican avocado exports, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show, a trade worth $3 billion last year.
In February, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said avocados from illegal orchards should be banned from the US market. There has been no government action from Washington or Mexico to do this.
Voracious American demand for the staple guacamole is dividing communities in Mexico, where it is both a driver of economic growth and the catalyst for an environmental and social crisis.
The avocado trade, dubbed “green gold” among Mexicans, has attracted crime groups that extort payments from producers and has served as a leverage point for others, displacing people and deforesting the once verdant countryside, according to 10 locals quoted by Reuters as saying. Michoacan have been interviewed.
Climate Rights International, whose findings are cited in the Organic Consumers Association’s lawsuits, said it has documented more than 30 threats or intimidations related to the expanded avocado trade, including four kidnappings and five fatal shootings.
A Madero farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, said he was kidnapped after protesting deforestation. “If they only knew… behind every avocado that people eat in the United States is a bloodstain, a dead person, a missing person,” he said.
Reuters could not independently verify local residents’ accounts or Climate Rights International’s findings.
Up to 70,000 hectares in Michoacan and neighboring Jalisco state have been deforested for avocado cultivation in the past decade, according to data from Guardian Forestal and Climate Rights International.
Residents told Reuters that some local people are fighting back by destroying illegal water pumps installed by producers that drain communal reservoirs.
“They have even started destroying avocado orchards,” said Claudia Alejandra Sanchez, an activist for the Purepecha indigenous people of Michoacan.
Climate Rights International, which has tracked human rights violations related to climate change, including in the Mexican avocado trade, told Reuters it has contacted West Pak, Fresh Del Monte and other U.S. importers and supermarket chains, including Whole Foods Market, Costco (NASDAQ: ), Trader Joe’s and Target in April and November of last year regarding their supply chains. Reuters reviewed copies of letters shared by Climate Rights International.
Yet importers and U.S. retailers are still selling avocados sourced from illegally deforested orchards in Michoacan, according to a new report from Climate Rights International and Guardian Forestal, reviewed exclusively by Reuters.
The new data shows that West Pak, Fresh Del Monte and other importers continued to import their products from illegally deforested orchards even after being notified of deforestation in their supply chain, according to Climate Rights International’s analysis of trade data.
The avocados from the two importers ended up on the shelves of American supermarkets, according to the findings of Climate Rights International. Most of these companies have publicly committed to committed to sustainable supply chains in accordance with local laws.
Reuters reached out to nine major US supermarkets and food chains that sell Mexican avocados to ask how they ensured their supply chains were free from illegal deforestation and violent exploitation.
Only Amazon’s Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:) responded, saying it was actively working with its suppliers to “prioritize Fair Trade-certified and other responsibly sourced avocados.”
Daniel Wilkinson, senior advisor at Climate Rights International, said: “If these companies take their public commitment to sustainability seriously, they can easily clean up their supply chains and significantly reduce the main incentive driving deforestation and attacks on local communities.”
‘SET MOUNTAINS ON FIRE’
Mexico requires legal permission to convert forests to agricultural land and has not granted such permits in Michoacan for nearly three decades, Michoacan’s Environment Minister Alejandro Mendez told Reuters.
“About eight or 10 years ago it was pure wilderness here,” said Madero’s environmental director Savas Melchor Gomez, standing in front of the orchard’s trees. “They burned the mountains to clean them out and expand, and it just keeps going.”
To address endemic logging, Michoacan officials plan to set up an online platform that will provide public information on illegally deforested orchards.
The platform, which officials say they plan to launch this month, would certify avocados from orchards that do not deforest illegally.
Michoacan Governor Alfredo Ramirez said the platform should increase transparency by showing foreign governments and companies where avocados from illegally deforested areas are going.
“So far, no major supermarket has approached us about this issue… but we don’t really see any interest in it as these companies take some responsibility,” Ramirez said in an interview.
Activists, local officials and researchers who spoke to Reuters estimated that the actual number of illegal orchards in Michoacan would likely be in the thousands and would not be properly identified by the platform, which only includes illegal deforestation after 2018.
