The image of a “green” breakfast with avocado toast, salmon in sushi for dinner and a square of chocolate after meals seems perfect, both healthy, light and sophisticated. But not everything is as beautiful as it seems.
Before reaching our plates, these foods leave a trail of drought, deforestation, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions on Earth.
The “green gold” that dries up communities
European and North American enthusiasm for the fruit has led to an increase in the area of cultivation, especially in Mexico and Colombia. In the heart of the Colombian Andes, small farmers denounce the dramatic reduction of water available since the arrival of large companies.
Studies cited by point to an average consumption of almost 2,000 liters of water for every kilo of avocado produced, which in some rainy regions can exceed the 4,900 liters.
Water pressure translates into drying up sources, poorer waterways and greater vulnerability to periods of drought. Added to this is deforestation to open new plantations and the intensive use of herbicides and pesticides, many of them highly toxic and banned in the European Union, but used in their countries of origin, where the environmental impacts are felt.
The bitter side of cocoa
If avocado uses a lot of water, chocolate is not far behind: it takes more than 17,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram. In the case of cocoa, almost all of this water comes from rain, but the biggest problem is the way in which cultivation advances at the expense of the tropical forest.
Countries like Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together supply the majority of the world’s cocoa, have lost much of their primary forest to make way for plantations. This process releases carbon stored in trees and soils, reduces rainwater retention capacity and destroys habitats that are essential for biodiversity. Estimates indicate that chocolate production is associated with very high carbon dioxide emissions, largely linked to deforestation.
There are, however, more sustainable alternatives. Agroforestry systems, in which cocoa trees grow under the shade of other native species, allow carbon to be maintained in the soil and canopies, conserving biodiversity and ensuring good productivity. But, if global demand continues to grow without changing the model, even these systems will have difficulty compensating for the pressure.
The hidden engine of livestock farming
Soybean plantation
When talking about soy, many think of tofu or vegetable drinks. But the destination of the overwhelming majority of soybeans produced in the world is not the end consumer’s plate: around three quarters are used to feed animals, mainly chickens and pigs.
Brazil is the most blatant example. To meet the international demand for meat, millions of hectares of forest and savannah were converted into huge areas of soybeans. Deforestation is not limited to the Amazon; The Cerrado, a tropical savannah rich in biodiversity, has been systematically deforested, without the same media visibility and with less legal protection.
For local communities, this means loss of natural resources, rivers drying up as trees that provide shade and water retention disappear, and, often, pressure and violence associated with the expansion of large properties.
A very, very heavy steak
At the top of this chain of impacts has always been meat, particularly beef. Meat and dairy production is responsible for a significant share of global emissions. greenhouse gases. In the case of cows, several factors come together: deforestation to create pastures, cultivation of soybeans and other cereals for feed, use of fertilizers, effluent management and, above all, methane emissions resulting from ruminant digestion.
O methane It is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂ in the short term, and livestock farming is one of its main sources. Even though meat consumption is stabilizing or falling in some countries, globally it continues to grow as purchasing power and population increases.
And what can the consumer do?
Given this scenario, the answer does not have to be a total renunciation of these foods, but a more moderate and informed relationship with what we put on the plate. Reducing beef consumption, replacing part of your meals with legumes, for example, is one of the measures with the greatest individual impact on the climate footprint.
In the case of chocolate, choosing certified products from more sustainable production systems helps support less destructive models. In relation to avocado and soy, knowing the origin, favoring less intensive production and diversifying the diet are steps that the most careful can take.
