They’re worse than some crops, but they’re not the worst by any means. That dubious honour probably belongs to feeder crops that are grown to feed farmed animals, because of the enormous land/water use and the opportunity costs of growing food to feed farmed animals, who will produce far few calories than they take in.

Avacados are a pretty thirsty crop, as are many crops grown on trees. They use about 140-272 litres to produce a single fruit. That sounds like a lot out of context, and it is, but just by comparison, bananas use 790 litres and apples use 822 litres. Water use does vary depending on where the crop is grown though, wetter climates of course require less watering.

Their carbon emissions are not high, mostly accounted for by transport. The other significant environmental issues are soil degradation (as with any mass grown crop) and deforestation, particularly in Mexico. The thing to remember though is that avocado is often served in salads, on toast etc. where there may have previously been far less sustainable products, like meat.

As with all things, sustainability is relative. A single avocado requires 140-272 litres of water, but the same amount of beef requires 2,315 litres of water. Similarly, the average carbon footprint of one avocado is around 0.19 kilograms of CO2 equivalents, while the same amount of meat produces 4 kilograms. If you’re replacing something like hummus with avocado the impact will be higher, whereas if you’d otherwise be eating meat then it’s a far more sustainable choice.

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leedo(oneus) stimboard with food w/white backgrounds for 👑 anon

feel like shit just want him back