“Particularly ill-suited” to climate change, the avocado might once again become a luxury item, says The Atlantic. Avocados do poorly under exactly the kinds of conditions — higher temperatures and drier weather — that are becoming more common in the plant’s growing regions worldwide.
“After another summer of intermittent shortages and price hikes stemming in part from excessive heat in California, where 80 percent of American avocados are grown, Mexico is also now facing a serious shortage following a lackluster growing season for similar reasons,” says The Atlantic. The slumping harvests are already driving prices to startling highs.
“Earlier this week, one Southern California supplier told The Orange County Register that a case of avocados now runs about $76, “the highest the company has seen in three decades,” and well above the typical price, which ranged from $25 to $35 as recently as last summer,” said the Atlantic. In 2014, Chipotle warned that it would have to stop serving the guacamole staple if costs stayed high. The company runs through 97,000 pounds of avocados daily.
Once known as the “alligator pear,” avocados were for a long time only served sparingly on American menus, often atop lobster. But avocados hit stardom in the last decade, in part because Americans again embraced eating fat. In the 1990s, Americans ate an average of about 1.5 pounds of avocado per year. By 2012, that number grew to 5 pounds.