Avocado appetite devours Mexico’s forests

Avocados at a market in Paracho, in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. In Michoacán, avocado orchards authorised for export to the US are on lands that were covered in forest as recently as 2014, according to environmental geographers from the University of Texas at Austin. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

FIRST the trucks arrived, carrying armed men toward the mist-shrouded mountaintop. Then the flames appeared, sweeping across a forest of towering pines and oaks.

After the fire laid waste to the forest last year, the trucks returned. This time, they carried the avocado plants taking root in the orchards scattered across the once tree-covered summit where townspeople used to forage for mushrooms.