In complex situations where environmental and human rights issues driven by a high impact commodity are not adequately addressed by local regulation, corporations have the power to demand more from their suppliers. When this influence is directed properly, corporations can catalyze significant positive change for all stakeholders. This is demonstrated in the continuing evolution of Mexico's avocado industry, where shareholder engagement, political action, NGO efforts, and community organizing are helping corporations to address rampant illegal deforestation and its impacts.

Our insatiable demand for avocados has created serious environmental and social issues for Mexico. More than 10 football fields of Mexican forests are cleared daily for avocado orchards, with most of this deforestation violating federal law. Illegal deforestation has severe consequences: depleting community water supplies, destroying protected habitats including the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, and enabling criminal activities through land seizures and corruption.

In 2023, a powerful New York Times exposé based on a Climate Rights International (CRI) report lifted the veil on the dark side of the avocado industry, exposing illegal practices that have been wreaking havoc on Mexico’s forests and communities for years. The CRI report reviewed satellite images of the same land over time to identify where unpermitted deforestation had occurred. Using that data, avocados from major importers could be traced back to orchards on illegally deforested lands, calling into question the sustainability of a substantial portion of the avocados sold in U.S. supermarkets.

The NYT exposé prompted a reaction. Environmental NGOs began to put pressure on policy makers and grocery chains to address avocado driven deforestation. In February 2024, six U.S. senators urged the Biden Administration to support efforts to ensure that the US-Mexico avocado trade is not driving illegal deforestation. This collective call to action coincided with the 2024 Super Bowl, prompting action from Michoacán's governor and Mexico's agricultural secretary.

Noting this growing risk, As You Sow began engaging with leading U.S. retailers and distributors of avocados, raising awareness of illegal deforestation in their avocado supply chains and highlighting the practical solution sanctioned by the State of Michoacan: a system to trace and flag illegal orchards and a transparent certification system. Working with Guardián Forestal, a Mexican NGO specializing in GPS data, the State of Michoacan has created an online portal to verify avocado sourcing. The system is elegantly simple: orchards established before 2018 are considered legal - accounting for the six-year growth cycle of avocado trees - while newer orchards without federal permits are flagged as illegal.

The impact of the certification system was immediate and profound. By approaching the issue from both the top down and the bottom up, As You Sow worked with Mission Produce, a major avocado supplier, which committed to avoid the purchase of avocados from illegally deforested orchards. This was soon followed by certification commitments from other major avocado suppliers recognizing the system as a way to ensure ethical sourcing while protecting the environment.

Other retailers and distributors now have the opportunity to not only leverage this verification system to avoid illegal deforestation in the Michoacan avocado market, but to seek expansion of the tool to other Mexican states. By ensuring avocados aren’t coming from recently deforested land, companies can help disincentivize further deforestation in the region.

Solution-oriented action can solve the world’s toughest environmental and social issues. The collective action on avocado driven deforestation provides a blueprint for how industries can work through complex challenges and champion solutions for lasting and meaningful change.