While Americans were whipping up bowls of guacamole in anticipation of the Super Bowl, they might have missed another big event that happened that weekend. The governor of Michoacán, where most avocados shipped from Mexico to the U.S. come from, presented the first certifications to companies participating in the Pro-Forest Avocado program.
It was the biggest play yet in an ongoing effort to rein in the environmental devastation and criminal activity that’s plagued the avocado industry and pushed monarch butterflies closer to extinction.
People in the United States eat three times more avocados than 20 years ago. Today, we gobble up 3 billion pounds of avocados annually. Nearly 90% of them are imported from Mexico. But while grocery stores and importers have been cashing in on the green gold, the losers have been Mexico’s forests, the wildlife that depends on them, and the surrounding communities.
The rapid expansion of Mexico’s avocado industry to support American consumption has attracted bad actors. As a result, the local and Indigenous communities, small farmers, and farm workers are suffering the costs of violence, pollution, water hoarding, land grabs, and deforestation. Over the past 10 years, 10 football fields of land a day have been cleared to expand avocado production.
Michoacán isn’t just the world’s largest producer of avocados – it’s also home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where millions of monarch butterflies migrate from across North America and across generations to spend the winter. It’s one of the planet’s most incredible migrations. And it’s threatened by our love of avocados.
As of 2018, nearly 2,400 acres of the reserve had been replaced by avocado plantations. The surrounding forests have also been logged and suffer the effects of industry-driven drought, making the reserve more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and less suitable for the butterflies.
Monarch butterflies already face extreme threats throughout their migration, from loss of habitat and food sources to exposure to pesticides. As a result, these iconic butterflies, which were just proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act, have declined by 90% in recent decades. If they lose their overwintering grounds, they won’t survive.
A few months ago, Michoacán launched a Pro-Forest Avocado certification program for avocados grown on orchards that have not been illegally logged since 2018. The program uses satellite data to confirm that the orchards are deforestation-free, increasing transparency about how avocados are sourced. Last month, some of the biggest importers received certifications confirming their commitment not to source from recently deforested land.
But the program is still voluntary, so it will only work if grocery companies like Whole Foods insist their suppliers participate.
When they fail to ensure deforestation-free avocado supply chains, grocery companies create a market for the destruction of forests and the violence toward local and Indigenous communities that comes with it. A 2023 report from Climate Rights International found that several leading grocery companies sourced avocados from importers linked with deforestation.
Creating and enforcing deforestation-free policies for avocados shouldn’t be a big reach for grocery companies, especially with the new certification program. And because most of Michoacán’s avocado harvest is sent our way, the United States has a huge influence on the industry there. By requiring all suppliers to join the Pro-Forest Avocado certification program, grocery stores can play a role in transforming the avocado industry and saving monarch butterflies.
But shoppers have a role to play, too. Reducing demand will help ease pressure on the forests and communities harmed by rapidly expanding avocado production, but you don’t have to completely give up on guac. Avoid buying conventional avocados from Mexico. Instead look for fair trade, organic, and domestically grown avocados.
You can also urge your grocery store to carry more responsibly sourced avocados and adopt a policy for deforestation-free avocados throughout their supply chains.
If grocery companies take action now, next year’s Super Bowl snacks can come without the deforestation, biodiversity loss, and violence.
Stephanie Feldstein is the population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
This article appears in March 7 • 2025.