Alan Titchmarsh has waged war on the avocado, citing the environmental costs. But do we really need to stop eating them? We get two writers to hash in out in this week’s Debate
YES: We have a bounty of mushable peas on these very shores
While avocados have become a staple in many diets, their environmental impact is alarming. Compared to other vegetables, they require an excessive amount of water to grow, up to 320 litres per avocado. This is dramatically higher than more sustainable crops, may I mention the pea, which need far less water. Given increasing global water shortages, continuing to consume avocados at such high rates is environmentally irresponsible.
Additionally, avocados contribute to deforestation, and we’re seeing vast forests being destroyed to grow avocados, leading to habitat loss for wildlife and increased carbon emissions. Peas on the other hand, offer a sustainable alternative. Unlike avocados, peas actually improve soil health by producing their own natural fertiliser, replenishing nutrients rather than depleting them. This eliminates the need for artificial fertilisers, which often harm ecosystems and contribute to water pollution. Furthermore, the UK is 90 per cent self-sufficient in pea production, making peas a far more sustainable and locally sourced alternative.
Moreover, peas generate little to no food waste. When harvested, their pods and vines are recycled back into the soil, making them a zero-waste crop. In contrast, avocado production often results in significant waste due to transportation losses and their short shelf life.
Rather than relying on environmentally damaging foods like avocados, we should choose British grown vegetables like peas and support local farmers and the UK’s agricultural industry. You can even swap the brunch-favourite avocado on toast for crushed peas on toast, which is just as delicious and nutritious, and a truly sustainable alternative.
Stephen Francis is managing director at Fen Peas and contributor at Yes Peas!
NO: Taken to its logical extreme, Titchmarsh would have us live off eco-conscious slurry
The avocado has been on a rollercoaster. First, it was lauded as the whiz-bang new healthy star of the brunch menu. Then, we were told it was responsible for millennials’ inability to afford a home. TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh is now instructing us to boycott the gooey green spread just like foie gras.
Titchmarsh’s argument – that consumers should boycott avocados due to environmental concerns – would, taken to its logical extreme, see us not eating a wide array of foods. The likes of imported chocolate and coffee would be permanently off the menu, perhaps replaced by an environmentally conscious calorie-maximising slurry.
In truth, life is all about trade-offs. We want healthy, affordable and delicious diets. That means using our planet’s natural resources to produce a variety of food. Anything we eat will come with costs: Titchmarsh’s alternative, breakfast cereals, also impacts the environment through agriculture and manufacturing.
Rather than abandoning foods, we should support ever-improving production methods that balance environmental concerns with human needs and economic realities.
Since just the 1960s, global crop yields have increased by over 200 per cent while only expanding land use by approximately 10 per cent. The agricultural revolution continues through water-efficient irrigation systems, improved agroforestry techniques, selective breeding, and, more recently, vertical farming, gene editing and cultivated meat.
The future of food lies not in wholesale rejection but in maintaining consumer choice and better production methods. Boycotting avocados would hurt farmers in developing nations and make life less enjoyable for little overall benefit. We should instead appreciate the product for what it is and rest assured that agriculture’s environmental footprint is declining.
Matthew Lesh is a public policy fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs
THE VERDICT: A triumph for pea PR
When Alan Titchmarsh urged the nation to eat fewer avocados, it signalled but another chapter in the green fruit’s heavily storied life. Why the avocado has become a symbol in the national consciousness is a question for another day. Today, we ask if the TV gardener has a point: should we eat fewer?
Certainly from a sustainability perspective, it seems so. Avocados not only require vast amounts of water but vast amounts of travel (5,555 miles on average) to make it to these brunch-loving shores, which shouldn’t be shrugged off.
Mr Lesh shrugs, but also raises some important counterpoints, not least the inadequacy of Titchmarsh’s proferring of breakfast cereals. His imagination did not stretch far enough to consider the pea, however. Thank goodness for Mr Francis. The petit pois enthusiast’s repudiation of the avocado is largely a thinly-veiled plea for the pea, but his ranting is not without reason. Distracted by Mexican novelty, we’ve ignored what’s right in front of us: a bounty of cheaper and more virtuous veg. Verdict: viva la pea.