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Comment by jordigh | Hacker News Reader

The price of avocados has soared worldwide thanks to memes like avocado toast. Avocados themselves are now valuable enough for cartels. They're calling it green gold.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41635008

http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-farmers-in-michoacan-...

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-01-30/news/080130007...

It has now become a joke to say "échale aguacate", (throw in some avocado) to express something like "go all out" or "be a big spender".

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmUQfURW8AAYQpY.jpg

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The bigger factor in increased avocado prices is Phytophthora Root Rot, a fungal infection which has destroyed whole orchards in many places. My father used to have a small orchard that made a little money but sadly all the trees were killed years ago.

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r8100111.html

Retail prices have been "about a buck" since 2004

http://www.hassavocadoboard.com/retail/volume-and-price-data...

(page is javascript heavy)

They crossed 1.5 2017 dollars back then too.

From my third link: "Exports of avocados from the state of Michoacan, the top source of both the fruit and immigrants to Chicago, have risen fivefold since 2004." And that was in 2008. Mexicans are genuinely starting to be unable to afford avocado. This is decidedly bizarre to me, since it's a common staple food in Mexico. It's like hearing that potatoes are too expensive for the Irish.

I can't find accurate avocado prices worldwide, but the soaring prices over the last decade or so are easily attestable in Mexico, or at least their effects are. I think the prices have always been high in the US due to tariffs and transportation costs. So perhaps the prices haven't changed much, but the demand sure has.

Right, the increase in consumption is forcing people in producing regions to pay global prices. That's not an increase in global prices. I guess I wouldn't expect places outside the US to have particularly higher demand or prices (US is wealthy, really embraces Mexico derived cuisines).

I experienced this when I lived in Honduras, C.A. Avocados from Mexico and indigenous Honduran avocados cost the same as Canada, my country of origin. It was a shock to me as I immediately thought of the locals, however for a number of them they have their own trees that bear fruits/vegetables for them allowing them to bypass purchasing these food items.

I can assure you that in Australasia there is both high demand and high prices. Even in season, avocados are typically $2.50 ($1.80usd) each in NZ (and this is a crop that is widely grown locally).

It's worth noting that the 'smashed avo on toast' meme originated in Australia. It was a tongue-in-cheek jab at millennials who complain of being priced out of the property market but still have the temerity to visit cafes regularly.

Avocado hasn't been a "staple" in that sense. It's basically a condiment. The potato equivalent in Mexico would be nixtamal.

Otherwise, damn, it sucked to be Irish...

For anyone in the thread whose Nahuatl is a little rusty, "nixtamal" means corn (after being processed in a particular way).

I think it's more likely that many people like the taste of avocados and avocado products.

Also helping is the reassessment of "all fat" is bad. Similar to what we are seeing with eggs. They are making a dietary comeback.

A delicious food is worthless without culutural knowledge about how to prepare it. Thus the attribution of cause to the meme, not the fruit itself, which has existed a very long time.

I don't think the avocado toast meme has spawned the popularity of avocados, but rather the other way around.

Avocados have become very popular in the low-carb/paleo/"health" community, alongside coconut oil, and various other trending foods.

I don't think that people have been lacking the knowledge to put avocado on toast until a meme about millennials never being able to buy a house due to spending too much money on avocado on toast.

They're also VERY popular for baby foods these days as well for the reasons you mentioned. Lots of people are trying to avoid too much sugar for their babies.

It's popular for baby foods for the same reasons that banana is - babies like it, it's fairly nutrient-dense, and it's soft so doesn't pose a large choking risk.

Exactly. Ask any quack chiropractor and he'll tell you about the "superfood" benefits of avocado.

Doesn't one generally prepare avocado toast by ... spreading avocado on toast? And maybe adding salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, but that doesn't seem like particularly recent cultural knowledge - you do that to all sorts of foods. It's about as complicated as putting butter on toast.

The version I’ve been eating for a couple of decades goes like this:

Good bread is key, I like olive sourdough or something chewy with grain. Layer of avocado, layer of hummus, sprinkle feta cheese, sliced tomatoes, lettuce on the side as a “chaser” and... yum.

I guess that’s “cultural” in that it’s just adding avocado to a Greek thing. I’d guess that’s the story of how a lot of people got into various new produce... add it to the familiar.

It is easy to make an egg and cheese sandwich too, yet they don’t exist in every culture. Culture is knowing you can, and knowing when the details are “wrong”.

Avacado bathrooms are a bit notorious in the UK

I think you're referring to that one M&W episode. Or are there many like that? I thought it was like thinking that every American rooms are stuck in 1970s yellow-brown color palettes based on napoleon dynamite.

I can remember that about 20 years ago at least 4 of my Aunties and Uncles had them as well as a few friends. They had well and truly fallen out of favour by the late 90s though.

Two of those articles are from 2008 - was avocado toast a meme 10 years ago?

Also, I'd read that last joke as more like a "guac is extra" joke (referencing Chipotle) in American culture, than anything about avocado production - in fact a Google Images search for "guac is extra" brings up the same dude tossing the same bills: http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bitch-i-kn...

I was a bit facetious about avocado toast -- that's just a recent trend. Avocado has certainly become a lot more popular worldwide. Avocado toast is but one of the recent avocado recipes whose worldwide popularity has increased.

The joke in Mexican culture is about Mexican culture because avocados are becoming more expensive everywhere in Mexico, not just in some restaurant chain. Mexicans are genuinely starting to becoming unable to afford paying for avocado. The only reason the joke works in Spanish, (e.g. give me some premium gasoline and smear some avocado on it) is because a staple food is getting out of reach.

memes like avocado toast

Add some red onion, tomato, salt&pepper, and you have one of my favorite memes - lunch.

Anecdotally, I've seen the price of avocados go down, not up, since mid last year.

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