Speaker 1: I guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, well, I know
Speaker 1: you like to turn to me to keep up with
Speaker 1: like the coolest things going on in the world, or
Speaker 1: like trends happening, So I wanted to let you in
Speaker 1: a little secret. Have you heard about the coolest way
Speaker 1: to use an avocado right now? So I'm not really
Speaker 1: off on super hip avocado trends. Like I saw a
Speaker 1: restaurant ridiculed online for serving this deconstructed avocado toast which
Speaker 1: was just half an avocado on one side of play
Speaker 1: and then a piece of toast on the other. And
Speaker 1: they didn't even do the work of smashing them together.
Speaker 1: It was just like overpriced laziness. But I don't know
Speaker 1: what what what trend are you talking about? It's actually
Speaker 1: not a dish. So the coolest thing you can do
Speaker 1: right now with an avocado is to propose with one.
Speaker 1: And I'm not kidding about this. So the not Cosmo
Speaker 1: and all these other places have declared that the avocado
Speaker 1: proposal it's here, Mango, it's here, So I'm excited, but
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. Tell me all right,
Speaker 1: So basically, people are slicing an avocado in half, taking
Speaker 1: out a pit and then sticking a little ring in
Speaker 1: so it stands up right there. Actually, this is kind
Speaker 1: of grossing me out, but I'm trying to go with it.
Speaker 1: And so then the moment is right and you just
Speaker 1: queue up cold play, You get down on one knee,
Speaker 1: you take that avocado out of your back pocket. I
Speaker 1: don't know why they're suggesting to keep it in your
Speaker 1: back pocket, and then you crack it open like a
Speaker 1: ring box. And as the not puts it, quote, if
Speaker 1: you love the farmer's market, this might be your dream proposal.
Speaker 1: I like that it's the official proposal of like farmers markets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've always looked for one of these. Well, today's show
Speaker 1: is all about the creamy green fruit from Why you
Speaker 1: Should Thank a Mailman for your guacamole obsession to win
Speaker 1: avocado theft became so trendy, So we're about to get
Speaker 1: knee high on avocados. Let's dive in. Hey their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer and
Speaker 1: on the other side of the soundproof glass, demonstrating the
Speaker 1: absolute worst way to peel an avocado. I Honestly, I
Speaker 1: can't even look at I know, I don't think you're
Speaker 1: supposed to use a vegetable peeler on a Tristan Well anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn my head. But that's our friend and
Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. So I realized, you know mego, this
Speaker 1: is a slightly grim way to start the show. But
Speaker 1: I was reading about this recent wave of avocado related injuries,
Speaker 1: or what they call avocado hand and people are doing
Speaker 1: serious damage to their hands by trying and of course failing,
Speaker 1: to cut into their avocados. So that's pretty crazy. Like
Speaker 1: I hadn't heard about people injuring themselves on avocados. But
Speaker 1: it does feel like the same as when bagels became
Speaker 1: really popular in the nineties and suddenly like every local
Speaker 1: news story was about people cutting themselves with bagels and
Speaker 1: how to appropriately slice a baby eagle. It doesn't seem
Speaker 1: that difficult, but I mean, I guess you don't get
Speaker 1: avocados pre sliced. What's the solution. Well, it's actually become
Speaker 1: a big enough problem that there's this British plastic surgeon
Speaker 1: and he's been pushing for warning labels to be added
Speaker 1: to avocados in the UK and apparently, yeah, seriously, apparently
Speaker 1: he treats an average of four patients a week, four
Speaker 1: patients a week for avocado based injuries. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: it may seem weird to put a sticker and that
Speaker 1: may actually sound silly, but you can't really blame him
Speaker 1: for wanting to do something about this epidemic of avocado fails.
Speaker 1: That's so weird. Like I mean, I feel like you
Speaker 1: can cut an avocado with a butter knife. You don't
Speaker 1: need something super sharp to do it. Well. While prepping
Speaker 1: for today's show, one of my biggest takeaways was that
Speaker 1: most Americans have always been pretty clueless when it comes
Speaker 1: to these leathery fruits. And this confusion actually goes all
Speaker 1: the way back to the early twentieth century. That's when
Speaker 1: avocado production was first taking root in the US. But
Speaker 1: before we get into the state side history, I do
Speaker 1: want to go back a little further in time because
Speaker 1: humans have actually been cultivating avocado trees for thousands of
Speaker 1: years now. It goes as far back as five VC,
Speaker 1: and this was mostly taking place in Central and South
Speaker 1: America as well as Mexico, where the Aztecs were calling
Speaker 1: the fruit, a word that they used for testicle, and
Speaker 1: so that was based on what like the fruit shape. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but also because avocados typically grown pairs, which I
Speaker 1: guess further the resemblance. But I get it, I get it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great joke that kills at recess. But they
Speaker 1: also used to be considered something of an aphrodisiac. But
Speaker 1: that might have just been Europeans reading too much into
Speaker 1: the words origin. Like apparently King Louis the fourteen nicknamed
Speaker 1: avocados the good pair and French you know, pair the fruit,
Speaker 1: not pair p A I R. But he called it
Speaker 1: that because he claimed avocado has got him in the
Speaker 1: mood and boosted his desire to mate. Well, Louis definitely
Speaker 1: wasn't the last person to compare avocados to the shape
Speaker 1: of a pair, because when avocados first started to catch
Speaker 1: on in the US, people were actually calling them alligator pairs.
Speaker 1: And makes sense. I mean, obviously that tough outer skin
Speaker 1: and has that bumpy texture and green coloring. I mean,
Speaker 1: he does kind of look like an alligator, but it
Speaker 1: didn't really make for the most appetizing association, as you
Speaker 1: can imagine. Yeah, I mean, I guess like biting into
Speaker 1: an alligator seems like a tough cell. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: exactly what the California Avocado Growers Exchange found when they
Speaker 1: were trying to expand their business just beyond that home state.
Speaker 1: And they claim that grim association with you know, with
Speaker 1: reptiles was kind of ruining the whole operation. And even
Speaker 1: worse it was, you know, of course, be smirching the
Speaker 1: good name of the Laurel tree family to which these
Speaker 1: avocados belong. And and this is serious because in n
Speaker 1: seven the trade group released this statement and here's what
Speaker 1: it says. That the avocado, an exalted member of the
Speaker 1: Laurel family, should be called an alligator pair is beyond
Speaker 1: all understanding. Yeah. I love that they thought this would
Speaker 1: be the thing to change people's minds, Like, I know
Speaker 1: how we'll get people on board. Let's the people to
Speaker 1: everyone's love for Laurel trees. Yeah, that's all it took. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was maybe kind of a strange play,
Speaker 1: but they did get smarter about the rebranding. The growers
Speaker 1: slowly wean the public off of the alligator pair as
Speaker 1: a nickname, and they first replaced it with a much
Speaker 1: more appetizing butter pair, and then the somewhat redundant avocado
Speaker 1: pair before they finally just got people to start calling
Speaker 1: them avocados. But even once customers started calling them by
Speaker 1: the right name, avocado is still faced a pretty uphill battle.
Speaker 1: So why is that. Well, for one thing, if you
Speaker 1: think about it, there, they're unlike any other fruits that
Speaker 1: people were eating because they're not sweet, they're not really
Speaker 1: good for cooking. They ripened off the tree. I mean,
Speaker 1: people didn't really know what to do with them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's finny to think that Mexican culture and cuisine just
Speaker 1: took to it so quickly, but just one country north
Speaker 1: were so perplexed by this fruit, like it took so
Speaker 1: much rebranding and marketing for us to catch on. I mean,
Speaker 1: the process took most of the twentieth century to get
Speaker 1: us on board. Yeah, that's true, but it actually is
Speaker 1: kind of fun to look back and see how avocados
Speaker 1: kind of gradually took on the characteristics that we most
Speaker 1: associate it with them today. For example, the need to
Speaker 1: grow avocados only in the mildest parts of the country,
Speaker 1: you know, where you'd find the water and short supply.
Speaker 1: That really meant avocados often cost more than other domestic fruits,
Speaker 1: and of course, marketers were aware of how expensive their
Speaker 1: product was becoming, and that's really why they started pushing
Speaker 1: for avocados to be paired with other upscale foods like
Speaker 1: grape fruit or lobster. And in fact, in the late
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, and I've not seen this before doing our
Speaker 1: research for this week, but the California Avocados Society started
Speaker 1: taking out ads in Vogue and The New Yorker and
Speaker 1: they were proclaiming the avocados to be the quote aristocrat
Speaker 1: of salad fruits. I like, the avocados need to come
Speaker 1: in top hats and monocles, just like, but you know,
Speaker 1: to me, that's less advertising than just calling them alligator pairs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the fruits fancy status kind of stuck, and by
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, avocados had developed this reputation as really
Speaker 1: more of a luxury item. For example, in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: the price of a single avocado had soared as high
Speaker 1: as a full dollar. Now, now keep in mind that's
Speaker 1: the equivalent of almost five dollars in today's money. That
Speaker 1: is crazy. So what about avocado's other big claim, like
Speaker 1: the idea that they're one of the world's healthiest superfoods.
Speaker 1: When did that really come about? Well, it really took
Speaker 1: off in the nineteen eighties, and as you might remember,
Speaker 1: this is when nutrition experts really started to crack down
Speaker 1: on America's fat consumption. So low fat food started appearing
Speaker 1: on store shelves, and every celebrity you could think of
Speaker 1: was pushing some sort of patented diet or crazy new
Speaker 1: piece of exercise equipment, and you know, people begin looking
Speaker 1: for more and more ways to reduce their fat and
Speaker 1: take avocad has became a pretty popular target. But wait,
Speaker 1: aren't avocad is full of like the good kind of
Speaker 1: fat that kind of actually helps us reduce cholesterol. Like,
Speaker 1: why would experts tell people not to eat them? Well,
Speaker 1: at the time, nutritionists were worried that the American public
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to wrap their heads around that distinction
Speaker 1: between the types of fats, you know, between the good
Speaker 1: mono unsaturated fats and and the bad saturated fats. So
Speaker 1: instead they just told people to avoid fats altogether. And
Speaker 1: that's why, strangely enough, it actually fell to the avocado
Speaker 1: growers to educate the public about the fruit's true nutritional value.
Speaker 1: So in the late eighties, the California Avocado Commission, they
Speaker 1: worked closely with researchers and funded all sorts of studies
Speaker 1: on the health benefits of their product. And then the
Speaker 1: growers spread the good news with a TV ad campaign,
Speaker 1: and it started Angie Dickinson, and the ads were a
Speaker 1: huge hit, but they were also pretty scandalous for the time. So,
Speaker 1: so here's what the ad was. It showed Angie stretched
Speaker 1: out in these gold stilettos and a white leotard and
Speaker 1: she was eating half an avocado with a spoon. And
Speaker 1: after she lays out how tasty and nutritious the avocados are,
Speaker 1: she turns to the camera and asked, would this body
Speaker 1: lie to you? I had, actually, I had forgotten where
Speaker 1: I got that line from. I know I used that
Speaker 1: line a lot, and I didn't remember that Angie had
Speaker 1: created that. I mean, I guess the nutrition experts were
Speaker 1: wrong to doubt the American public like, we can absolutely
Speaker 1: understand the health benefits of avocados as long as they're
Speaker 1: explained to us by a beauty movie star. So I
Speaker 1: do feel like Kanye as I'm about to say this
Speaker 1: because Andie Dickinson, you did a good job, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you finish. But Mr Ripe Guy is the
Speaker 1: best spokesperson in the avocado industry. I can't say I'm
Speaker 1: familiar with his work, So who is Mr Ripe Guy?
Speaker 1: I can't believe you're asking me that. No. This goes
Speaker 1: back to the avocado struggle. So after surviving the anti
Speaker 1: fat movement of the eighties, sales were still suffering to
Speaker 1: the public's lack of knowledge about the fruit. So one
Speaker 1: prime example is that people weren't even sure when to
Speaker 1: eat avocados. People kept trying to eat them when they
Speaker 1: were like bright green, because that's when they look the prettiest,
Speaker 1: instead of waiting until the fruit to turn like a
Speaker 1: murky brown color, and that's actually when it's most delicious
Speaker 1: or the rightest to eat. But to combat the problem,
Speaker 1: the Avocado Commission partnered with an ad agency and created
Speaker 1: their very own mascot, Mr Ripe Guy and uh. In
Speaker 1: true eighties fashion, this California character was basically just an
Speaker 1: anthropomorphic avocado with a pair of sunglasses on. Wait, you
Speaker 1: know what this reminds me of? And I collected all
Speaker 1: of these from I can't remember whether it was McDonald's
Speaker 1: or Hardise or what it was, but the remember the
Speaker 1: California Raising definitely, so it definitely feels like California Raisin
Speaker 1: rip off. But someone would show up in an avocado
Speaker 1: suit at various events and uh, this was around the country.
Speaker 1: They'd share tips as Mr Ripe Guy on how to
Speaker 1: pick and prep avocados and just generally sing the fruits praises.
Speaker 1: But the best part of the campaign was when the
Speaker 1: Commission launched a nationwide search to find Miss Ripe and uh.
Speaker 1: Women were encouraged to mail in video cassettes with themselves
Speaker 1: explaining why they deserved this coveted honor and uh apparently
Speaker 1: the winner would receive a free trip to Hollywood and
Speaker 1: a walk on role on Baywatch Nights. I like that
Speaker 1: it didn't even occur to them that maybe they should
Speaker 1: win a lifetime supply of avocados. I feel like maybe
Speaker 1: they didn't think through this campaign fully. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe they would have gotten more people to enter, but
Speaker 1: in the end, at least one woman was interested in
Speaker 1: what was on offer. The lucky winner was Robin Nardone
Speaker 1: of Chicago, who I'm sure you remember and she told reporters,
Speaker 1: gained to be Miss Ripe is like a dream come true.
Speaker 1: I will bear the title proudly. M that's really sweet.
Speaker 1: And of course everybody still talks about that episode of
Speaker 1: Baywatch Nights that she was on, right, definitely, I'm curious.
Speaker 1: So did these kinds of stunts pay off for avocado growers? Well,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say exactly how much of the industry's
Speaker 1: growth is due to Mr and Mrs Ripe Guy, but
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that the avocado consumption has gone way
Speaker 1: way off since the nineties. For example, by nine, the
Speaker 1: average American was eating about one point five pounds of
Speaker 1: avocado per year, whereas in two thousand sixteen that number
Speaker 1: had actually grown to seven point one pounds per year
Speaker 1: according to the U. S d. A. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: to put that in perspective, the hass Avocado Board reported
Speaker 1: that four d eighty four million avocados were consumed in
Speaker 1: two thousand, which sounds like a lot, right, But you
Speaker 1: fast forward to two thousand twelve and the total had
Speaker 1: risen to nearly one point five billion, which is basically
Speaker 1: are increase over just a decade. I mean, that is
Speaker 1: pretty amazing. It's also pretty amazing that it's taken us
Speaker 1: this long to finally mention the H word. So I
Speaker 1: do want to shift gears and talk about what is
Speaker 1: undoubtedly the biggest name in the business, and that's the
Speaker 1: hass avocado. I know we need to explore how the
Speaker 1: variety came to dominate the market, as well as what
Speaker 1: that monopoly might be causing us to miss out on,
Speaker 1: which sounds good. But before we get into it, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius
Speaker 1: and we're talking all things avocado, okay, mango. So we've
Speaker 1: been charting the course of how misunderstood fruit like the
Speaker 1: avocado wound up as one of the world's trendiest superfoods.
Speaker 1: And so now we're getting to what's probably my favorite
Speaker 1: part of the story, which is the contribution of a
Speaker 1: Californian maleman named Rudolph Has. And while this story isn't
Speaker 1: widely known, I'm willing to bet that the name sounds
Speaker 1: familiar to most of our listeners, and for very good reason,
Speaker 1: because hass avocados are hands down the most popular avocado,
Speaker 1: not only in the country, but in the entire world.
Speaker 1: In fact, there's a good chance that most people have
Speaker 1: only ever eaten the hass avocado. And that's because percent
Speaker 1: of the avocados sold in the US and about eighty
Speaker 1: percent worldwide are hass avocados. I'm honestly not sure I
Speaker 1: could even name a different kind of avocado. Well, here's
Speaker 1: what's crazy, though, is that there's actually more than nine
Speaker 1: hundred varieties of avocados. You know, some of these things
Speaker 1: have very different shapes and textures and flavors than that
Speaker 1: single type that we're used to. But thankfully, the one
Speaker 1: type we do have is a pretty good one. Hass
Speaker 1: avocados have a strong flavor, they're packed with healthy oil,
Speaker 1: so it's not like we're getting the short into the
Speaker 1: stick on this. And and there's a reason has is
Speaker 1: the most popular name in avocados, even if that popularity
Speaker 1: does result in in a real lack of diversity on
Speaker 1: the store shelves. So speaking of the name, this is
Speaker 1: sort of embarrassing. But I used to think that Hass
Speaker 1: was just the name of the family farm or like
Speaker 1: the company that grew them, you know, like Dole or Chiquita.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know it was actually a fruit variety. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I don't think most people do know that, but
Speaker 1: so so to get back to that, let's get back
Speaker 1: to Rudolph Hass And he was a postman by trade
Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties and then got into horticulture after
Speaker 1: he saw this magazine ad that showed an avocado tree
Speaker 1: with dollar bills growing out of it. I mean, that
Speaker 1: sounds pretty convincing. So he was hoping to make some
Speaker 1: money on the side and started buying up seeds and
Speaker 1: raising these resulting trees at his family home. And this
Speaker 1: was just outside of l A, So he was grassed
Speaker 1: from the larger plants to multiply that crop. But there
Speaker 1: was one seedling in particular. He described it a stubborn
Speaker 1: baby tree grown from a Guatemalan seed of unknown parentage,
Speaker 1: or that's how one local newspaper put it. That it
Speaker 1: wouldn't accept a graph no matter how hard Hass tried.
Speaker 1: He considered cutting it down, but instead he just to
Speaker 1: decide and let it grow unattended as as somewhat of
Speaker 1: an experiment. And this turned out to be the best
Speaker 1: decision of hass his life, because when the tree finally
Speaker 1: bore fruit, it's avocado has tasted better than any other
Speaker 1: of the varieties available. Well, I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: I just love that the world's most popular avocado as
Speaker 1: a result of like dumb luck. But also I I'm
Speaker 1: really curious about these other varieties that predate the hass,
Speaker 1: like what were the go to avocados of the time
Speaker 1: and what made the hass one so much better. Well,
Speaker 1: at the time, the prevailing avocado was called the fuerte,
Speaker 1: which means strong and Spanish. And admittedly, the fuerte looks
Speaker 1: more appetizing than the hass. You know, you don't have
Speaker 1: that bumpy, thick, black skin of the hass. The the
Speaker 1: fuerte avocado has more of a smooth and kind of
Speaker 1: a thin skin, and it actually turns a green color
Speaker 1: as it ripens. But you know, when you think about taste,
Speaker 1: hass avocados are way richer and nuttier and creamier than
Speaker 1: the fueertas, And so this gave them a big advantage
Speaker 1: in Rudolph Hass his mind. But of course taste wasn't
Speaker 1: the only thing they had going for them. Another big
Speaker 1: advantages that the hass avocado trees were easier to grow
Speaker 1: than the fuerte trees. They also have longer harvest seasons
Speaker 1: than other avocados, and they can produce larger quantities of
Speaker 1: fruit after just a couple of years. But there's one
Speaker 1: thing that's maybe even more important than all of those things,
Speaker 1: and that's that these avocados are easy to handle and
Speaker 1: and even ship long distances. And and that's thanks to
Speaker 1: that alligator thick skin that we were talking about before.
Speaker 1: So when Rudolph Hass realized that he stumbled upon something special,
Speaker 1: he patented his tree in nineteen thirty five and started
Speaker 1: working with a local grower to promote this new variety.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny when you're talking about the passability
Speaker 1: of these avocados. You think about other fruit like the
Speaker 1: red Delicious or the Cavendish bananas, and they are always
Speaker 1: sacrificing flavor for that durability, and it's amazing to think
Speaker 1: that the avocado doesn't do that. But uh, I don't
Speaker 1: think I realized you could actually patent a tree. Well
Speaker 1: I didn't either, and apparently neither did anybody else, because
Speaker 1: you know, sadly the patent was all but ignored by
Speaker 1: its competitors. In fact, this is how Rudolph's granddaughter, Cindy
Speaker 1: Miller explained the ordeal in an article about her family story.
Speaker 1: She writes, since it was the first pen ever issued
Speaker 1: on a tree, it got no respect. Growers would buy
Speaker 1: one from Mr Brokaw, who had the exclusive right to
Speaker 1: produce the nursery trees. They would then regraph their whole
Speaker 1: grove with the budwood from that one tree. For that reason,
Speaker 1: Rudolf has made only five thousand dollars and royalties on
Speaker 1: his first patent. That's pretty insane, like five grand for
Speaker 1: coming up with the world's tastiest avocado. It's crazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a weird story, but there is a
Speaker 1: silver lining for that name. So the avocados that bear
Speaker 1: his name have become ubiquitous with the fruit, and today
Speaker 1: millions of his trees can now be found all over
Speaker 1: the globe. And maybe the craziest part about this whole
Speaker 1: thing is that all of those trees are genetically descended
Speaker 1: from that single mother tree that has planted on his property,
Speaker 1: and that was nearly a hundred years ago. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's estimated that about eight of all us avocados or
Speaker 1: descendants of the hass avocado mother tree. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just so weird to think about. And the original tree
Speaker 1: actually lasted quite a while too. It was on that
Speaker 1: Hass property until it finally lost the battle with something
Speaker 1: called root rot disease, and that was back in two
Speaker 1: thousand two. But according to Alice Obscura, you can still
Speaker 1: make a pilgrimage to see the preserved woods from the
Speaker 1: tree at the broke on Nursery and Ventura, and there's
Speaker 1: even a plaque there to market its original location in Lahabra,
Speaker 1: which I think that takes care of my summer vacation
Speaker 1: plans for that. But you know, uh, Hass having his
Speaker 1: patent undermine like that kind of reminds me of something
Speaker 1: weird I noticed while researching, and that's the sheer volume
Speaker 1: of crime that the fruit attracts. Like I wouldn't think
Speaker 1: this before, but you know, you mentioned earlier that avocados
Speaker 1: were worth the equivalent of what like five dollars each
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, and at the time, that high
Speaker 1: value sparked a wave of avocado that's throughout the ord
Speaker 1: words of southern California. And this was hardly an isolated incident.
Speaker 1: So just last year, three men were arrested in California
Speaker 1: for selling over three hundred thousand dollars worth the stolen
Speaker 1: hass avocados. I mean, that's insane. And when avocado prices
Speaker 1: spiked in New Zealand back in two thousand and sixteen,
Speaker 1: farmers were hit with over forty large scale thefts within
Speaker 1: a six month period. Wow. I mean, I had no
Speaker 1: idea that avocado crime was so prevalent, But if you
Speaker 1: think about it, I mean, it does make sense. I
Speaker 1: remember back in our episode on cheese, we talked about
Speaker 1: how cheese is the most shoplifted item in the world,
Speaker 1: and that's because it's relatively a small item, it's always
Speaker 1: in demand, and and it does tend to cost more
Speaker 1: than other food. So it feels like we've got the
Speaker 1: same thing going here with the avocados exactly. And and
Speaker 1: we already mentioned how avocados have long been viewed as
Speaker 1: a luxury food due to their price, So in a way,
Speaker 1: all the crimes surrounding them is to be expected. But
Speaker 1: one thing nobody expected was the way that avocado farmers
Speaker 1: in Mexico have been fighting back against their own local
Speaker 1: form of avocado crimes. Because there's actually one town there
Speaker 1: that has its own paramilitary avocado protection force. Wait, so
Speaker 1: where is this It's in a town called Tonsitaro and
Speaker 1: it's in the Michoakhan region of Mexico. It's uh, it's
Speaker 1: basically avocado country. The townships over a million dollars worth
Speaker 1: of fruit every single day. But back in two thousand six,
Speaker 1: drug cartels, who are feeling the pinch of a law
Speaker 1: enforcement crackdown, started turning their attention to Tonsitaro's avocado producers.
Speaker 1: So of course things get insane, right like the growers
Speaker 1: quickly become the target of threats, their kidnappings, even some murders.
Speaker 1: There was a talk of the cartel's season control of
Speaker 1: the orchards entirely, and that's when the avocado producers decided
Speaker 1: to band together and fight back. They create their own
Speaker 1: local protection force, which was half funded by the government,
Speaker 1: and today they wear a body armor. They carry these
Speaker 1: high powered weapons to ward off the cartels and also
Speaker 1: it gives the citizens a sense of safety. I mean,
Speaker 1: this sounds scary to me and kind of extreme, but
Speaker 1: actually it's worked so um. Avocado crimes are way down
Speaker 1: in Tonsitora, which has allowed the town to once again
Speaker 1: focus on what it does best, which is avocados. And
Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen, We saw this when a group
Speaker 1: of four and fifty students in the town set a
Speaker 1: record for the world's largest serving of guacamole. It weighed
Speaker 1: an astounding six thousand pounds. Oh wow, I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess it makes sense that they had those guards on hand,
Speaker 1: because if you think about that much guacamole is definitely
Speaker 1: gonna attract at least a few pieces, I would imagine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But now that we've tackled the ceedee world of avocado crimes,
Speaker 1: there's at least one part of avocado history that I
Speaker 1: want to get to. But first, let's take another quick break. Okay, mango,
Speaker 1: So I told you my favorite story. Now it's your turn.
Speaker 1: What's your favorite story from the avocado history. So at
Speaker 1: the top of the show, we talked about the recent
Speaker 1: dick and accidents where people have stabbed themselves while prepping avocados,
Speaker 1: and while there's definitely some user error at play there,
Speaker 1: the real problem is that the avocado has this enormous pit.
Speaker 1: And while most foods contain seeds small enough to be
Speaker 1: swallowed or excreted by humans and other animals, avocado pits
Speaker 1: can be as big as golf balls, which means that
Speaker 1: swallowing them is off the table for most of us.
Speaker 1: M I've always actually wondered about that because from an
Speaker 1: evolutionary perspective, it doesn't seem like the most effective way
Speaker 1: for this plant to spread its seeds around. Well, it
Speaker 1: isn't anymore, but it used to be incredibly effective. So
Speaker 1: the part of avocado history that I love the most
Speaker 1: is the part that explains why the pit is so huge,
Speaker 1: and for that we actually need to travel all the
Speaker 1: way back to the dawn of the Cenozoic Era, which
Speaker 1: is the period after the extinction of dinosaurs when mammals
Speaker 1: first started to take the stage. But the mammals of
Speaker 1: the Cenozoic Era weren't just any mammals. They were actually
Speaker 1: enormous species known as megafauna, and they roamed the Western
Speaker 1: hemisphere in droves. All right, So you're talking about things like,
Speaker 1: you know, sabretooth tigers and mammoths and those rhinos that
Speaker 1: were honestly, I think they were like the size of
Speaker 1: house boats, right, Yeah, that's right. So another dominant megafauna
Speaker 1: species was the lusted on, which were these fifteen foot tall,
Speaker 1: two ton ground slots and they wandered the grassy plains
Speaker 1: of Americas, and just like the slots of today, lusted
Speaker 1: on mostly eight leaves and grass to survive, but occasionally
Speaker 1: they would chow dow on more satisfying treats like the
Speaker 1: tasty avocado. So the avocado, it's also a product of
Speaker 1: the Cenozoic era, it is, and actually that's really when
Speaker 1: the avocado plant came to its prime. So these giant
Speaker 1: slots would swallow whole avocados. And because these creatures were
Speaker 1: so massive, their digestive systems were able to process the
Speaker 1: big seeds without a problem. So they'd kind of feast
Speaker 1: and then travel around with the seeds in their stomachs,
Speaker 1: and then they plopped them out in some far away
Speaker 1: place and new trees could thrive without competition. It was
Speaker 1: basically an evolutionary wind wind for everybody. And that's probably
Speaker 1: why we still have these large pitted avocados today. Wait,
Speaker 1: are there still mammals that can eat the avocado pits
Speaker 1: like that? I mean, you know, mega fauna are one thing,
Speaker 1: but I feel like most slaws would choke if they
Speaker 1: try to eat a whole avocado at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. I mean, climate change kind of wiped out
Speaker 1: most of the mega fauna in the western hemisphere. This
Speaker 1: was about thirteen thousand years ago, so according to researchers,
Speaker 1: North America lost about seventy of it's mega fauna at
Speaker 1: the time, and South America lost So the vast majority
Speaker 1: of these large creatures that had helped these avocado trees
Speaker 1: flourished in the first place were no longer around to
Speaker 1: feed on them. So I don't get it. I mean,
Speaker 1: why would wild avocados still produce such large pits if
Speaker 1: if it's not beneficial for them. No, it's a good question.
Speaker 1: And I was actually flipping through this book by Connie
Speaker 1: Barlow called The Ghosts of Evolution, and she says that
Speaker 1: avocados giant seeds are what we called an evolutionary anachronism,
Speaker 1: So none of today's slots could possibly digest to see
Speaker 1: that large, but the big pits persist anyway, And as
Speaker 1: Barlow puts it, quote after thirteen thousand years, the avocado
Speaker 1: is clue is that the great mammals are gone, and
Speaker 1: the truth is thanks to us, that's completely fine, right,
Speaker 1: Like the avocado doesn't need to change because it's got
Speaker 1: new champions. We've learned to deal with the big seeds
Speaker 1: and spread them out in ways that don't involve our
Speaker 1: digestive tracks. Well, I guess that makes sense. And but
Speaker 1: but what about those thirteen thousand years between the death
Speaker 1: of the mega fauna and human cultivation of these avocados.
Speaker 1: It feels like in all those intervening years, the big
Speaker 1: seeds they still somehow managed to get spread around even
Speaker 1: without those giant mammals. Yeah. So one theories that squirrels
Speaker 1: and other rodents could have all found avocados rotting on
Speaker 1: eten on the surface and then buried the pits for safekeeping,
Speaker 1: and then they'd return later and find that there were
Speaker 1: these massive trees that's sprout in the place. But I
Speaker 1: also read an article in Smithsonian and it suggested that
Speaker 1: jaguars might have been able to swallow and digest the
Speaker 1: seeds too. So, as they put it, quote, the identities
Speaker 1: of the avocados dispersers shifted every few million years. But
Speaker 1: from an avocados perspective, a big mouth is a big mouth,
Speaker 1: and a friendly gut is a friendly gut. M I
Speaker 1: feel like those are words to live by mango, or
Speaker 1: at least for an avocado. Really, though, it's wild to
Speaker 1: think that we have these giants slows to thank for
Speaker 1: all of our avocado toasts and orders of chips and guacamole.
Speaker 1: And you know, while they aren't swallowing avocados hole like
Speaker 1: our mega fauna buddies once did, humans have planted them
Speaker 1: all over the world. So all in all, I feel
Speaker 1: like we've been pretty good stewards for the avocado. Well unlikely,
Speaker 1: it is, right, because not only is the avocado pit
Speaker 1: way too large for humans to swallow or digest, it
Speaker 1: can also be toxic to us. So animals like rhinos,
Speaker 1: which are descended from those house boat sized ancestors you mentioned,
Speaker 1: they can actually stomach the toxic pits just fine, but
Speaker 1: humans and most other mammals lack enzyme systems and liver
Speaker 1: is strong enough to ward off that kind of toxicity.
Speaker 1: And in fact, there's this old South American recipe for
Speaker 1: rat poison that I just found that UH instructs the
Speaker 1: users to mix some avocado pits with traditional rodent bait
Speaker 1: like cheese or lard, and that will take care of
Speaker 1: the problem. Mhm. I do like that a little tox
Speaker 1: pit isn't going to stop us from eating nearly two
Speaker 1: billion pounds of avocados each year, speaking which how's I
Speaker 1: don't want to look, but how's Tristan doing over there?
Speaker 1: We're gonna need to take another trip to the er. No,
Speaker 1: but those avocados really aren't peeled, So why don't we
Speaker 1: do a quick fact off and then we can help
Speaker 1: the poor guy out. So most people have heard that
Speaker 1: a good way to ripe an avocados fast is to
Speaker 1: put them in a paper bag with like bananas or
Speaker 1: ripe apple. But if you're looking for more avocado gear
Speaker 1: and accessories, you can always purchase an avocado sock. It's
Speaker 1: a hundred percent wold bag that supposedly ripens the fruit
Speaker 1: within twenty four hours, and according to the website, it
Speaker 1: ripens it more gently than a paper bag. Also, it
Speaker 1: works as a convenient carrying sock for when you want
Speaker 1: to sling an avocado over your shoulder and just transport
Speaker 1: the fruit and style. Well, let me know how it
Speaker 1: goes if you order one of those. I think I'll
Speaker 1: wait on your experience first. All right, So here's a
Speaker 1: trend I definitely won't be indulging in, and that's the
Speaker 1: avo latte. And this is an Australian specialty where you
Speaker 1: serve a latte and the hollowed out husk of half
Speaker 1: an avocado. And while it started out as an Instagram
Speaker 1: joke at the Truman Cafe in Melbourne when an employee
Speaker 1: makes coffee and milk and an avocado shell, apparently customers
Speaker 1: have started pouring in for the drink and other cafes
Speaker 1: have started serving it in response. Well, if you love
Speaker 1: avocados but I hate the pitts, Marx and Spencer is
Speaker 1: apparently selling a cocktail avocado. So this is according to
Speaker 1: the Telegraph. But the fruit looks less like a traditional
Speaker 1: alligator pair, you know, the kind we all know and love,
Speaker 1: and more like a zucchini. But the big advantage, of course,
Speaker 1: is that they don't have a seed in them, and
Speaker 1: while the fruit is grown in Spain, they're apparently really
Speaker 1: hard to find. Mark and Spencer only carries them in
Speaker 1: December for some reason. But uh, maybe we'll be getting
Speaker 1: him stateside soon. All right. So we were talking about
Speaker 1: avocados being a member of the prestigious Laurel family previously,
Speaker 1: and I was a little curious what that meant, so
Speaker 1: I looked it up and in addition to the Laurel
Speaker 1: reads that you might get for competing in the ancient
Speaker 1: Greek games. The avocado has some pretty well known relatives
Speaker 1: in the laurel family. The fruit is cousins with bay leaves, sassafrass,
Speaker 1: and cinnamon. Oh, it's a good family to be a
Speaker 1: part of. So one of the strangest facts about avocados
Speaker 1: is that they never ripened on the trees, so basically
Speaker 1: farmers can plan when they want to pluck them and
Speaker 1: just store them up there fresh for six or seven months.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here's an avocado variation that no one needs,
Speaker 1: and it's avocado light. It's a diet avocado that apparently
Speaker 1: contains thirty percent less fat than your average avocado. Apparently
Speaker 1: it's a milder taste, but it's a juice here avocado.
Speaker 1: I've got to say, I'm avocado with fewer calories that
Speaker 1: taste more watery. Just it doesn't appeal to me. But
Speaker 1: if they can make an avocado zero, maybe I'll consider it. Well.
Speaker 1: I think between a diet avocado and proposing with avocados,
Speaker 1: you truly have your pulicy on the worst things to
Speaker 1: do with an avocado. So I'm gonna have to give
Speaker 1: the trophy to you well. Thank you very much, and
Speaker 1: thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some
Speaker 1: great facts about avocad those. We've been looking forward to
Speaker 1: doing this episode because of the national obsession with avocados
Speaker 1: these days, so we'd love to hear from you. You You
Speaker 1: could always email us part Time Genius at how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. You can call fact hotline that's one
Speaker 1: eight four four PT Genius, or hit us up on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again
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Speaker 1: forget Jason? Jason who