AvocaDON’T! Trendy cafes ban superfood ‘that’s killing planet’

WHETHER served with a squeeze of lemon or spread on sourdough toast, it’s the delicious ‘superfood’ that’s become a staple of trendy cafes up and down the country.

But avocados are being dropped from the menu because of fears that their increasing popularity is not so good for the health of the planet.

One cafe owner has led the backlash, saying she will no longer sell avocados because they damage the environment and even enrich criminal cartels.

Katy Brill’s dish of two poached eggs and watercress hollandaise with avocado on toasted brioche or sourdough – priced at £8.50 – was the most popular item on her menu at the Wild Strawberry cafe near Prestwood in Buckinghamshire.

But having regularly served up to a thousand avocados a week, she has now taken them off the menu in the cafe she runs in a yurt alongside her family’s farm shop at Peterley Manor Farm.

In a post on Instagram she wrote: ‘Dear customers, we have some news for you. As of today, we will no longer be serving avocado in the yurt. This is not a joke.

‘ Controversial? Absolutely. . . We’re as acquainted as the next person with our weekly intake of smashed avocado toast but this is something we have thought long and hard about.’

Giving her reasons, she explained: ‘Food miles. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that food tastes better when it hasn’t been flown 5,000 miles.’ She added: ‘Sustainability. The Western world’s obsession with avocado has been placing unprecedented demand on avocado farmers, pushing up prices to the point where there are even reports of Mexican drug cartels controlling lucrative exports.’

She has now replaced avocado with sauteed garlic mushrooms.

Ms Brill, 30, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It may turn out to be the worst business decision I have ever made – but at the moment my customers support me.’

Earlier this year, Tincan Coffee cafe in Bristol dropped avocado, replacing it with pea guacamole made with peas, onion, garlic and chilli. Assistant manager Davey Gibbs, 32, said: ‘We felt avocados didn’t fit in with our core beliefs about sustainability. We want to reduce our impact any way we can.’

And in the London hipster enclave of Peckham, the Wildflower vegetarian restaurant has joined the ban.

Chef Joseph Ryan said he was disturbed by reports of killings af t er Mexican gangsters got involved in the lucrative trade.

Mr Ryan said: ‘To be honest, I also think we might just be entering a post-avocado era.’