Avocadon’t! Trendy cafes ban ‘planet-killing superfood’

WHETHER served with a squeeze of lemon or spread on sourdough toast, it’s the ‘superfood’ that’s become a staple of trendy cafés. But avocados are being dropped from the menu because of fears that their popularity is not so good for the planet. One café owner in Britain 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 was the most popular item on her menu at the Wild Strawberry Café in Buckinghamshire.

But having regularly served up to one thousand per week, she posted on Instagram that the café would no longer be serving avocado.

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. 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 replaced avocado with sauteed garlic mushrooms.

Earlier this year, Tincan Coffee Café 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.’