Demand for avocados in the United States has quadrupled in the last 20 years. America's growing love for the fruit may be harming the fragile habitat of the monarch butterfly, whose winter home is in the forests of central Mexico. Those forests are not far from Mexico's avocado orchards, where the majority of the avocados Americans consume are grown.
While high demand has created economic opportunity for farmers, it has also put a strain the region’s natural resources.
Reynaldo Garduño was just 8 years old when he would climb the mountain near his village in central Mexican state of Michoacan and chop down trees. Then he'd take his burro loaded with wood to sell in town.
"They'd buy that wood and make toothpicks, popsicle sticks, ceiling beams and furniture," he said. "We made our living off the forest. It was our means of survival."
A simple corn harvest was not enough to pay the bills. But 50 years later, things have changed. Garduño lives in the village of Carpinteros about 2.5 hours northwest of Mexico City. Carpinteros is an ejido, a self-governed agricultural community where land is communally held. Today farmers there have a new source of income.
Fronteras - Avocado Orchards In Mexico Compete With Forest Land
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