Avocado - a positive superfood trend? | DW Documentary

in the tracks of a superfood the avocado is a fruit from the hot and humid tropics [Music] we went about they which Chilean sweet avocados for breakfast we managed with salad in the afternoon and in the evening it's a superb fruit it's become a kind of green gold it's also a superstar on social media hip and in-demand it's very versatile food but at the same time it stands for a bit of help it stands for almost a new school food but it comes at a cost CEO Scooby Adela consecuencia if everyone knew the Chilean's had to live without water because of avocados Europe would have to stop importing then Diego una Moneda Akina Dell [Music] Ricardo's sanguine is the longtime owner of a small farm in the Chilean province of Patoka this is his irrigation canal or what's left of it for decades it was Ricardo's lifeline the canal has had no water in it for six years now and smallholders used it to water all our avocados now sadly it's dead the canals water came from the nearby La Liga River [Music] today Ricardo and his friends ranae vicara and Rodrigo mundaka can walk across the riverbed and that was the river habit of 15 years ago now it's a garbage dump and the water stuck in their car the trees up on the hills the river was stolen from us Rodrigo mundaka is the founder of motor tema an initiative to protect drinking water [Music] I remember this river being a place of joy and relaxation we came here to swim many summer I find it deeply shocking to see how it is now I can't stand [Music] bridges in Patoka barely serve a purpose these days but the water hasn't disappeared it's hidden away and the avocado plantations nearby thousands of hectares of these water guzzling fruits are grown for export including to Europe [Music] while at the same time many people get their water brought in on trucks at the expense of the taxpayer including those who have been farmers their entire lives and had enough water like Zoila Kiros only my prickly pear plant has survived which barely needs any water until a few years ago zoila's pride and joy was here just behind her house my avocado trees were down there 300 of them all of them dried up I also had plums apricots apples and meddlers I had no way of watering them so they died I had nothing not a drop my ancient well dried up everything died next to zoila's land there is now a big lush avocado plantation Rodrigo tells us a businessman bought an immense area of land to start growing the superfood got too much power he pumps the groundwater up from way down deep there are 40 or 50 hectares of avocados here or more he's harvesting were more ready kilos of them it's a losing battle for water some regions are coping better eighty kilometres away in the neighboring province of lai lai water comes from glacial Springs but a fruit Empire run by the Schmitz a family of German descent is causing similar animosity agricultural land use here also spread like wildfire with the avocado boom of the 1990s harvesting is done by hand and Mattia Schmidt oversees it personally he's one of Chile's biggest avocado exporters what is he think of the water shortages in Tokyo via a restaurant I don't know to what extent people really are lacking water but maybe the government should build more plants to treat the river water and make it drinkable for the local residents but the avocado farmers have also invested money and bought water rights to take advantage of the producers always strive to ensure there's enough water left over for one because they save money if they use the least possible amount of water per plantation and per tree in our poor poor plantation for a bowl but water-saving has its limits the avocado is a thirsty fruit one kilo requires up to a thousand liters of water that's eight times more than potatoes here's our pump station we pump the ground water up onto the hills the highest slopes give you the best climate for avocados they grow bigger and ripen faster we just need more power for the pumps Matthias has to drill 120 metres down to where he can get enough groundwater for his fruit [Music] growing avocados on this scale is a mammoth undertaking but it's an important pillar of the Chilean economy [Music] critics say scarce water from Chile is being shipped to Europe in the form of avocados the special air-conditioned containers they use also adds to the fruits environmental footprint and as yet another issue [Music] consumers expect to buy avocados ready to eat off the shelf [Music] that means the hard unripe fruits have to be ripened in huge temperature controlled warehouses that simulate the humidity and heat of their natural environment [Music] some of these avocados end up in restaurants like this one in Amsterdam the avocado Show is an avocado restaurant and was the first of its kind in the world 10 a.m. and already fall it's gourmet heaven for the instagram generation there's been a lot of press there's been a lot of a lot of social media but there's also just people who look for like I know the top 5 restaurants or the top 5 lunch or breakfast or whatever and I'm set up and you'll find this in those lists good looking full house today guys let's go avocado burgers salads toasters all dishes are designed for a target group that knows what it wants [Applause] [Music] we both are very health conscious and we know that avocados are really good for you well I mean it's filled with healthy fats which are good for you tastes really good cooked like a lime avocado on top and there's just avvocato through all the pancakes berries inside the pancakes as well that's really really nice really sweet really nice it's run by Dutch marketing experts who were looking for a new business idea we didn't want to open another burger place or you know another pizza place or whatever so like what is mono that hasn't been used before avocado you can use it cold warm in any dish you could make anything with it so and I have plans to expand we already developed the entire franchise formula we've been working really hard to past six months we have an investor now we have over a hundred and fifty people interested worldwide and really cool cities to start opening these and it's coming what's the next few months you're going to see the first few open yeah we go back to Jilly [Music] Patoka has always been an arid region with little rainfall and no glacial water that's why the government always declares a province-wide state of water emergency in the summer but water intensive avocado farming goes on regardless [Music] Rodrigo mundaka is an agricultural engineer who has been fighting for the human right to drinking water for years Rodrigo says there was enough water for everyone before the avocado boom the shortages began when the first big plantations moved in the entire ecosystem collapses when a river dries up clouds can't form without water evaporation so it rains even less ecological I was in Quinta of the big avocado exporters are disrupting the water cycle and the damage to the ecosystem is irreversible in Daniel completamente irreversible gone are the days when small farmers grew beans corn and potatoes now it's avocado monoculture everywhere Rodrigo and his fellow protesters refused to accept it Veronica vultures is the leader of a non-profit neighborhood cooperative her well provides water for 1,000 residents it's right next to one of the big plantations [Music] she says she faces constant threats and accusations of water theft they put pressure on us and the authorities do too they threaten us and discriminate against us it's because we resisted when they tried to force us to give our water to a private company but our water is for the people for the community that's what the law says - it's for the poor Veronica's tanks are often empty in summer when the groundwater level drops her neighborhood relies on the state water trucks they have to save water here all year round this is the tank I use to recycle the water showering is a luxury and laundry is done once a month the wastewater from the bathrooms and kitchens ends up here to water the plants that are left verónica used to keep cows and goats and make her own milk and cheese today she only grows lemons almost as an act of defiance my hope is that one day things will be better for us that one day a politician a president who's not corrupt will change the Chilean Constitution that is the crux of the matter water should be public property and belong to everyone but in Chile the Constitution allows the privatization of water [Music] anyone who can afford it buys rights and can hoard water quite legally [Music] Rodrigo and his fellow activists say that's how patacas water has been diverted away from the people who also needed [Music] the water ends up where the green gold grows and the Chilean government helps to keep it that way by a la gente nope welcome Pandita BC now valley CA me you know the best you have to realize that the state covers three-quarters of the costs for these reservoirs businesses pay just a quarter we want to know why the state funds the businesses to build these private pools of clean drinking water its water that other people need to survive boilesen co bubble worried the activists campaign for the UN's so-called human right to water which chili officially recognizes [Music] the plantation owners have water but won't giving you away while at the same time we're suffering catastrophic droughts we feel helpless because we see the water being hoarded and the government doesn't do anything about it you know you know yes a nap a little further above the avocado plantations a gravel road leads to a stream quick we shouldn't stay long Rodrigo doesn't want to attract attention there's a well by the stream can you do this well his channel to the big pools that water the plantations say thank you this well isn't normal it's been built into the bed someone's getting water illegally well if there was a Joseph and [Applause] mysterious have you supported it and nothing happened we need this water down in the village there's no one check no no one Rodrigo says there are very few people who are willing to take on the powerful avocado producers one of them is mayor Gustavo Val de negra he's paying a visit to Zoila the farmer with the dried up well the mayor had a water tank built paid for by the chronically underfunded public purse Zoila gets two deliveries of drinking water each week the price for that can triple in summer for her family water is a luxury product we couldn't wash in the height of summer we couldn't cook it was bad somehow we have to survive the drought every summer even though we suffer a lot the mayor of potaka is campaigning for fairer distribution of water but he alone can't force the avocado producers to give up their water he doesn't have the authority all he can do is plead and acquit the people who owned and run the plantations sat at this table five years ago I asked them in times of extreme drought if they'd be willing to limit their water usage to grant some water rights to the people of the community their goal is to produce reach targets and export the conversation ended there what was left to discuss said everything yes see at all the first for profit is overriding human solidarity when asked to comment the region's top exporter said avocados aren't the reason for the water shortage and that no producer to date has been legally charged with stealing water but still there have always been disputes about water in potaka especially in summer season sto late filly detection a two-person aerial survey of la lengua River was carried out in 2012 to see if there were underground channels diverting the river water sixty-four were found under this river alone 64 that's why this river is completely dried out the avocado producers have diverted the underground water that's why they've always got water yo siempre de now Rodrigo has repeatedly voiced his criticism a report by Chilean broadcaster shows him at one of the many crisis summits with government representatives we've reported what's happening here so many times any lawsuits that do happen only ever result in mild punishments water theft has always been an offence in Chile with a fine of 1200 euros these guys pay the money and carry on since Rodrigo and Ricardo publicly voiced their objections and complained to the police they've been insulted and received anonymous threats we're not living we're surviving every day he's following you who wants to hurt on TV they call us eco-terrorists revolution people say we're just causing problems even within our community because we want to defend our water water in Chile is a commodity it can even be bought as an investment people who own water rights pay hardly any tax on them they're very loosely monitored it's a law that's hardly changed since the military dictatorship explains the head of the water authorities the state issues water licenses sometimes their life long they can be resold to whoever is offering the most money license gives you the right to take so much water per second from a specific place on a public river for example our just rare akise little person you've obtained that right for yourself so it's yours you're perfectly entitled to sólo porque es Mira Cho is a consumer unity this is even having an effect fourteen thousand kilometers away in Berlin at the world's biggest fruit trade show the top trader in Holland avoids avocados from pitaka they really need to find the right partners who are located on the right spots so from the Patoka region we as a company we don't source for net from that region just because of the the water issues that are in that location [Music] the South Americans including the exporters from Patoka are hoping to strike some good deals at the trade show another water shortage is an issue for the Chilean authorities we are the state together with the exporters ensure that all export standards are met that applies to all Chilean fruits they must be sustainable and truthfully all food is safe there have been years of water shortages in potaka but they're still exporting avocados from there how does that fit in with a consumers demand for sustainability I don't know about that if there's one thing the trade show proved it's that business is booming one sales record follows the next mostly thanks to the avocado the way things are going in pitaka the region will likely help that trend continue an estimated 80% of the water already goes towards agriculture [Music] new crops are appearing despite the lack of water rodrigo documents the rampant growth of an agricultural land we have no future as things stand the climate the lack of rain the dried out rivers talker will just be sacrificed are protecting the monoculture and the export of avocados at the cost of people's access to drinking water filled in detrimental the deprivation that was all saleable assume water is also Mateus MIT's biggest concern but only that it won't be sufficient to meet the demand for his avocados inanimate and tofu go in do I say that way of course water is scarce no doubt the government should spend more money and expropriate land to make more space for reservoirs para his water requirements are also rising he's just bought new fields to plant seedlings [Music] that will be six hundred thousand new avocado trees he thinks this is just the start of the boom men don't demand increases by 30% year after year 30% so say five minutes now we're waiting for China they're only just starting to discover our cause they eat them on the right there's a we're funding advertising to show the Chinese is going to be great a gold rush for the avocado farmers and despair for the people trying to save their environment the fight for water is a neverending story [Music] you

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,780,917

Rating: 4.7858782 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, avocado, Chile, drought, water shortage, growing avocados, avocado benefits, avocado farming, environment, DW, mexican border closing, mexican avocados

Id: 05oMsK0-jjA

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/doughnutholio]

Thank you for posting this, consumer education is the first tiny step towards unfucking ourselves.

[u/DesastreUrbano]

From Chile and 2 hours from Petorca, can confirm. To be honest the reality of the avocado (palta for us) industry is WAAAAY worst than the documentary shows. For different reasons I've known people in that fight, and the problem is not only the fact that you can buy the water and the punishment for stealing is low, the biggest producers are not juat bussiness men, one of the biggest in Petorca was a Minister for the government* and a political holy cow (like for real, the guy puts himself on the number 1 spot for transplants when he got health issues some years ago) Even a congress man's plantation was "intervenied" years ago and people dug a hole to show on tv all the underground drain system he had to keep his plantation. What happe ed to him? Nothing because he had a seat on congress. Is a real shit show over there, is really sad

[u/[deleted]]

Get to Del Taco

[u/BlarpUM]

Don't ruin avocados for me you bastards.

[u/paulitocv]

This reminds me of the documentary on Netflix ‘water and power’. It’s about water in California and basically the same thing is going on as in Chile.

[u/AtoxHurgy]

What does this mean for my avocado toast?

[u/Potpourri87]

Impressive to see the scale of this operation. I feel for those people nearby... The crux seems to be the governmet though. Although I won't trust that avocado corp. guy pretending to care about the people :/

[u/AskMoreQuestionsOk]

So looks like the problem is water rights. The government should have managed it differently if it wanted to treat small farmers more fairly.

[u/uberjach]

«Superfood»