The Atlantic

The Political Saga of Avocados

How does such a nutritious fruit have such a contentious record?
Source: Sandy Huffaker / Reuters

If beans are, as is sometimes said, a musical fruit, avocados are produce’s Forrest Gump. Far from being just a simple superfood with a deceptively tough shell, avocados have popped up, persistently, throughout some of the notable political and cultural controversies of the last century, from the War on Fat to the War on Brunch to the looming Tariff War on Mexico. They even endured, in typical hardy fashion, the Great Pea Catastrophe of 2015.

Avocados have, you might conclude, been against history ever since they entered the American diet, and have long experiencedcollateral damage thanks of avocados while watching the Super Bowl, avocados will inadvertently enter the front lines once more, highlighting the clash between . Which makes it as ripe a time as any to consider the strangely contentious history of a very nutritious fruit.

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