March 27, 2026 • 32 mins
Forget boring toast—the world has been making all sorts of avocado advances. Why aren't you using an avocado sock? Should you be investing in diet avocados from Spain? And why aren't you drinking your lattes out of avocado shells, like Australians do? Will and Mango dive deep into the tasty world of avocados to determine why they took so long to catch on, and what Baywatch Nights has to do with their popularity. (Spoiler: Very little.)
This episode originally aired on April 27, 2018.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango, what's that?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Well, well, I know you like to turn to me
to keep up with like the coolest things going on
in the world, or like trends happening, So I wanted
to let you in a little secret. Have you heard
about the coolest way to use an avocado right now?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So I'm not really off on super hip avocado trends.
Like I saw a restaurant ridiculed online for serving this
deconstructed avocado toast which was just half an avocado on
one side of a play and then a piece of
toast on the other. And they didn't even do the
work of smashing them together. It was just like overpriced laziness.
But I don't know what trend are you talking about.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's actually not a dish. So the coolest thing you
can do right now with an avocado is to propose
with one. And I'm not kidding about this. So the
not Cosmo and all these other places have declared that
the avocado proposal it's here, Mango, it's here.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm excited, but I don't know what it is. Tell
me all.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Right, So, basically, people are slicing an avocado in half,
taking out the pit and then sticking a little ring
in so it stands up right. Actually, this is kind
of grossing me out, but I'm trying to go with it.
And so then the moment is right and you just
queue up cold play, You get down on one knee,
you take that avocado out of your back pocket. I
don't know why they're suggesting to keep it in your
back pocket, and then you crack it open like a
(01:19):
ring box and as then puts it quote, if you
love the farmer's market, this might be your dream proposal.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I like that it's the official proposal of like farmers' markets.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I've always looked for one of these. Well, today's
show is all about the creamy green fruit from Why
you Should Thank a Mailman for your guacamole obsession to win.
Avocado theft became so trendy, So we're about to get
knee high on avocado's let's dive in. Hey their podcast listeners,
(02:06):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh hot Ticketter
and on the other side of the soundproof glass, demonstrating
the absolute worst way to peel an avocado. I Honestly,
I can't even look at it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I know, I don't think you're supposed to use a
vegetable peeler on Tristan.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh, well, anyway, I'm gonna turn my head. But that's
our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So I realized, you
know mego, this is a slightly grim way to start
the show. But I was reading about this recent wave
of avocado related injuries, or what they call avocado hand
and people are doing serious damage to their hands by
trying and of course failing, to cut into their avocados.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So that's pretty crazy. Like I hadn't heard about people
injuring themselves on avocados. But it does feel like the
same as when bagels became really popular in the nineties
and suddenly like every local news story was about people
cutting themselves with bagels and how to appropriately slice a
bag It doesn't seem bad difficult, but I mean, I
guess you don't get avocado's presliced. What's the solution.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, it's actually become a big enough problem that there's
this British plastic surgeon and he's been pushing for warning
labels to be added to avocados. In the UK really
and apparently, yeah, seriously, apparently he treats an average of
four patients a week, four patients a week for avaquada
based injuries. So I mean, it may seem weird to
put a sticker and that it may actually sound silly,
(03:28):
but you can't really blame him for wanting to do
something about this epidemic of avocado fails.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That's so weird. Like I mean, I feel like you
can cut an avocado with a butter knife. You don't
need something super sharp to do it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
While prepping for today's show, one of my biggest takeaways
was that most Americans have always been pretty clueless when
it comes to these leathery fruits, and this confusion actually
goes all the way back to the early twentieth century.
That's when avocado production was first taking root in the US.
But before we get into the state side history, I
do want to go back a little further in time
because humans have actually been cultivating avocado trees for thousands
(04:03):
of years now. It goes as far back as five
hundred BC, and this was mostly taking place in Central
and South America as well as Mexico, where the Aztecs
were calling the fruit a word that they used for testicle.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And so that was based on what like the fruit shape.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, but also because avocado's typically grown pears, which I
guess further the resemblance.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But h I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I go. Yeah, it's a great joke that kills at recess.
But they also used to be considered something of an afrodisiac.
But that might have just been Europeans reading too much
into the words origin. Like apparently King Louis the fourteenth
nicknamed avocado's the good pear in French, you know, pear
the fruit, not pair pai r. But he called it
that because he claimed avocado's got him in the mood
(04:47):
and boosted his desire to mate.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, Louis definitely wasn't the last person to compare avocados
to the shape of a pair, because when avocados first
started to catch on in the US, people were actually
calling them alligator pears. Makes sense, I mean, obviously that
tough outer skin, it has that bumpy texture and green coloring.
I mean, he does kind of look like an alligator,
but he didn't really make for the most appetizing association,
(05:10):
as you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, I mean I guess like biting into an alligator
seems like a tough cell.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, And that's exactly what the California Avocado Growers Exchange
found when they were trying to expand their business just
beyond that home state. And they claim that grim association
with you know, with reptiles was kind of ruining the
whole operation. And even worse, it was, you know, of course,
besmirching the good name of the Laurel tree family to
which these avocados belong. And this is serious because in
(05:37):
nineteen twenty seven, the trade group released the statement and
here's what it says. That the avocado, an exalted member
of the Laurel family, should be called an alligator pair
is beyond all understanding.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I love that they thought this would be the thing
to change people's minds. Like, I know how we'll get
people on board. Let's appeal to everyone's love for Laurel trees.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, that's all it took. Well, I mean, it was
maybe kind of a strange play, but they did get
smarter about the rebranding. The growers slowly weaned the public
off of the alligator pear as a nickname, and they
first replaced it with a much more appetizing butter paar,
and then the somewhat redundant avocado pear before they finally
just got people to start calling them avocados. But even
(06:18):
once customers started calling them by the right name, avocados
still faced a pretty uphill battle.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So why is that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, for one thing, if you think about it, they're
unlike any other fruits that people were eating because they're
not sweet, they're not really good for cooking. They ripened
off the tree. I mean, people didn't really know what
to do with them.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, it's funny to think that Mexican culture and cuisine
just took to it so quickly, but just one country north,
we were so perplexed by this fruit, like it took
so much rebranding and marketing for us to catch on.
I mean, the process took most of the twentieth century
to get us on board.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, that's true, But it actually is kind of fun
to look back and see how avocados kind of gradually
took on the characteristics that we most associate with them today.
For example, the need to grow avocados only in the
mildest parts of the country, you know, where you'd find
the water and short supply. That really meant avocados often
cost more than other domestic fruits, and of course marketers
(07:13):
were aware of how expensive their product was becoming, and
that's really why they started pushing for avocados to be
paired with other upscale foods like grapefruit or lobster. And
in fact, in the late nineteen twenties, and I had
not seen this before doing our research for this week,
but the California Avocados Society started taking out ads in
Vogue and The New Yorker, and they were proclaiming the
avocados to be the quote aristocrat of salad fruits.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I like, the avocados need to come in top hats
and monocles just so likely. But you know, to me,
that's less advertizing than just calling them alligator pairs.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, but the fruits fancy status kind of stuck, and
by the nineteen seventies, avocados had developed this reputation as
really more of a luxury item. For example, in nineteen
seventy four, the price of a single avocado had soared
as high as a full dollar. Now keep in mind
that's the equivalent of almost five dollars in today's money.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That is crazy So what about avocado's other big claim,
like the idea that they're one of the world's healthiest superfoods.
When did that really come about?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, it really took off in the nineteen eighties, and
as you might remember, this is when nutrition experts really
started to crack down on America's fat consumption. So low
fat food started appearing on store shelves, and every celebrity
you could think of was pushing some sort of patented
diet or crazy new piece of exercise equipment. And you know,
as people began looking for more and more ways to
(08:33):
reduce their fat intake, avocados became a pretty popular target.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
But wait, aren't avocados full of like the good kind
of fat that kind of actually helps us reduce cholesterol? Like,
why would experts tell people not to eat them?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Well, at the time, nutritionists were worried that the American
public wouldn't be able to wrap their heads around that
distinction between the types of fats, you know, between the
good mono unsaturated fats and the bad saturated fat. So
instead they just told people to avoid fats all together.
And that's why, strangely enough, it actually fell to the
avocado growers to educate the public about the fruit's true
(09:07):
nutritional value. So in the late eighties, the California Avocado Commission.
They worked closely with researchers and funded all sorts of
studies on the health benefits of their product. And then
the grower spread the good news with a TV ad
campaign and it starred Angie Dickinson, and the ads were
a huge hit, but they were also pretty scandalous for
the time. So here's what the ad was. It showed
(09:30):
Angie stretched out in these gold stilettos and a white
leotard and she was eating half an avocado with a spooch. Sure,
And after she lays out how tasty and nutritious the
avocados are, she turns to the camera and asked, would
this body lie to you? I had forgotten where I
got that line from. I know I used that line
a lot, I didn't remember that Angie had created that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I mean, I guess the nutrition experts were wrong to
doubt the American public like, we can absolutely understand the
health benefits of avocados as long as they're explained to
us by beautiful movie star. So I do feel like
uh Kanye as I'm about to say this because Angie Dickinson,
you did a good job, and I'm gonna let you finish.
But mister Ripe Guy is the best spokesperson in the
(10:11):
avocado industry.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I can't say I'm familiar with his work. So who
is mister Ripe Guy?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I can't believe you're asking me that. No. This goes
back to the avocados struggle. So after surviving the anti
fat movement of the eighties, sales were still suffering to
the public's lack of knowledge about the fruit. So one
prime example is that people weren't even sure when to
eat avocados. People kept trying to eat them when they
were like bright green, because that's when they looked the prettiest,
(10:37):
instead of waiting until the fruit to turn like a
murky brown color, and that's actually when it's most delicious
or the ripest to eat. But to combat the problem,
the Avocado Commission partnered with an ad agency and created
their very own mascot, mister Ripe Guy. And in true
eighties fashion, this California character was basically just an anthropomorphic
(10:59):
avocado with a pair of sunglasses on.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Wait, you know what this reminds me of? And I
collected all of these from I can't remember whether it
was McDonald's or Hearty's or what it was, but you
remember the California.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Raisin definitely, So it definitely feels like a California raisin
rip off. But someone would show up in an avocada
suit at various events, and this was around the country.
They'd share tips as mister Ripe guy on how to
pick and prep avocados and just generally sing the fruits praises.
But the best part of the campaign was in nineteen
ninety five when the Commission launched a nationwide search to
(11:32):
find Miss Ripe, and women were encouraged to mail and
video cassettes of themselves explaining why they deserved this coveted honor,
and apparently the winner would receive a free trip to
Hollywood and a walk on roll on Baywatch Nights.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I like cut didn't even occur to them that maybe
they should win a lifetime supply of avocados. I feel
like maybe they didn't think through this campaign fully.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, I mean maybe they would have gotten more people
to enter, but in the end, least one woman was
interested in what was on offer. The lucky winner was
Robin nardone of Chicago who I'm sure you remember, and
he told reporters, going to be Miss Ripe is like
a dream come true. I will bear the title proudly.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
That's really sweet. And of course everybody still talks about
that episode of Baywatch Nights that she was on, right, definitely. Well,
I'm curious, so did these kinds of stunts pay off
for avocado growers.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well, it's hard to say exactly how much of the
industry's growth is due to mister and missus Ripe guy,
but there's no doubt that the avocado consumption has gone
way way off since the nineties. For example, by nineteen
ninety nine, the average American was eating about one point
five pounds of avocado per year, whereas in twenty sixteen
that number had actually grown to seven point one pounds
per year according to USDA. Yeah, and to put that
(12:46):
in perspective, the hass Avocado Board reported that four hundred
and eighty four million avocados were consumed in two thousand,
which sounds like a lot, right, But you fast forward
to twenty twelve and the total had risen to nearly
one point five billion, which is basically a three hundred
percent increase over just a decade.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I mean, that is pretty amazing. It's also pretty amazing
that it's taken us this long to finally mention the
H word. So I do want to shift gears and
talk about what is undoubtedly the biggest name in the business,
and that's the Hass avocado. Now, I know we need
to explore how the variety came to dominate the market,
as well as what that monopoly might be causing us
to miss out.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
On, which sounds good. But before we get into it,
let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking all
things avocado, Okay, mango. So we've been charting the course
of how misunderstood fruit like the avocado wound up as
one of the world's trendiout superfoods. And so now we're
getting to what's probably my favorite part of the story,
which is the contribution of a Californian mailman named Rudolph Hass.
And while this story isn't widely known, I'm willing to
(14:04):
bet that the name sounds familiar to most of our listeners,
and for very good reason, because Hass avocados are hands
down the most popular avocado, not only in the country,
but in the entire world. In fact, there's a good
chance that most people have only ever eaten the hass avocado.
And that's because ninety five percent of the avocados sold
in the US and about eighty percent worldwide are hass avocados.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I'm honestly not sure I could even name a different
kind of avocado.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, here's what's crazy, though, is that there's actually more
than nine hundred varieties of avocados. You know, some of
these things have very different shapes and textures and flavors
than that single type that we're used to. But thankfully,
the one type we do have is a pretty good one.
Hass avocados have a strong flavor, they're packed with healthy oil,
so it's not like we're getting the short end of
(14:51):
the stick on this. And there's a reason Hass is
the most popular name in avocados, even if that popularity
does result in a real lack of diversity on the
store shelves.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So speaking of the name, this is sort of embarrassing.
But I used to think that Hass was just the
name of the family farm or like the company that
grew them, you know, like Dole or Chikita. But I
didn't know it was actually a fruit variety.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and I don't think most people do know that.
But so to get back to that, let's get back
to Rudolph Hass and he was a postman by trade
in the nineteen twenties and then got into horticulture after
he saw this magazine ad that showed an avocado tree
with dollar bills growing out of it. I mean, that
sounds pretty convincing. So he was hoping to make some
money on the side and started buying up seeds and
(15:34):
raising these resulting trees at his family home. And this
was just outside of La so he was grassed from
the larger plants to multiply that crop. But there was
one seedling in particulars He described it a stubborn baby
tree grown from a Guatemalan seed of unknown parentage, or
that's how one local newspaper put it. That it wouldn't
accept a graph no matter how hard has tried. He
(15:57):
considered cutting it down, but instead he just said to
decide and let it grow unattended as a somewhat of
an experiment. And this turned out to be the best
decision of Hass's life, because when the tree finally bore fruit.
It's avocado's tasted better than any other of the varieties available.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, I mean, first of all, i just love that
the world's most popular avocado is a result of like
dumb luck. But also I'm really curious about these other
varieties that predate the Hass, Like what were the go
to avocados at the time, and what made the Hass
one so much better.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, at the time, the prevailing avocado was called the fuerte,
which means strong and Spanish. And admittedly, the fuerte looks
more appetizing than the hass. You know, you don't have
that bumpy, thick, black skin of the hass. The fuerte
avocado has more of a smooth and kind of a
thin skin, and it actually turns a green color as
it ripens. But you know, when you think about taste,
(16:51):
Hass avocados are way richer and nuttier and creamier than
the fuertes, And so this gave them a big advantage
in Rudolph Hass's mind. But of course taste wasn't the
only thing they had going for them. Another big advantage
is that the Hass avocado trees were easier to grow
than the fuerte trees. They also have longer harvest seasons
than other avocados, and they can produce larger quantities of
(17:13):
fruit after just a couple of years. But there's one
thing that's maybe even more important than all of those things,
and that's that these avocados are easy to handle and
even ship long distances. And that's thanks to that alligator
thick skin that we were talking about before. So when
Rudolph Hass realized that he'd stumbled upon something special, he
patented his tree in nineteen thirty five and started working
(17:36):
with a local grower to promote this new variety.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
You know, it's funny when you're talking about the packability
of these avocados. You think about other fruit like the
red Delicious or the cavendish bananas, and they are always
sacrificing flavor for that durability, and it's amazing to think
that the avocado doesn't do that. But yeah, I don't
think I realized you could actually patten a tree.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well I didn't neither, and apparently neither did anybody else,
because you know, sadly the patent was all but ignored
by its competitors. In fact, this is how Rudolph's granddaughter
Cindy Miller, explained the ordeal in an article about her
family's story. She writes, since it was the first patent
ever issued on a tree, it got no respect. Growers
would buy one from mister Brokaw, who had the exclusive
(18:19):
right to produce the nursery trees. They would then regraph
their whole grove with the budwood from that one tree.
For that reason, Rudolph has made only five thousand dollars
in royalties on his first patent.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's pretty insane, like five grand for coming up with
the world's tastiest avocado.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's crazy. Yeah, it's a weird story, but there is
a silver lining for that name. So the avocados that
bear his name have become ubiquitous with the fruit, and
today millions of his trees can now be found all
over the globe. And maybe the craziest part about this
whole thing is that all of those trees are genetically
descended from that single mother tree that has planted on
(18:56):
his property, and that was nearly one hundred years ago.
In fact, it's estimated that about eighty percent of all
US avocados are descendants of the hass avocado mother tree.
I mean, that's just so weird to think about. And
the original tree actually lasted quite a while too. It
was on that Hass property until it finally lost the
battle with something called root rot disease, and that was
(19:17):
back in two thousand and two. But according to Alice Obscura,
you can still make a pilgrimage to see the preserved
woods from the tree at the Brokaw Nursery and Ventura
and there's even a plaque there to market it's original
location in Lejabra.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Which I think that takes care of my summer vacation
plans for the good good. But you know, Hass having
his patent undermine like that kind of reminds me of
something weird I noticed while researching, and that's the sheer
volume of crime that the fruit detracts. Like I wouldn't
think this before, but you know, you mentioned earlier that
avocados were worth equivalent of what like five dollars each
(19:53):
in the nineteen seventies, and at the time, that high
value sparked a wave of avocado that's throughout the org
of southern California. And this was hardly an isolated incident.
So just last year, three men were arrested in California
for selling over three hundred thousand dollars worth of stolen
hass avocados. I mean, that's insane. And when avocado prices
(20:14):
spiked in New Zealand back in twenty sixteen, farmers were
hit with over forty large scale thefts within a six
month period. Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I mean, I had no idea that avocado crime was
so prevalent, But if you think about it, me, it
does make sense. I remember back in our episode on cheese,
we talked about how cheese is the most shoplifted item
in the world, and that's because it's relatively a small item,
it's always in demand, and it does tend to cost
more than other food. So it feels like we've got
the same thing going here with the avocados exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
And we already mentioned how avocados have long been viewed
as a luxury food due to their price, so in
a way, all the crime surrounding them is to be expected.
But one thing nobody expected was the way that avocado
farmers in Mexico have been fighting back against their own
local form of avocado crimes. Because there's actually one town
there that has its own paramilitary avocado Protection Force.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Wait, so where is this.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
It's in a town called Tansataro and it's in the
micho acm region of Mexico. It's basically avocado country. The
township's over a million dollars worth of fruit every single day.
But back in two thousand and six, drug cartels, who
are feeling the pinch of a law enforcement crackdown, started
turning their attention to Tansataro's avocado producers. So of course
(21:29):
things get insane, right like the growers quickly become the
target of threats. They're kidnappings, even some murders. There was
a talk of the cartel season control of the orchards entirely,
and that's when the avocado producers decided to ban together
and fight back. They created their own local protection force,
which was half funded by the government, and today they
wear a body armor, they carry these high powered weapons
(21:52):
to ward off the cartels and also it gives the
citizens a sense of safety. I mean, this sounds scary
to me and kind of extreme, but actually it's worked.
So avocado crimes are way down in Tansatura, which has
allowed the town to once again focus on what it
does best, which is avocados, And in twenty thirteen, we
saw this when a group of four hundred and fifty
(22:12):
students in the town set a record for the world's
largest serving of guacamole, a weighed and astounding six thousand pounds.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Oh wow, I mean, I guess it makes sense that
they had those guards on hand, because if you think
about that much guacamole is definitely gonna attract at least
a few thieves, I would imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But now that we've tackled the CDI world of avocado crimes,
there's at least one part of avocado history that I
want to get to. But first, let's take another quick break.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Okay, mango, So I told you my favorite story. Now
it's your turn. What's your favorite story from the avocado history.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
So at the top of the show, we talked about
the recent and accidents where people have stabbed themselves while
prepping avocados, and while there's definitely some user error at
play there, the real problem is that the avocado has
this enormous pit, and while most fruits contained seeds small
enough to be swallowed or excreted by humans and other animals,
avocado pits can be as big as golf balls, which
(23:18):
means that swallowing them is off the table for most
of us.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I've always actually wondered about that because from an evolutionary perspective,
it doesn't seem like the most effective way for this
plant to spread its seeds around.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Well, it isn't anymore, but it used to be incredibly effective.
So the part of avocado history that I love the
most is the part that explains why the pit is
so huge, and for that we actually need to travel
all the way back to the dawn of the Cenozoic Era,
which is the period after the extinction of dinosaurs when
mammals first started to take the stage. But the mammals
of the Senozoic era weren't just any mammals.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
They were actually.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Enormous species known as megafauna, and they've roamed the Western
hemisphere in droves.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
All right, So you're talking about things like, you know,
sabertoothed tigers and mammoths and those rhinos that were honestly,
I think they were like the size of house.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Boats, right, Yeah, that's right. So another dominant megafauna species
was the lestoedon, which were these fifteen foot tall, two
ton ground slots, and they wandered the grassy plains of
the Americas, and just like the slots of today, lustedons
mostly eight leaves and grass to survive, but occasionally they
would chow on on more satisfying trees, like the tasty avocado.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Huh so the avocado. It's also a product of the
cinazoic era.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It is, And actually that's really when the avocado plant
came to its prime. So these giant slots would swallow
whole avocados. And because these creatures were so massive, their
digestive systems were able to process the big seeds without
a problem. So they'd kind of feast and then travel
around with the seeds and their stomachs and then they'd
PLoP them out in some far away place and new
(24:50):
trees could thrive without competition. It was basically an evolutionary
win win for everybody. And that's probably why we still
have these large pitted avocados today.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Wait, are there still mammals that can eat the avocado
pits like that? I mean, you know, megafauna are one thing,
but I feel like most slows would choke if they
tried to eat a whole avocado at this point.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, you're right. I mean, climate change kind of wiped
out most of the megafauna in the western hemisphere. This
was about thirteen thousand years ago, so according to researchers,
North America lost about seventy percent of its megafauna at
the time, and South America lost eighty percent. So the
vast majority of these large creatures that helped these avocado
trees flourish in the first place, we're no longer around
to feed on them.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
So I don't get it. I mean, why would wild
avocados still produce such large pits if it's not beneficial
for them.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
No, it's a good question. And I was actually flipping
through this book by Connie Barlow called The Ghosts of Evolution,
and she says that avocado's giant seeds are what we
call an evolutionary anachronism. So none of today's slots could
possibly digest to seed that large, but the big pits
persist anyway, And as Barlow puts it, quote after thirteen
(25:58):
thousand years, the avocado is clue that the great mammals
are gone, and the truth is thanks to us. That's
completely fine, right, Like the avocado doesn't need to change
because it's got new champions. We've learned to deal with
the big seeds and spread them out in ways that
don't involve our digestive tracks.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, I guess that makes sense. But what about those
thirteen thousand years between the death of the megafauna and
human cultivation of these avocados. It feels like in all
those intervening years, the big seeds they still somehow managed
to get spread around even without those giant mammals.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah. So, one theory is that squirrels and other rodents
could have found avocados rotting on eeden on the surface
and then buried the pits for safe keeping, and then
they'd return later and find that there were these massive
trees that had sprowed in the place. But I also
read an article in Smithsonian, and it suggested that jaguars
might have been able to swallow and digest the seeds too. So,
as they put it, quote, the identities of the avocados
(26:52):
dispersers shifted every few million years. But from an avocado's perspective,
a big mouth is a big mouth, and a friendly
gut is a friendly gut.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I feel like those are words to live by. Mango,
or at least for an avocado. Really though, it's wild
to think that we have these giant sloughs to thank
for all of our avocado toasts and orders of chips
in guacamole. And you know, while they aren't swallowing avocado's
whole like our megafauna buddies once, did you know humans
have planted them all over the world. So all in all,
I feel like we've been pretty good stewards for the avocado.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Well, unlikely, it is, right, because not only is the
avocado pit way too large for humans to swallow or digest,
it can also be toxic to us. So animals like rhinos,
which are descended from those house boat sized ancestors you mentioned,
they can actually stomach the toxic pits just fine, but
humans and most other mammals lack enzyme systems and livers
strong enough to ward off that kind of toxicity. And
(27:46):
in fact, there's this old South American recipe for rat
poison that I just found that instructs the users to
mix some avocado pits with traditional rodent bit like cheese
or lard, and that'll take care of the problem.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I do like that a little tox pit isn't going
to stop us from eating nearly two billion pounds of
avocados each year. Speaking which, how's I don't want to look,
but how's Tristan doing over there? We're going to need
to take another trip to the er.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
No, but those avocados really aren't peeled, So why don't
we do a quick fact off and then we can
help the poor guy out. So most people have heard
that a good way to ripe an avocado's fast is
to put them in a paper bag with like bananas
or ripe apple. But if you're looking for more avocado
(28:33):
gear and accessories, you can always purchase an avocado sock.
It's ae hundred percent world bag that supposedly ripens the
fruit within twenty four hours, and according to the website,
it ripens it more gently than a paper bag. Also,
it works as a convenient carrying sock for when you
want to sling an avocado over your shoulder and just
transport the fruit and style.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, let me know how it goes if you order
one of those. I think I'll wait on your experience first.
All right, So here's a trend I definitely won't be
indulging in, and that's the avo late. Now, this is
an Australian specialty where you serve a latte in the
hollowed out husk of half an avocado. And while it
started out as an Instagram joke at the Truman Cafe
in Melbourne when an employee mixed coffee and milk and
(29:15):
an avocado shell, apparently customers have started pouring in for
the drink and other cafes have started serving it in response.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Well, if you love avocados but hate the pits, Marx
and Spencer is apparently selling a cocktail avocado, so this
is according to the Telegraph. But the fruit looks less
like a traditional alligator pair, you know, the kind we
all know and love, and more like a zucchini. But
the big advantage, of course, is that they don't have
a seed in them. And while the fruit is grown
in Spain, they're apparently really hard to find. Marx and
(29:42):
Spencer only carries them in December for some reason. But
maybe we'll be getting them stateside soon.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
All right. So we were talking about avocados being a
member of the prestigious Laurel family previously, and I was
a little curious what that meant, so I looked it
up and in addition to the laurel reads that you
might get for competing in the ancient Greek games. The
avocado has some pretty well known relatives in the laurel family.
The fruit is cousins with bay leaves, sassafras, and cinnamon.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Oh, it's a good family to be a part of.
So one of the strangest facts about avocados is that
they never ripened on the tree, so basically farmers can
plan when they want to pluck them and just store
them up there afresh for six or seven months.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
All right, Well, here's an avocado variation that no one needs,
and it's avocado light. It's a diet avocado that apparently
contains thirty percent less fat than your average avocado. Apparently
it's a milder taste, but it's a juicier avocado. I've
got to say, I am avocado with fewer calories that taste
more watery. Just it doesn't appeal to me. But if
(30:42):
they can make an avocado zero, maybe I'll consider it. Well.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
I think between a diet avocado and proposing with avocados,
you truly have your pulse on the worst things to
do with an avocado. So I'm gonna have to give
the trophy to you well. Thank you very much, and
thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some
great facts about avocada. We've been looking forward to doing
this episode because of the national obsession with avocados these days,
so we'd love to hear from you. You can always email
(31:07):
us part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can
call our twenty four to seven fact hotline that's one
eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part
Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and
wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
(31:37):
important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing. Jerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Adams and Eves Jeffcok gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
and if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Review for us. Do we do we forget Jason?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Jason who
Speaker 1 (32:09):
M
Guess what, Mango, what's that?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Well, well, I know you like to turn to me
to keep up with like the coolest things going on
in the world, or like trends happening, So I wanted
to let you in a little secret. Have you heard
about the coolest way to use an avocado right now?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So I'm not really off on super hip avocado trends.
Like I saw a restaurant ridiculed online for serving this
deconstructed avocado toast which was just half an avocado on
one side of a play and then a piece of
toast on the other. And they didn't even do the
work of smashing them together. It was just like overpriced laziness.
But I don't know what trend are you talking about.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's actually not a dish. So the coolest thing you
can do right now with an avocado is to propose
with one. And I'm not kidding about this. So the
not Cosmo and all these other places have declared that
the avocado proposal it's here, Mango, it's here.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm excited, but I don't know what it is. Tell
me all.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Right, So, basically, people are slicing an avocado in half,
taking out the pit and then sticking a little ring
in so it stands up right. Actually, this is kind
of grossing me out, but I'm trying to go with it.
And so then the moment is right and you just
queue up cold play, You get down on one knee,
you take that avocado out of your back pocket. I
don't know why they're suggesting to keep it in your
back pocket, and then you crack it open like a
(01:19):
ring box and as then puts it quote, if you
love the farmer's market, this might be your dream proposal.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I like that it's the official proposal of like farmers' markets.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, I've always looked for one of these. Well, today's
show is all about the creamy green fruit from Why
you Should Thank a Mailman for your guacamole obsession to win.
Avocado theft became so trendy, So we're about to get
knee high on avocado's let's dive in. Hey their podcast listeners,
(02:06):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh hot Ticketter
and on the other side of the soundproof glass, demonstrating
the absolute worst way to peel an avocado. I Honestly,
I can't even look at it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I know, I don't think you're supposed to use a
vegetable peeler on Tristan.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Oh, well, anyway, I'm gonna turn my head. But that's
our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So I realized, you
know mego, this is a slightly grim way to start
the show. But I was reading about this recent wave
of avocado related injuries, or what they call avocado hand
and people are doing serious damage to their hands by
trying and of course failing, to cut into their avocados.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So that's pretty crazy. Like I hadn't heard about people
injuring themselves on avocados. But it does feel like the
same as when bagels became really popular in the nineties
and suddenly like every local news story was about people
cutting themselves with bagels and how to appropriately slice a
bag It doesn't seem bad difficult, but I mean, I
guess you don't get avocado's presliced. What's the solution.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, it's actually become a big enough problem that there's
this British plastic surgeon and he's been pushing for warning
labels to be added to avocados. In the UK really
and apparently, yeah, seriously, apparently he treats an average of
four patients a week, four patients a week for avaquada
based injuries. So I mean, it may seem weird to
put a sticker and that it may actually sound silly,
(03:28):
but you can't really blame him for wanting to do
something about this epidemic of avocado fails.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
That's so weird. Like I mean, I feel like you
can cut an avocado with a butter knife. You don't
need something super sharp to do it.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
While prepping for today's show, one of my biggest takeaways
was that most Americans have always been pretty clueless when
it comes to these leathery fruits, and this confusion actually
goes all the way back to the early twentieth century.
That's when avocado production was first taking root in the US.
But before we get into the state side history, I
do want to go back a little further in time
because humans have actually been cultivating avocado trees for thousands
(04:03):
of years now. It goes as far back as five
hundred BC, and this was mostly taking place in Central
and South America as well as Mexico, where the Aztecs
were calling the fruit a word that they used for testicle.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And so that was based on what like the fruit shape.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, but also because avocado's typically grown pears, which I
guess further the resemblance.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But h I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I go. Yeah, it's a great joke that kills at recess.
But they also used to be considered something of an afrodisiac.
But that might have just been Europeans reading too much
into the words origin. Like apparently King Louis the fourteenth
nicknamed avocado's the good pear in French, you know, pear
the fruit, not pair pai r. But he called it
that because he claimed avocado's got him in the mood
(04:47):
and boosted his desire to mate.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, Louis definitely wasn't the last person to compare avocados
to the shape of a pair, because when avocados first
started to catch on in the US, people were actually
calling them alligator pears. Makes sense, I mean, obviously that
tough outer skin, it has that bumpy texture and green coloring.
I mean, he does kind of look like an alligator,
but he didn't really make for the most appetizing association,
(05:10):
as you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, I mean I guess like biting into an alligator
seems like a tough cell.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, And that's exactly what the California Avocado Growers Exchange
found when they were trying to expand their business just
beyond that home state. And they claim that grim association
with you know, with reptiles was kind of ruining the
whole operation. And even worse, it was, you know, of course,
besmirching the good name of the Laurel tree family to
which these avocados belong. And this is serious because in
(05:37):
nineteen twenty seven, the trade group released the statement and
here's what it says. That the avocado, an exalted member
of the Laurel family, should be called an alligator pair
is beyond all understanding.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I love that they thought this would be the thing
to change people's minds. Like, I know how we'll get
people on board. Let's appeal to everyone's love for Laurel trees.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, that's all it took. Well, I mean, it was
maybe kind of a strange play, but they did get
smarter about the rebranding. The growers slowly weaned the public
off of the alligator pear as a nickname, and they
first replaced it with a much more appetizing butter paar,
and then the somewhat redundant avocado pear before they finally
just got people to start calling them avocados. But even
(06:18):
once customers started calling them by the right name, avocados
still faced a pretty uphill battle.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So why is that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, for one thing, if you think about it, they're
unlike any other fruits that people were eating because they're
not sweet, they're not really good for cooking. They ripened
off the tree. I mean, people didn't really know what
to do with them.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, it's funny to think that Mexican culture and cuisine
just took to it so quickly, but just one country north,
we were so perplexed by this fruit, like it took
so much rebranding and marketing for us to catch on.
I mean, the process took most of the twentieth century
to get us on board.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, that's true, But it actually is kind of fun
to look back and see how avocados kind of gradually
took on the characteristics that we most associate with them today.
For example, the need to grow avocados only in the
mildest parts of the country, you know, where you'd find
the water and short supply. That really meant avocados often
cost more than other domestic fruits, and of course marketers
(07:13):
were aware of how expensive their product was becoming, and
that's really why they started pushing for avocados to be
paired with other upscale foods like grapefruit or lobster. And
in fact, in the late nineteen twenties, and I had
not seen this before doing our research for this week,
but the California Avocados Society started taking out ads in
Vogue and The New Yorker, and they were proclaiming the
avocados to be the quote aristocrat of salad fruits.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I like, the avocados need to come in top hats
and monocles just so likely. But you know, to me,
that's less advertizing than just calling them alligator pairs.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, but the fruits fancy status kind of stuck, and
by the nineteen seventies, avocados had developed this reputation as
really more of a luxury item. For example, in nineteen
seventy four, the price of a single avocado had soared
as high as a full dollar. Now keep in mind
that's the equivalent of almost five dollars in today's money.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
That is crazy So what about avocado's other big claim,
like the idea that they're one of the world's healthiest superfoods.
When did that really come about?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Well, it really took off in the nineteen eighties, and
as you might remember, this is when nutrition experts really
started to crack down on America's fat consumption. So low
fat food started appearing on store shelves, and every celebrity
you could think of was pushing some sort of patented
diet or crazy new piece of exercise equipment. And you know,
as people began looking for more and more ways to
(08:33):
reduce their fat intake, avocados became a pretty popular target.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
But wait, aren't avocados full of like the good kind
of fat that kind of actually helps us reduce cholesterol? Like,
why would experts tell people not to eat them?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Well, at the time, nutritionists were worried that the American
public wouldn't be able to wrap their heads around that
distinction between the types of fats, you know, between the
good mono unsaturated fats and the bad saturated fat. So
instead they just told people to avoid fats all together.
And that's why, strangely enough, it actually fell to the
avocado growers to educate the public about the fruit's true
(09:07):
nutritional value. So in the late eighties, the California Avocado Commission.
They worked closely with researchers and funded all sorts of
studies on the health benefits of their product. And then
the grower spread the good news with a TV ad
campaign and it starred Angie Dickinson, and the ads were
a huge hit, but they were also pretty scandalous for
the time. So here's what the ad was. It showed
(09:30):
Angie stretched out in these gold stilettos and a white
leotard and she was eating half an avocado with a spooch. Sure,
And after she lays out how tasty and nutritious the
avocados are, she turns to the camera and asked, would
this body lie to you? I had forgotten where I
got that line from. I know I used that line
a lot, I didn't remember that Angie had created that.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I mean, I guess the nutrition experts were wrong to
doubt the American public like, we can absolutely understand the
health benefits of avocados as long as they're explained to
us by beautiful movie star. So I do feel like
uh Kanye as I'm about to say this because Angie Dickinson,
you did a good job, and I'm gonna let you finish.
But mister Ripe Guy is the best spokesperson in the
(10:11):
avocado industry.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I can't say I'm familiar with his work. So who
is mister Ripe Guy?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I can't believe you're asking me that. No. This goes
back to the avocados struggle. So after surviving the anti
fat movement of the eighties, sales were still suffering to
the public's lack of knowledge about the fruit. So one
prime example is that people weren't even sure when to
eat avocados. People kept trying to eat them when they
were like bright green, because that's when they looked the prettiest,
(10:37):
instead of waiting until the fruit to turn like a
murky brown color, and that's actually when it's most delicious
or the ripest to eat. But to combat the problem,
the Avocado Commission partnered with an ad agency and created
their very own mascot, mister Ripe Guy. And in true
eighties fashion, this California character was basically just an anthropomorphic
(10:59):
avocado with a pair of sunglasses on.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Wait, you know what this reminds me of? And I
collected all of these from I can't remember whether it
was McDonald's or Hearty's or what it was, but you
remember the California.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Raisin definitely, So it definitely feels like a California raisin
rip off. But someone would show up in an avocada
suit at various events, and this was around the country.
They'd share tips as mister Ripe guy on how to
pick and prep avocados and just generally sing the fruits praises.
But the best part of the campaign was in nineteen
ninety five when the Commission launched a nationwide search to
(11:32):
find Miss Ripe, and women were encouraged to mail and
video cassettes of themselves explaining why they deserved this coveted honor,
and apparently the winner would receive a free trip to
Hollywood and a walk on roll on Baywatch Nights.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I like cut didn't even occur to them that maybe
they should win a lifetime supply of avocados. I feel
like maybe they didn't think through this campaign fully.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, I mean maybe they would have gotten more people
to enter, but in the end, least one woman was
interested in what was on offer. The lucky winner was
Robin nardone of Chicago who I'm sure you remember, and
he told reporters, going to be Miss Ripe is like
a dream come true. I will bear the title proudly.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
That's really sweet. And of course everybody still talks about
that episode of Baywatch Nights that she was on, right, definitely. Well,
I'm curious, so did these kinds of stunts pay off
for avocado growers.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well, it's hard to say exactly how much of the
industry's growth is due to mister and missus Ripe guy,
but there's no doubt that the avocado consumption has gone
way way off since the nineties. For example, by nineteen
ninety nine, the average American was eating about one point
five pounds of avocado per year, whereas in twenty sixteen
that number had actually grown to seven point one pounds
per year according to USDA. Yeah, and to put that
(12:46):
in perspective, the hass Avocado Board reported that four hundred
and eighty four million avocados were consumed in two thousand,
which sounds like a lot, right, But you fast forward
to twenty twelve and the total had risen to nearly
one point five billion, which is basically a three hundred
percent increase over just a decade.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I mean, that is pretty amazing. It's also pretty amazing
that it's taken us this long to finally mention the
H word. So I do want to shift gears and
talk about what is undoubtedly the biggest name in the business,
and that's the Hass avocado. Now, I know we need
to explore how the variety came to dominate the market,
as well as what that monopoly might be causing us
to miss out.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
On, which sounds good. But before we get into it,
let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking all
things avocado, Okay, mango. So we've been charting the course
of how misunderstood fruit like the avocado wound up as
one of the world's trendiout superfoods. And so now we're
getting to what's probably my favorite part of the story,
which is the contribution of a Californian mailman named Rudolph Hass.
And while this story isn't widely known, I'm willing to
(14:04):
bet that the name sounds familiar to most of our listeners,
and for very good reason, because Hass avocados are hands
down the most popular avocado, not only in the country,
but in the entire world. In fact, there's a good
chance that most people have only ever eaten the hass avocado.
And that's because ninety five percent of the avocados sold
in the US and about eighty percent worldwide are hass avocados.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I'm honestly not sure I could even name a different
kind of avocado.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, here's what's crazy, though, is that there's actually more
than nine hundred varieties of avocados. You know, some of
these things have very different shapes and textures and flavors
than that single type that we're used to. But thankfully,
the one type we do have is a pretty good one.
Hass avocados have a strong flavor, they're packed with healthy oil,
so it's not like we're getting the short end of
(14:51):
the stick on this. And there's a reason Hass is
the most popular name in avocados, even if that popularity
does result in a real lack of diversity on the
store shelves.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So speaking of the name, this is sort of embarrassing.
But I used to think that Hass was just the
name of the family farm or like the company that
grew them, you know, like Dole or Chikita. But I
didn't know it was actually a fruit variety.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and I don't think most people do know that.
But so to get back to that, let's get back
to Rudolph Hass and he was a postman by trade
in the nineteen twenties and then got into horticulture after
he saw this magazine ad that showed an avocado tree
with dollar bills growing out of it. I mean, that
sounds pretty convincing. So he was hoping to make some
money on the side and started buying up seeds and
(15:34):
raising these resulting trees at his family home. And this
was just outside of La so he was grassed from
the larger plants to multiply that crop. But there was
one seedling in particulars He described it a stubborn baby
tree grown from a Guatemalan seed of unknown parentage, or
that's how one local newspaper put it. That it wouldn't
accept a graph no matter how hard has tried. He
(15:57):
considered cutting it down, but instead he just said to
decide and let it grow unattended as a somewhat of
an experiment. And this turned out to be the best
decision of Hass's life, because when the tree finally bore fruit.
It's avocado's tasted better than any other of the varieties available.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, I mean, first of all, i just love that
the world's most popular avocado is a result of like
dumb luck. But also I'm really curious about these other
varieties that predate the Hass, Like what were the go
to avocados at the time, and what made the Hass
one so much better.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Well, at the time, the prevailing avocado was called the fuerte,
which means strong and Spanish. And admittedly, the fuerte looks
more appetizing than the hass. You know, you don't have
that bumpy, thick, black skin of the hass. The fuerte
avocado has more of a smooth and kind of a
thin skin, and it actually turns a green color as
it ripens. But you know, when you think about taste,
(16:51):
Hass avocados are way richer and nuttier and creamier than
the fuertes, And so this gave them a big advantage
in Rudolph Hass's mind. But of course taste wasn't the
only thing they had going for them. Another big advantage
is that the Hass avocado trees were easier to grow
than the fuerte trees. They also have longer harvest seasons
than other avocados, and they can produce larger quantities of
(17:13):
fruit after just a couple of years. But there's one
thing that's maybe even more important than all of those things,
and that's that these avocados are easy to handle and
even ship long distances. And that's thanks to that alligator
thick skin that we were talking about before. So when
Rudolph Hass realized that he'd stumbled upon something special, he
patented his tree in nineteen thirty five and started working
(17:36):
with a local grower to promote this new variety.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
You know, it's funny when you're talking about the packability
of these avocados. You think about other fruit like the
red Delicious or the cavendish bananas, and they are always
sacrificing flavor for that durability, and it's amazing to think
that the avocado doesn't do that. But yeah, I don't
think I realized you could actually patten a tree.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well I didn't neither, and apparently neither did anybody else,
because you know, sadly the patent was all but ignored
by its competitors. In fact, this is how Rudolph's granddaughter
Cindy Miller, explained the ordeal in an article about her
family's story. She writes, since it was the first patent
ever issued on a tree, it got no respect. Growers
would buy one from mister Brokaw, who had the exclusive
(18:19):
right to produce the nursery trees. They would then regraph
their whole grove with the budwood from that one tree.
For that reason, Rudolph has made only five thousand dollars
in royalties on his first patent.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's pretty insane, like five grand for coming up with
the world's tastiest avocado.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
It's crazy. Yeah, it's a weird story, but there is
a silver lining for that name. So the avocados that
bear his name have become ubiquitous with the fruit, and
today millions of his trees can now be found all
over the globe. And maybe the craziest part about this
whole thing is that all of those trees are genetically
descended from that single mother tree that has planted on
(18:56):
his property, and that was nearly one hundred years ago.
In fact, it's estimated that about eighty percent of all
US avocados are descendants of the hass avocado mother tree.
I mean, that's just so weird to think about. And
the original tree actually lasted quite a while too. It
was on that Hass property until it finally lost the
battle with something called root rot disease, and that was
(19:17):
back in two thousand and two. But according to Alice Obscura,
you can still make a pilgrimage to see the preserved
woods from the tree at the Brokaw Nursery and Ventura
and there's even a plaque there to market it's original
location in Lejabra.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Which I think that takes care of my summer vacation
plans for the good good. But you know, Hass having
his patent undermine like that kind of reminds me of
something weird I noticed while researching, and that's the sheer
volume of crime that the fruit detracts. Like I wouldn't
think this before, but you know, you mentioned earlier that
avocados were worth equivalent of what like five dollars each
(19:53):
in the nineteen seventies, and at the time, that high
value sparked a wave of avocado that's throughout the org
of southern California. And this was hardly an isolated incident.
So just last year, three men were arrested in California
for selling over three hundred thousand dollars worth of stolen
hass avocados. I mean, that's insane. And when avocado prices
(20:14):
spiked in New Zealand back in twenty sixteen, farmers were
hit with over forty large scale thefts within a six
month period. Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I mean, I had no idea that avocado crime was
so prevalent, But if you think about it, me, it
does make sense. I remember back in our episode on cheese,
we talked about how cheese is the most shoplifted item
in the world, and that's because it's relatively a small item,
it's always in demand, and it does tend to cost
more than other food. So it feels like we've got
the same thing going here with the avocados exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
And we already mentioned how avocados have long been viewed
as a luxury food due to their price, so in
a way, all the crime surrounding them is to be expected.
But one thing nobody expected was the way that avocado
farmers in Mexico have been fighting back against their own
local form of avocado crimes. Because there's actually one town
there that has its own paramilitary avocado Protection Force.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Wait, so where is this.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
It's in a town called Tansataro and it's in the
micho acm region of Mexico. It's basically avocado country. The
township's over a million dollars worth of fruit every single day.
But back in two thousand and six, drug cartels, who
are feeling the pinch of a law enforcement crackdown, started
turning their attention to Tansataro's avocado producers. So of course
(21:29):
things get insane, right like the growers quickly become the
target of threats. They're kidnappings, even some murders. There was
a talk of the cartel season control of the orchards entirely,
and that's when the avocado producers decided to ban together
and fight back. They created their own local protection force,
which was half funded by the government, and today they
wear a body armor, they carry these high powered weapons
(21:52):
to ward off the cartels and also it gives the
citizens a sense of safety. I mean, this sounds scary
to me and kind of extreme, but actually it's worked.
So avocado crimes are way down in Tansatura, which has
allowed the town to once again focus on what it
does best, which is avocados, And in twenty thirteen, we
saw this when a group of four hundred and fifty
(22:12):
students in the town set a record for the world's
largest serving of guacamole, a weighed and astounding six thousand pounds.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Oh wow, I mean, I guess it makes sense that
they had those guards on hand, because if you think
about that much guacamole is definitely gonna attract at least
a few thieves, I would imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
But now that we've tackled the CDI world of avocado crimes,
there's at least one part of avocado history that I
want to get to. But first, let's take another quick break.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Okay, mango, So I told you my favorite story. Now
it's your turn. What's your favorite story from the avocado history.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
So at the top of the show, we talked about
the recent and accidents where people have stabbed themselves while
prepping avocados, and while there's definitely some user error at
play there, the real problem is that the avocado has
this enormous pit, and while most fruits contained seeds small
enough to be swallowed or excreted by humans and other animals,
avocado pits can be as big as golf balls, which
(23:18):
means that swallowing them is off the table for most
of us.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I've always actually wondered about that because from an evolutionary perspective,
it doesn't seem like the most effective way for this
plant to spread its seeds around.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Well, it isn't anymore, but it used to be incredibly effective.
So the part of avocado history that I love the
most is the part that explains why the pit is
so huge, and for that we actually need to travel
all the way back to the dawn of the Cenozoic Era,
which is the period after the extinction of dinosaurs when
mammals first started to take the stage. But the mammals
of the Senozoic era weren't just any mammals.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
They were actually.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Enormous species known as megafauna, and they've roamed the Western
hemisphere in droves.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
All right, So you're talking about things like, you know,
sabertoothed tigers and mammoths and those rhinos that were honestly,
I think they were like the size of house.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Boats, right, Yeah, that's right. So another dominant megafauna species
was the lestoedon, which were these fifteen foot tall, two
ton ground slots, and they wandered the grassy plains of
the Americas, and just like the slots of today, lustedons
mostly eight leaves and grass to survive, but occasionally they
would chow on on more satisfying trees, like the tasty avocado.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Huh so the avocado. It's also a product of the
cinazoic era.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It is, And actually that's really when the avocado plant
came to its prime. So these giant slots would swallow
whole avocados. And because these creatures were so massive, their
digestive systems were able to process the big seeds without
a problem. So they'd kind of feast and then travel
around with the seeds and their stomachs and then they'd
PLoP them out in some far away place and new
(24:50):
trees could thrive without competition. It was basically an evolutionary
win win for everybody. And that's probably why we still
have these large pitted avocados today.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Wait, are there still mammals that can eat the avocado
pits like that? I mean, you know, megafauna are one thing,
but I feel like most slows would choke if they
tried to eat a whole avocado at this point.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, you're right. I mean, climate change kind of wiped
out most of the megafauna in the western hemisphere. This
was about thirteen thousand years ago, so according to researchers,
North America lost about seventy percent of its megafauna at
the time, and South America lost eighty percent. So the
vast majority of these large creatures that helped these avocado
trees flourish in the first place, we're no longer around
to feed on them.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
So I don't get it. I mean, why would wild
avocados still produce such large pits if it's not beneficial
for them.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
No, it's a good question. And I was actually flipping
through this book by Connie Barlow called The Ghosts of Evolution,
and she says that avocado's giant seeds are what we
call an evolutionary anachronism. So none of today's slots could
possibly digest to seed that large, but the big pits
persist anyway, And as Barlow puts it, quote after thirteen
(25:58):
thousand years, the avocado is clue that the great mammals
are gone, and the truth is thanks to us. That's
completely fine, right, Like the avocado doesn't need to change
because it's got new champions. We've learned to deal with
the big seeds and spread them out in ways that
don't involve our digestive tracks.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, I guess that makes sense. But what about those
thirteen thousand years between the death of the megafauna and
human cultivation of these avocados. It feels like in all
those intervening years, the big seeds they still somehow managed
to get spread around even without those giant mammals.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah. So, one theory is that squirrels and other rodents
could have found avocados rotting on eeden on the surface
and then buried the pits for safe keeping, and then
they'd return later and find that there were these massive
trees that had sprowed in the place. But I also
read an article in Smithsonian, and it suggested that jaguars
might have been able to swallow and digest the seeds too. So,
as they put it, quote, the identities of the avocados
(26:52):
dispersers shifted every few million years. But from an avocado's perspective,
a big mouth is a big mouth, and a friendly
gut is a friendly gut.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I feel like those are words to live by. Mango,
or at least for an avocado. Really though, it's wild
to think that we have these giant sloughs to thank
for all of our avocado toasts and orders of chips
in guacamole. And you know, while they aren't swallowing avocado's
whole like our megafauna buddies once, did you know humans
have planted them all over the world. So all in all,
I feel like we've been pretty good stewards for the avocado.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Well, unlikely, it is, right, because not only is the
avocado pit way too large for humans to swallow or digest,
it can also be toxic to us. So animals like rhinos,
which are descended from those house boat sized ancestors you mentioned,
they can actually stomach the toxic pits just fine, but
humans and most other mammals lack enzyme systems and livers
strong enough to ward off that kind of toxicity. And
(27:46):
in fact, there's this old South American recipe for rat
poison that I just found that instructs the users to
mix some avocado pits with traditional rodent bit like cheese
or lard, and that'll take care of the problem.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I do like that a little tox pit isn't going
to stop us from eating nearly two billion pounds of
avocados each year. Speaking which, how's I don't want to look,
but how's Tristan doing over there? We're going to need
to take another trip to the er.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
No, but those avocados really aren't peeled, So why don't
we do a quick fact off and then we can
help the poor guy out. So most people have heard
that a good way to ripe an avocado's fast is
to put them in a paper bag with like bananas
or ripe apple. But if you're looking for more avocado
(28:33):
gear and accessories, you can always purchase an avocado sock.
It's ae hundred percent world bag that supposedly ripens the
fruit within twenty four hours, and according to the website,
it ripens it more gently than a paper bag. Also,
it works as a convenient carrying sock for when you
want to sling an avocado over your shoulder and just
transport the fruit and style.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, let me know how it goes if you order
one of those. I think I'll wait on your experience first.
All right, So here's a trend I definitely won't be
indulging in, and that's the avo late. Now, this is
an Australian specialty where you serve a latte in the
hollowed out husk of half an avocado. And while it
started out as an Instagram joke at the Truman Cafe
in Melbourne when an employee mixed coffee and milk and
(29:15):
an avocado shell, apparently customers have started pouring in for
the drink and other cafes have started serving it in response.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Well, if you love avocados but hate the pits, Marx
and Spencer is apparently selling a cocktail avocado, so this
is according to the Telegraph. But the fruit looks less
like a traditional alligator pair, you know, the kind we
all know and love, and more like a zucchini. But
the big advantage, of course, is that they don't have
a seed in them. And while the fruit is grown
in Spain, they're apparently really hard to find. Marx and
(29:42):
Spencer only carries them in December for some reason. But
maybe we'll be getting them stateside soon.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
All right. So we were talking about avocados being a
member of the prestigious Laurel family previously, and I was
a little curious what that meant, so I looked it
up and in addition to the laurel reads that you
might get for competing in the ancient Greek games. The
avocado has some pretty well known relatives in the laurel family.
The fruit is cousins with bay leaves, sassafras, and cinnamon.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Oh, it's a good family to be a part of.
So one of the strangest facts about avocados is that
they never ripened on the tree, so basically farmers can
plan when they want to pluck them and just store
them up there afresh for six or seven months.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
All right, Well, here's an avocado variation that no one needs,
and it's avocado light. It's a diet avocado that apparently
contains thirty percent less fat than your average avocado. Apparently
it's a milder taste, but it's a juicier avocado. I've
got to say, I am avocado with fewer calories that taste
more watery. Just it doesn't appeal to me. But if
(30:42):
they can make an avocado zero, maybe I'll consider it. Well.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
I think between a diet avocado and proposing with avocados,
you truly have your pulse on the worst things to
do with an avocado. So I'm gonna have to give
the trophy to you well. Thank you very much, and
thank you guys for listening. I'm sure we've forgotten some
great facts about avocada. We've been looking forward to doing
this episode because of the national obsession with avocados these days,
so we'd love to hear from you. You can always email
(31:07):
us part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can
call our twenty four to seven fact hotline that's one
eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part
Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and
wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the
(31:37):
important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Christan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing. Jerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Adams and Eves Jeffcok gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
and if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Review for us. Do we do we forget Jason?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Jason who
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