Green Gold
The Avocado's Remarkable Journey from Humble Superfood to Toast of a Nation
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A lively and engrossing cultural history of the avocado and the people who transformed it into an American obsession
“Whether you’re a history buff or just enjoy a chip full of guacamole, you’ll be thoroughly captivated . . . Green Gold is a well researched, captivating story.” —Rick Bayless, James Beard Award-winning chef, author, and restaurateur
The avocado is the quintessential symbol of aspirational living, a ubiquitous agricultural favorite, and the driver of an $18 billion global industry. How did this regional Latin American staple become a star of Super Bowl ads and a byword for wellness? Documenting more than a century of cross-cultural cooperation, cutting-edge science, and savvy marketing, Green Gold tells the remarkable story of the fruit’s rise to prominence as both a culinary and cultural juggernaut.
Anchored by the story of two exceptional trees that stood out among hundreds of rivals, Green Gold is a spirited and often surprising behind-the-scenes look at how dedicated avocado enthusiasts in Mexico and California developed an ideal fruit to sell to the world. Navigating the Depression, two world wars, Mexican revolutions, violent drug lords, drought, and disease, these pioneers were driven by the avocado’s potential to captivate the palates and hearts of consumers across the globe. Their efforts, inspired by the success of California citrus, launched today’s lucrative industry and helped the avocado win a place among such supermarket staples as oranges and bananas.
Set against the rise of Southern California as an economic and cultural powerhouse and featuring delightful recipes (including vintage versions of guacamole and avocado toast), Green Gold is an entertaining and far-ranging exploration of the avocado’s journey to a central place in the American diet and global imagination.
"A solid, minutely documented, multifaceted and challenging work that amply rewards close reading and rereading. For years to come it’s likely to be the go-to source for both scholars and lay readers seriously interested in exploring root, branch, blossom and fruit of the avocado story." —Anne Mendelson, The Wall Street Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Allaback (Marjorie Sewell Cautley) and journalist Parsons offer a comprehensive history of the nursery owners, scientists, marketing whizzes, and health experts who transformed the avocado from an exotic equatorial fruit into a multibillion-dollar industry. Beginning in the early 20th century, the account explores "the race" to "discover the avocado best suited to California" and the most effective techniques for battling the state's weevils and deep freezes. The authors also trace how marketing decisions and political developments bore just as much responsibility for avocados' ascendance. Examples include the canny dropping of the fruit's prickly original English-language name, "alligator pear"; the PR push to explain that the avocado's black skin should not be interpreted as "spoilage"; and the controversial 1997 lifting of a 1914 quarantine of Mexican and Central American avocados, which "powered an unprecedented boom." The narrative sometimes gets mired in painstaking details about avocado associations and international avocado-finding expeditions; it's at its best when the authors focus on the more digestible evolution of how the fruit was marketed to American consumers—from expensive luxury food "confined to the banker, the retired capitalist" to "stand-in for... joy, healthy living, fleeting pleasure" and 21st-century "millennial aspirations." Early 20th-century recipes also entertain (avocado was served "raw and cooked, from cocktail to ice cream"). Readers may find this a bit too much to chew on, but there are some appetizing morsels.
