1344: Avocados | Skeptical Sunday

Does your guac come with a body count? Jessica Wynn peels back blood avocados, cartel taxes, and deforestation on this week's Skeptical Sunday.

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Jessica Wynn!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1344

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• How a Los Angeles mailman's single grafted tree became the Hass — now 95% of the world's avocados — and how decades of slick marketing rebranded a suspiciously oily fruit into the "healthy fats" superfood clogging your Instagram feed.
• Why drug cartels muscled into guacamole after NAFTA opened the border in 1997 — discovering that "green gold" was safer than cocaine and nearly as profitable, then taxing every crate, shaking down farmers, and pioneering what economists call "narco-agriculture."
• How "blood avocados" hide their real cost — Michoacán's homicide rate more than doubling alongside soaring exports, journalists murdered for covering the trade, and indigenous families displaced while the violence stays invisible to anyone ordering a side of guac.
• What the environmental toll actually looks like: 700,000 acres of Michoacán forest cleared, arson weaponized as a legal loophole, monarch habitat collapsing, and roughly 300 liters of water drained for just two or three avocados — and the same pattern in Chile and Peru.
• Why the smartest move isn't a guilt-ridden boycott but better leverage — backing fair-trade and Pro-Forest certified growers, pushing retailers for real transparency, and remembering avocados swap easily for lentils, broccoli, and olive oil when you want a break.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know!
• Connect with Jessica Wynn at Instagram (and Instagram!), and subscribe to her newsletters: Between the Lines and Where the Shadows Linger!

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