Produce Provenance
From prehistoric plains to modern-day plates, the avocado has been reshaped by cultures, commerce and one curious postman. A Giant Sloth’s Treat that Became a Super Bowl Celebrity
by JOHN PAAP
D eep in the plains of doesn’t want the usual grass and fo- liage typically on the menu. No, today it wants a delicious, fat-filled treat. Finally, it spots a tree that is full of dangling, dark, black-skinned fruits. When it reaches the tree, it stands on its hind legs and wraps its mouth around one of the fruits. The fruit is creamy, slightly nutty with earthy grassy undertones. The lestodan Mesoamerica, a lestodan is roaming. The monster 15-foot sloth is hungry but grabs a few more bites and moves on. Little does it know that by enjoying this fruit and, later, excreting the mega-sized seeds miles away from the parent tree, it is contributing to the expansion and longevity of this special tree. You may be wondering, “Why haven’t I heard of a lestodan?” Well, about 4,200 years ago it disap- peared, like many mega mammals from this period. Luckily for us, the tree fruit miraculously survived
without its primary seed disperser. While the lestodan was the largest consumer and propagator, it wasn’t the only one consuming the fruit. Early humans were living alongside the lestodans and seemed to also enjoy this dark-skinned tree fruit. In fact, archeologists have found evidence of humans consuming this fruit almost 10,000 years ago in central Mexico and domesticating it as early as 5,000 years ago. The Aztecs called the fruit ahuacatl. Today, we call it avocado. The avocado was more than just some fruit for Mesoamerican peo- ples. For the Aztecs, the avocado was a symbol for love and fertility and they believed that consuming the fruit would give them strength. For the Mayans, the importance of this fruit is exhibited in the 14th month of their calendar which is repre- sented by the avocado glyph. There is even a sarcophagus of an ancient Mayan ruler which features illustra- tions of the avocado tree. As is the
case with items that are highly re- vered, it is believed that the avocado was traded among various peoples across the Americas. Trade of the avocado would explain how this fruit reached all the way to Peru by the time the Spanish arrived in the New World in the 15th century. Like the lestodans and Mesoamericans that encountered the fruit before them, the Spanish fell in love with the avocado and be- cause of this the avocado tree began to spread further than ever before. The tree spread across the Spanish colonial empire and eventually to Europe in 1601. While the fruit was easy on the taste buds, the Spanish had difficulty pronouncing the Aztec name. To make it easier for Spanish speakers, they called the
34 Vision Magazine
October/November 2023
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