The March of Empire: The Californian Quest for Avocados in Early-Twentieth Century Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the turn of the twentieth century, agricultural explorers from the United States Department of Agriculture, Californian farmers, and the University of California scientists created the agricultural giant that California is today by extracting plant diversity from the Global South and protecting the nascent agricultural industry from outside competition. I define this process as “U.S. agricultural imperialism.” This article analyzes how U.S. agricultural imperialism in early-twentieth-century Latin America gave rise to a lucrative avocado industry closely associated with the Californian landscapes and agricultural identity and disconnected the fruit from its biological and cultural origins in Mexico and Central America to protect local production. U.S. institutions, growers, and scientists developed a thriving industry in the Golden State based on the extraction of avocado germplasm from Latin America while simultaneously banning the introduction of actual Mexican avocados to avoid outside competition.