Many would argue that no brunch is complete without some avocado toast. But one Redditor was recently left empty-handed when they discovered their favorite brunch spot had removed avocados from the menu for environmental reasons.
The patron is now calling foul, as the restaurant continues to serve more problematic foods.
The Reddit user took to the r/vegetarian subreddit to complain about the hypocrisy in the entire incident.
"Popped out for brunch craving some smashed avocado on toast, only to be told that they no longer offer avocado dishes as the company wants to be more environmentally friendly. … I asked if they had also decided to remove beef or any other animal products from their menu, but of course they haven't," the user explained.
In an effort to not be hypocritical themselves, the Redditor posed the question — is avocado really that bad? Or was this a case of greenwashing?
"Today my favourite brunch spot told me they've removed avocados from the menu for environmental reasons. Of course, they still serve beef!" The post was titled "Is this super hypocritical, or are avocados really that bad?"
Other Redditors assured the original poster that banning avocados from the restaurant certainly did not outweigh the environmental impact of serving, say, beef and dairy.
In fact, one user pointed out that 0.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide — the leading gas contributing to the warming of the Earth — is produced for every kilogram of avocado, compared to 60 kilograms of CO2 produced per kilogram of beef. For comparison, that means roughly 2.2 pounds of beef produce the same amount of carbon as 440.9 pounds of avocado.
Commenters pointed out that this sounds a lot like greenwashing, a tactic used by organizations to sound more environmentally friendly, while making negligible changes to reduce their environmental impact.
"This is 100% about money, nothing more nothing less," one person wrote. "They've assumed that removing avocados and replacing them with cheaper produce or proteins would be less of a burn to the customers than removing their beef items."
"I would get your Karen on and leave a review…" another suggested. "This is some absolute nonsense that deserves to be called out. Take these things off the menu if you want, I don't own the place but don't feed me a line."
Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
