Is agave nectar an environmental disaster?!

Question: Is agave nectar an environmental disaster?

As the popularity of agave nectar grows in the US, thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive arid soil are being plowed up in Mexico to grow more agave plants. Animal habitat is being destroyed as highways are being built to these new fields. Underground water aquifers are being tapped and will run dry earlier than expected to establish these new fields. Areas once teeming with desert animal life have been disrupted by big equipment. The habitat of many species of wild animal are being destroyed or damaged.

Throw in the transportation required to get the product from Mexico to your local store and think of the environmental costs for you to be trendy and use the hottest new sweetener. And, in the end, it's just fructose.

Answers:

If the situation is as you have described, then the answer is yes.

Vegetarians prefer agave nectar over honey, though, because they feel it is unethical to "enslave" bees and "steal" the honey they produce.

According to vegetarian logic, "enslaving" bees for the purpose of pollinating produce is acceptable, as is the destruction of entire ecosystems and their inhabitants in order to propagate agave.

Save a bee, destroy a desert.

* It looks like I'm getting a few thumbs down for my ACCURATE observation.
I guess vegetarians really don't like having holes poked in their favorite fantasies.

I really don't think so. Are you saying Mexico's wildlife is running out of desert? Because of agave plantations? I'm the first one to protect the planet, but I don't think I will boycott aloe products and agave drinks for it. I've been to the deserty parts of Mexico (Chihuahua) many times... Let me tell you there's plenty of space for everything.

hmm makes me wonder about tequila

so it's better since it's been around longer? they're growing more and more sugar for our sweet tooths so they haven't been around forever. the WWF says that sugar may be responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other plant. and sugar is just sucrose.

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/sugara…
http://environment.about.com/od/pollutio…

its not any worse than all the terrain that's been decimated by planting sugar cain, and similar highways, and transport to your local store

I thought Stevia (brand name Truvia) is the trendy and hot new sweetener? How does this compare to the US grown agave?

Okay.

WHAT you guyz are eating agive nectar instead of making it into tequila ?????!!!!!!!!!

Sure.

Then don't eat it? There are a ton of alternatives to agave nectar, so it's not really something any environmentalist is going to be concerned about in the least. What about cane sugar, molasses, stevia, maple syrup, hfcs, honey, brown rice syrup, fruit sugar, xylotal, etc?

If you're so concerned about food and its environmental consequences, first and foremost, stop eating commercially produced meat:

Energy: Animals are inefficient calorie converters, taking in up to 40 times more energy from feed than humans yield from eating it.
Food supplies: 40% of the world’s grain is fed to livestock instead of to humans (Leitzmann, 2003).
Greenhouse gases: Eating one kilogram of beef is equivalent to a three-hour car ride while the lights are left on at home; equivalent to 36.4 kg carbon dioxide (Fanelli, 2007). Food production is responsible for 12% of greenhouse gas emissions (Pazderka et al. n.d.).
Habitat destruction: Food production results in 73% of habitat alteration (Pazderka et al. n.d.)

Agave may not be the best choice as a sweetener, but its hardly a contender for other foods that are worse for the environment. Not an issue to waste time on.

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Is agave nectar an environmental disaster?!

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