You may want to eat less of your beloved avocado toast

Avocado toast, darling of the social media world, isn't the innocent treat you thought it was at brunch last week.

AP reports Mexican farmers are thinning out and eradicating entire pine forests in order to illegally plant profitable avocado trees.

Though there is increasing law enforcement cracking down on this illegal deforestation, it is a long and difficult road because farmers thin out the forests gradually, planting the trees under the forest canopy then thinning out pines slowly as the trees need more sunlight.

Close up of avocados on the tree after rain storm. Credit: Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images

The deforestation is especially concentrated in the Michoacan state, which is also home to the monarch butterfly.

To further compound wildlife matters, Mario Tapia Vargas, a researcher at Mexico’s National Institute for Forestry, Farming and Fisheries Research, tells AP, "a mature avocado orchard uses almost twice as much water as fairly dense forest, meaning less water reaches Michoacan’s legendary crystalline mountain streams on which the forests and animals depend."

Credit: Getty Images

"Beyond the displacement of forests and the effects on water retention, the high use of agricultural chemicals and the large volumes of wood needed to pack and ship avocados are other factors that could have negative effects on the area’s environment and the well-being of its inhabitants," Greenpeace said in a statement.

However problematic the potential environmental effects, it's difficult to argue with the economics of avocados. A combination of rising demand for avocado and a 16 percent loss of the peso to the dollar last year (resulting in cheaper exports to US consumers) means farmers get more bang for their buck with avocados than with many other crops.

The avocado is a tree native to Mexico and Central America, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae along with cinnamon, camphor and bay laurel. Credit: Getty Images

There is a definite diametric opposition between avocado farmers who want to make money off their crop and maintaining the balance of a local ecosystem, but one thing is for certain: that avocado toast seems a lot pricier than the $12.95 you paid for it.

This isn't the first time the demand for avocados has been accompanied by an influx of illicit activity. Earlier this year, reports surfaced of New Zealand bandits stealing avocados off of trees and then selling them for their own profit.