I DON'T know about you but I've decided to shun the avocado – a pear shaped fruit from the tropics.

It's not so much the taste, a bit creamy and buttery and rather insipid, but rather it's an excellent example of the decisions that need making if we seriously wish to reduce the amount of CO2 we produce.

I managed to survive my first 50 years without knowing what they were and I certainly had never tasted one. This shouldn't be a surprise as they are native to Mexico where they were an Aztec favourite, and it's only since they became popular in the USA, as a fruit or a guacamole dip, that they have entered the European market.

It's another disappointing example of the way that we import most of our fruit and we scarcely manage to grow even one quarter of the apples we eat, though we could produce many more. It's fortunate that the imported ones travel by sea, from New Zealand, or by road from France, so produce far less CO2 than flying them in.

However my local Co-op sells South African oranges, and Peruvian satsumas, and both arrive after a comfortable flight, and so the production of an excessive amount of CO2. They could both have come by road from the Mediterranean area, though it can be more complicated than it seems at first sight. While cut flowers from Holland travel by road, and Kenyan ones fly, it's the African ones that produce less CO2 as they don't need the Dutch heated greenhouses.

In the last four years the EU import of avocados has increased by more than 40 per cent to over 300,000 tonnes, and while they all arrive by air which is serious enough in terms of increased CO2, it's the impact in the producing areas that's also worrying.

The increased demand means a better price for the avocado leading to some very unhelpful practices, often involving criminal cartels. In central Mexico the young plants are planted in the pine forests and as the avocado trees mature the pines are removed and the surrounding vegetation stripped away. It's deforestation in effect, CO2 producing, and because the pines are the winter home of the famous Monarch butterfly its days may be limited.

Avocados plants are also thirsty, needing three tonnes of water to produce one kilo of fruit, so there's a diminished flow downstream and falling ground water levels that impact on other plants, and dry up wells. This is particularly so in Chile where avocado production has increased eight fold since 1995.

So don't encourage avocado imports, or other exotic fruit – bite into a home grown Cox or Russet apple instead.