Read each article linked below and summarize the implications of the events being discussed using the tools of supply and demand. Identify the following: • What has changed or is expected to change? • Explain how the supply curve and/or the demand curve are affected by the change(s)? • What would you expect to be the impact on the price and quantity? You should illustrate your answer with a diagram. Be sure to give each diagram a title, and to label the axis and curves in your diagram. Text of the article America is in love with avocados.   The country's appetite for t

Read each article linked below and summarize the implications of the events being discussed using

the tools of supply and demand. Identify the following:

• What has changed or is expected to change?

• Explain how the supply curve and/or the demand curve are affected by the change(s)?

• What would you expect to be the impact on the price and quantity?

You should illustrate your answer with a diagram. Be sure to give each diagram a title, and to label

the axis and curves in your diagram.

Text of the article

America is in love with avocados.

The country's appetite for the creamy versatile fruit (yes, avocados are fruit) has grown just about every year for the past 15 years, according to data from the Hass Avocado Board, invadingkitchens and menus across the country. The rise is such that sales of Hass avocados, which make up more than 95 percent of all avocados consumed in the United States, soared to a record of nearly 1.9 billion pounds (or some 4.25 billion avocados) last year, more than double the amount consumed in 2005, and nearly four times as many sold in 2000.

Once a rare treat, enjoyed only by cities on the west coast fortunate enough to sell fresh fruit when they were in season, avocados can now be found year round piled high at supermarkets nationwide, on restaurant menus in even the most remote towns, and in Subway sandwiches across the country.

"The demand has just been incredible," said Emiliano Escobedo, director of the Hass Avocado Board. "I think avocados are pretty much mainstream at this point."

Fast food chains, including Burger King, Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread Co., and others use the beloved ingredient as a sales pitch in product launches and ad campaign. And it works—after Subway announced it was allowing customers to "add avocado" to sandwiches in some 25,000 outlets around the country, traffic increased. What's more, people have come to expect it as a given: Many were less than enthused when a blog, meaning well but misunderstanding the purpose of a financial statement, mistakenly reported that Chipotle was running out of guacamole. Ok, they were freaking out:

Recipe sites are flooded with options for those who arrive with one green buttery ingredient in hand. A search query for recipes with avocados on FoodNetwork.com returns almost 2,000 results. On Food.com the same query produces more than 2,500. Recipe site after recipe site returns hundreds if not thousands of options that include salads, tacos, soups, appetizers, and sandwiches, among other dishes.

Even Men's Fitness took the time to publish five chiseled paragraphs about the "simple combo of smashed avocado and whole-grain bread."

Los Angeles still consumes the most avocados—some 300 million annually—but other cities, like New York, Dallas, Phoenix, and Houston are catching up. And many others, including Roanoke, Raleigh, and Columbus, can now eat them by the truckload.

Why the sudden outpouring of love for avocados? A few reasons stand out.

The most tangible explanation is that the rise of avocados in the United States comes on the heels of loosened import restrictions, which used to ban shipments of the fruit from Mexico. The restrictions were problematic, because Mexico was (and still is) the world's largest producer. Without the supply, all of avocados the United States consumed instead came from California, which couldn't grow them year round or consistently put fresh ones on supermarket shelves outside of the west coast.

In the late 1990s those restrictions were lifted, albeit slowly, allowing incremental increases in the amount of avocados imported from abroad. By 2000, 40 percent of all avocados sold in the United States were already grown outside of the country. By 2005, the percentage has risen to 67 percent. Last year, it was 85 percent.

It wasn't until 2007 that Mexico had full access to the United States market," said Escobedo.

All that extra supply, however, would have gone wasted if it weren't for improved production methods. Most avocado varieties can be exceedingly fickle, ripening too quickly to be shipped and sporting skin too thin to sit on supermarket shelves without bruising. On the other hand, the Haas avocado, which has been adopted as the mainstream variety produced and distributed around the country, ripens slowly, changes color when ripe, keeps for long and has a thick skin.

They're just more viable as a mass produced fruit," said Escobedo. "They have a longer shelf life."

Beyond the benefits of the Hass variety and influx of foreign fruit, the country's growing Hispanic population has helped, too. Mexican cuisine, which regularly features avocados—often in the form of a lime-kissed dip—has itself gone mainstream, riding the coattails of the nearly 40 million Hispanics of Mexican origin who now live in the United States. Escobedo attributes much of the avocado's rise to the popularity of guacamole.

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