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Hanging over the steady stream of brightly colored peppers, avocados, and other produce that line the shelves of our Walmarts and Whole Foods is a darker cost, one carried on the backs of farm laborers in Mexico who often work six-day weeks for $8 to $12 a day. In an investigation that took 18 months, the Los Angeles Times interviewed hundreds of laborers in 30 camps across nine states, uncovering deplorable conditions and abuse that is easily tied to major American retailers.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,315,772 times
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I'm shocked! [/sarcasm]
One can only wonder why Mexican workers find it more attractive to work in the US versus Mexico. Even in the colonias in other parts of MX, poor is poor and if you hide them from the more well to do, they sort of cease to exist.
Hanging over the steady stream of brightly colored peppers, avocados, and other produce that line the shelves of our Walmarts and Whole Foods is a darker cost, one carried on the backs of farm laborers in Mexico who often work six-day weeks for $8 to $12 a day. In an investigation that took 18 months, the Los Angeles Times interviewed hundreds of laborers in 30 camps across nine states, uncovering deplorable conditions and abuse that is easily tied to major American retailers.
This can't surprise anyone. When America has some of the most arable land in the world and much of it goes unused, but yet we get our produce from third-world countries, we all know why that is. It's for the same reason why a huge percentage of our material goods are made in China or Mexico, and why a huge percentage of our clothing is made in Vietnam or Bangladesh.
There is one easy solution to this problem.
If you ARE American, BUY American... or if you must buy from other countries, buy only from other "first-world" countries known to have reasonably strict labor laws that are followed, and decent pay for the workers (such as Canada, England, Germany, etc).
Y'all might think "but you can't buy anything from Wal-Mart or any major store without it being made in China"... okay, you have a point... but why do these stores stock this crap? Why do stores stock produce that comes from Mexico or Guatemala or China or Chile? Because they know people will buy it! So... if we STOP BUYING THIS STUFF, the stores will have two choices - stock stuff that is sourced responsibly from first-world countries, or go out of business. If you want a microwave, don't buy it from a store. Buy it from someone on Craigslist or from a resale store. If you want a TV, heck, you can get free working TVs just about anywhere you go when people get rid of their old TVs... you don't need to go out and buy a flat screen that's made in China.
And if you want to eat, buy produce that is sourced from the USA. If it says that the produce is sourced from any third-world country such as Mexico, PASS. Wal-Mart and these other gigantic retailers pay big bucks to hire marketing firms whose sole job is to figure out what people want to buy and why they want to buy it - and conversely, what people don't want to buy and why they don't want to buy it. If Wal-Mart ends up with huge rotting bins of avocados from Mexico, trust me, THEY WILL FIND OUT WHY THE STUFF ISN'T SELLING and they will adjust accordingly. After all, we know that the Walton family is worth over $100 BILLION, and I guarantee that since they aren't giving away that money in stacks, they aren't eager to see it evaporate because people have stopped buying the stuff their stores stock. They'll stock what Americans want to buy, and if Americans collectively refuse to buy anything but products made in America, you will see Wal-Mart quickly become the biggest "Made In America" store chain that this country has ever seen.
That one farm manager from the article, Luis Garcia, seemed to be the smartest one of the bunch. He said that the gringos are the ones that put up the money and make the rules. He's right on. WE are the ones causing this. WE are supporting it. The Mexicans are doing exactly what the buying American public wants - feeding us cheaply. If we stopped buying from Mexico until they shaped up, they'd be forced to shape up... because the loss of American business would totally devastate Mexico.
NAFTA hit the small subsistence farms hard by bringing in subsidized corn from the US, corn being a staple of the Mexican diet. They found that was a major cause of the emigration of low-skilled labor and farmowners from southern Mexico to the north to work in the maquilladoras.
Chicken or the egg. Corruption and crime make Mexico a less desirable place for businesses. Businesses leave(especially service/intellectual) and so do the harder working/smarter Mexicans.
Corruption is a common theme in countries with low wages
NAFTA hit the small subsistence farms hard by bringing in subsidized corn from the US, corn being a staple of the Mexican diet. They found that was a major cause of the emigration of low-skilled labor and farmowners from southern Mexico to the north to work in the maquilladoras.
THIS! Dumping cheap product is actually against WTO rules, but the US gets away with everything it can until dragged into court, if anyone bothers facing off with them. Most of those small subsistence farms are/were Indigenous community farms, so NAFTA set in motion forces that contributed to the undermining of Native American/Mexican culture. Forced assimilation is considered a form of genocide under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which Mexico and the US have signed onto.
The problem is, paying more for imported produce probably wouldn't get the money to the people who need it and deserve it. This scene is a big reason why organic farms are popular in Central America. Smart growers know they can get more for organic products.
Chicken or the egg. Corruption and crime make Mexico a less desirable place for businesses. Businesses leave(especially service/intellectual) and so do the harder working/smarter Mexicans.
Corruption is a common theme in countries with low wages
You point a finger at a particular country, and you end up pointing 4 fingers at yourself!
For someone that thinks the U.S. isn't riddled with corruption, is someone who has half his body buried in the sand, right up to his belly button!
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