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  1. #1
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    NAFTA Hurting Mexico Corn Industry

    NAFTA harming Mexico corn industry
    Larry Matlack,Agweek
    Published: 05/04/2009

    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The news that surrounded President Obama’s recent visit to Mexico regarding Mexican corn farmers may have come as a surprise to some, but not to those who have followed the issue since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

    Several interviews were broadcast on U.S. television news services that highlighted the fact that Mexican farmers cannot compete with subsidized corn imported from the U.S. These farmers were forced to move into makeshift dwellings in the shadows of Mexico City. As advocates for family farmers, in the U.S. and abroad, the American Agriculture Movement has worked to make this catastrophe known and has worked with Congress in an attempt to correct the injustice for many years.

    NAFTA eliminated Mexican import restrictions on U.S. corn. Soon after the ratification of NAFTA, Freedom to Farm eliminated the floor price mechanism for U.S. corn. Not long after that, Washington policymakers decided not to segregate or label genetically modified corn and we lost our corn export markets to the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The net result was a large volume of cheap U.S. corn dumped onto the Mexican farmers’ markets. This, in turn, displaced thousands, possibly millions, of Mexican farmers, causing many to illegally cross into the United States to find work to support their families.

    Supporting corn prices at the market with a fair loan rate would be a much better option than our current system of paying subsidies that allowed cheap corn to steal the livelihoods of Mexican farmers and gave the American taxpayer a bill for corn subsidies and illegal immigration. Even if we do not care about the monetary cost, the moral shame is ours to bear.

    This is just another example of the indirect and unintended consequences of U.S. farm and trade policy. But more important, this atrocity is another example of the reason all family farmers need and deserve a fair price for the fruits of their labor, not taxpayer subsidies.

    We may not be able to overturn NAFTA or put the GMO genie back into the bottle, but we can re-establish fair prices for U.S. famers with better farm policy and, in turn, help the farmers of Mexico and the world.

    Editor’s Note: Matlack is president of the American Agriculture Movement.

    http://www.agweek.com/articles/?id=3748 ... erty_id=41

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  2. #2
    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    This statement is a chestnut. The actual truth of the situation is that small village farmers can not compete with large industrialized farms in the sale of bulk corn in the central market. The villagers produce white corn which the United States does not produce much of. Before NAFTA Mexico's large industrial farms produced yellow corn which is consumed mostly by farms producing livestock. When NAFTA came America was able to export yellow corn which we produce cheaper with or without subsidy to Mexico. Those larger Mexican farmers switched to white corn which is sold to flour and tortilla mills. The Mexican government had been buying bulk corn at a subsidized price aggregating it and selling it to the mills. The Mexican government stopped this function and ended the crop finance programs used by the villagers and there was no ready alternative for funding. What should have happened with the advent of NAFTA is a rise in local use of corn as a raw material for higher value added end products. Right now Mexicans living here could be financing the infrastructure for the village corn industry but instead many of them are financing illegal immigration.
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    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    And on the TV a day or so ago, our tomatoe farmers in Florida were plowing down tomato plants because they couldn't compete with the flood from the Mexican market.......I'm definately not a business person, but there are some things where this has hurt alot of people. I don't understand why we should import something we don't really need when it's in season the same time ours are. Haven't seen the price drop for me if there's such an abundance and the farmers here said they had to make I think 10 bucks for a box just to break even and they were only paying 6.....so they just plowed it under and quit. How is this good?
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    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    Dear Richard,

    This part and others of NAFTA were intended to put American livestock producers out of business by having more produced in Mexico while increasing the flow of cheap illegal labor to the US. It is clear it has succeeded very well. I don’t think poor Mexicans wrote NAFTA so it’s a hard to blame them for the outcome.

    Larry Matlack
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  5. #5
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    Supporting corn prices at the market with a fair loan rate would be a much better option than our current system of paying subsidies that allowed cheap corn to steal the livelihoods of Mexican farmers and gave the American taxpayer a bill for corn subsidies and illegal immigration. Even if we do not care about the monetary cost, the moral shame is ours to bear.
    The what? Shame is ours to bear? While it may be totally politcally incorrect, we can do whatever the pudding we please (as long as we are a sovereign nation). And I would prefer my taxdollars going to subsidize corn farmers in this country, which have to abide by our health/safety regulations, than getting corn irrigated in sewage water from some village in Mehico.
    Well, the US cannot compete with subsidized cheap imports from China, either, and that is a bigger shame than Mehican village corn farmers.
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  6. #6
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    cb, found the story: http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-890195-.html#890195 Glad you saw it on TV, as this is an absolute outrage.
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