Supermarket Giants Crush Central American Farmers: NYT

[oldhat]

Behold the tender mercies of the "free market."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/28/international/americas/28guatemala.html?hp&ex=1104210000&en=4439f19bfcfe7fc8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Supermarket Giants Crush Central American Farmers
By CELIA W. DUGGER

Published: December 28, 2004

PALENCIA, Guatemala - Mario Chinchilla, his mustached face shaded by a battered straw hat, worriedly surveyed his field of sickly tomatoes. His hands and jeans were caked with dirt, but no amount of labor would ever turn his puny crop into the plump, unblemished produce the country's main supermarket chain displays in its big stores.
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For a time, the farmer's cooperative he heads managed to sell vegetables to the chain, part owned by the giant Dutch multinational, Ahold, which counts Stop & Shop among its assets. But the co-op's members lacked the expertise, as well as the money to invest in the modern greenhouses, drip irrigation and pest control that would have helped them meet supermarket specifications.

Squatting next to his field, Mr. Chinchilla's rugged face was a portrait of defeat. "They wanted consistent supply without ups and downs," he said, scratching the soil with a stick. "We didn't have the capacity to do it."

Across Latin America, supermarket chains partly or wholly owned by global corporate goliaths like Ahold, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have revolutionized food distribution in the short span of a decade and have now begun to transform food growing, too.

The megastores are popular with customers for their lower prices, choice and convenience. But their sudden appearance has brought unanticipated and daunting challenges to millions of struggling, small farmers.

The stark danger is that increasing numbers of them will go bust and join streams of desperate migrants to America and the urban slums of their own countries. Their declining fortunes, economists and agronomists fear, could worsen inequality in a region where the gap between rich and poor already yawns cavernously and the concentration of land in the hands of an elite has historically fueled cycles of rebellion and violent repression.

[NMDemDist2]

1. perfect round bright red tomatoes

that have absolutely NO flavor

that's why I'm growing my own this year :bounce:

[pfitz59]

2. Hot house produce.....

blemish-free. Takes capital to put up hothouses, though! Senor Chinchilla is SOL!

[gristy]

3. Speaking of "the concentration of land in the hands of an elite"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/25/international/asia/25china.html

China's Elite Learn to Flaunt It While the New Landless Weep
By JOSEPH KAHN

Published: December 25, 2004

BEIJING, Dec. 24 - Chateau Zhang Laffitte is no ordinary imitation. It is the oriental twin of Château Maisons-Laffitte, the French architect François Mansart's 1650 landmark on the Seine. Its symmetrical facade and soaring slate roof were crafted using the historic blueprints, 10,000 photographs and the same white Chantilly stone.

Yet its Chinese proprietor, a Beijing real estate developer named Zhang Yuchen, wanted more. He added a manicured sculpture garden and two wings, copying the palace at Fontainebleau. He even dug a deep, broad moat, though uniformed guards and a spiked fence also defend the castle.
<snip>

Rising out of the parched winter landscape of suburban Beijing, like a Gallic apparition, the chateau is a quirky extravagance intended to catch the eye of China's new rich. They can rent its rooms and, later, buy homes amid the ponds, equestrian trails and golf course on Mr. Zhang's 1.5-square-mile estate.

It is even more conspicuous to its nearest neighbors, 800 now landless peasants who used to grow wheat on its expansive lawns.

[Tinoire]

4. They're fighting back. Forming their own Common Market

Still had this on my clipboard so throwing it in here too :) First we had the EU, now we have...

Latin America is no joke

Stanley A. Weiss International Herald Tribune
Monday, December 27, 2004

U.S. neighbor relations

WASHINGTON When 11 Latin American countries took the first steps toward a regional common market in 1960, dismissive U.S. officials predictably joked that the ill-fated Latin American Free Trade Agreement would generate "more tears than Lafta."

But no one was laughing this month in Peru when all 12 South American nations pledged themselves to an EU-style political and economic community. The South American Community of Nations - which by definition excludes Mexico, the United States and Canada - envisions a common market, a regional constitution and Parliament.

The display of unity in Peru was as much about South America as it was about the North - specifically the United States. A more unified group of South American nations is seen as a way to strengthen their collective bargaining power in trade negotiations with the almighty yankees.

(snip)

Indeed, always bound more by geography than ideology, America and its Latin neighbors are drifting apart. As Washington moves to the right, the rest of the hemisphere is moving to the left. The presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Ecuador were all elected by challenging Washington-driven free market reforms that have done little to reduce the region's endemic poverty.

(snip)

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/12/26/opinion/edweiss.html

[NashVegas]

5. I'm Not Hopeful

It's great they're putting together their own organizations, but unless they're willing to take the steps toward educating their public, it may mean little in the oncoming wake of consumerism to follow the mega-nationals and their marketing.

[Dover]

6. Such is the legacy of the 'free market'. What they never mention is

that their mega-mergers and wealth have made them powerful entities that can take over countries like a hostile corporate takeover. Not a level playing field.

[arcos]

7. kick n/t