I've been aggravated for a while about how cheap industrial US-grown corn produced by the likes of Archer Daniels Midland has put a lot of Mexican farmers out of work. The companies export the corn to Mexico and sell it for less than their local farmers can grow it.
But I didn't realize that it's not just the corn used in tortillas that is exported cheaply.
A lot of corn is fed to hogs. American hog companies move into Mexico, import cheap (gmo) corn from the US, grow fat hogs, and then slaughter them in Mexico where labor is cheap. Then the ham is sold here in the US. Big US companies like Smithfield have forced the closure of many small Mexican butchers.
I learned about this in a recent article in The Nation, which you can read here.
I don't want to support agricultural multinationalism. That's why I shop at the Hollywood Farmers Market from small farmers who have a minimal footprint of damage.
Larry buys meat from a farmer who raises his own cows, pigs and chickens, takes them to a USDA-approved slaughterhouse where they are prepped and frozen, and then sells them at famers markets. (The LA Times wrote about this farmer, Greg Nauta of Rocky Canyon Farms in Atascadero. You can read their article here.) Greg's cattle are completely grass-fed, unlike so many cows that are finished with a couple of weeks of grain to make them fatter. Fortunately he has people like us who are willing and able to pay extra for the privilege of knowing where our food comes from.
Industrial agriculture destroys too many societies. We all need to do what we can to shop locally from small non-industrial farmers.
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