Planet Taco, pg. 210-211

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–What is NAFTA? See this via Wikipedia. North American Free Trade Act. Compare with Trans-Pacific Partnership. Consider popular terms: outsource, sweatshop, free market, globalization.

Geopolitics . . . and food?

Q. NAFTA: More political context, president of the time, what was the negotiation of the time.

A. U.S. President Bill Clinton . . . and Mexico President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. “Gave away the farm” (210): “Unable to compete with subsidized commodity maize from Iowa [. . .] campesinos (rural workers) have migrated to Iowa to labor on the commercial farms that undercut their livelihoods at home” (210-11).

Q. Comparison between different models of food: fast and taste of place, as well, “premium” or “fair trade”.

A. Also note that Mexican farmers have grown specialities that are free-trade for the wealthy overseas who desire “authentic” Mexican products. Those who don’t partake in this patronizing economy (tourist-centric), migrate to work in the service economy in el Norte. This could also mean in restaurants.