Question

Environmental Impact on Avocados exported from Mexico and Imported from USA. Please cite sources only journal article or books.

Discuss the significance of each of the countries’ locations:

Is the importer/exporter located in the North or the South? Why is this significant?

How has the environment changed due to the globalization processes associated with the exportation/importation of the food?

Answer 1

Mexico is is a federal republic in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico.

USA Located in the Western Hemisphere on the continent of North America, the United States is the fourth-largest country in the world. Its total area, including Alaska and Hawaii, is 9,629,091 sq km (3,717,813 sq mi). The conterminous United States extends 4,662 km (2,897 mi) ENE — WSW and 4,583 km (2,848 mi) SSE – NNW . It is bordered on the N by Canada, on the E by the Atlantic Ocean, on the S by the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, and on the W by the Pacific Ocean, with a total boundary length of 17,563 km (10,913 mi). Alaska, the 49th state, extends 3,639 km (2,261 mi) E – W and 2,185 km (1,358 mi) N – S . It is bounded on the N by the Arctic Ocean and Beaufort Sea, on the E by Canada, on the S by the Gulf of Alaska, Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, and on the W by the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, and Arctic Ocean, with a total land boundary of 12,034 km (7,593 mi) and a coastline of 19,924 km (12,380 mi). The 50th state, Hawaii, consists of islands in the Pacific Ocean extending 2,536 km (1,576 mi) N – S and 2,293 km (1,425 mi) E – W , with a general coastline of 1,207 km (750 mi).

       Production

The value of U.S. avocado production measured $316 million in 2016. The United States produced 172,630 tons. The total number of U.S. acres in production stabilized at 57,430 (NASS, 2018).

Certain varieties, such as the Hass, have a tendency to bear well only in alternate years. After a season with a low yield, due to factors such as cold (which the avocado does not tolerate well), the trees tend to produce abundantly the next season. This heavy crop depletes stored carbohydrates, resulting in a reduced yield the following season, and thus the alternate bearing pattern becomes established.

Marketing

Avocados have been marketed as a healthy dietary choice and as a good source of beneficial monounsaturated oil. A whole medium avocado contains approximately 15 percent of the FDA's recommended daily amount of saturated fat. In addition, avocados have 60 percent more potassium than bananas. They are also rich in B vitamins, vitamin E, vitamin K and folate. Avocados are also a benefit to a diabetic diet. With diabetes increasing in the United States, avocados can offer a nutritious choice for those following a diabetic diet. (CAC)

Demand

U.S. consumption of avocados has followed a variable but generally increasing trend since 1970, increasing significantly from 1.1 pounds per capita in 1989 to a record 7.1 pounds per capita in 2016 (Statista, 2018).

Value-Added Uses

The ripe fruit can be eaten and used in preparing salads, as a flavoring for ice creams, as a filling for sandwiches and in quick desserts. In Brazil, Vietnam and Taiwan, avocados are frequently used for milkshakes and occasionally added to ice cream. In the Philippines, Jamaica, and Indonesia, a dessert drink is made with sugar, milk and pureed avocado. In Central America, avocados are served mixed with white rice. In Chile, they are often used in hamburgers, hot dogs, and celery salads.

Other uses include pressing the fruit for avocado oil production and using the flesh to mix and apply adobe. Various parts of the avocado have medicinal benefits. When boiled, the leaves are thought to be a remedy for diarrhea. The pulp is used to hasten the formation of pus in wounds. Seeds can be smashed and used as fillers for toothaches.

Exports/Imports

The United States is a net importer of avocados from Mexico. Mexico supplied most of the avocados imported into the United States in 2017. In 2017 the United States imported $2.6 million in fresh avocados and exported approximately $28,500 in fresh avocados (ERS 2018).

Commercial shipments of avocados from approved orchards in Mexico can now be distributed to all 50 states. As border restrictions were relaxed, provisions were put in place to curtail Mexican production, in an attempt to avoid saturation of the U.S. market. A rapid growth in demand soon prompted a dramatic increase in imports.

Globalization's effects on world agricultural trade

Recent globalization has been characterized by a decline in the costs of cross-border trade in farm and other products. It has been driven primarily by the information and communication technology revolution and—in the case of farm products—by reductions in governmental distortions to agricultural production, consumption and trade. Both have boosted economic growth and reduced poverty globally, especially in Asia. The first but maybe not the second of these drivers will continue in coming decades. World food prices will depend also on whether (and if so by how much) farm productivity growth continues to outpace demand growth and to what extent diets in emerging economies move towards livestock and horticultural products at the expense of staples. Demand in turn will be driven not only by population and income growth, but also by crude oil prices if they remain at current historically high levels, since that will affect biofuel demand. Climate change mitigation policies and adaptation, water market developments and market access standards particularly for transgenic foods will add to future production, price and trade uncertainties.

Environmental Impacts of Agricultural Trade Under NAFTA

U.S. agricultural trade with Mexico and Canada has increased since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While NAFTA is primarily concerned with trade, environmental issues became an important factor in gaining support for its approval and, while covered to an extent in the main treaty, a side agreement–the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC)–was developed to further address those concerns(CEC 1999b, de Janvry, Sadoulet and Davis; Hufbauer, et al.; Kotvis; USTR 1999). A result of this agreement was the creation of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) with membership from Canada, Mexico and the United States. This was the first time that environmental issues became an important component of an international trade liberalization agreement. The CEC (1999a) developed a framework for analyzing the environmental impacts of NAFTA related trade activities, although it is often difficult to separate such effects from the many other forces influencing agriculture, trade and the environment (see, also, Hufbauer et al., pp. 17-39).Many of the NAFTA related environmental concerns are derived from perceived deficiencies in Mexican environmental laws, regulations and practices vis-à-vis those of the United States and Canada (Anderson; Kolstad; McFadyen).   Simon, in summarizing the environmental situation in Mexico, quotes Julia Carabrias, former Head of the Mexican Environmental Protection Ministry (Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales y Pescas–SEMARNAP): “In terms of environmental degradation we have reached a critical point. We have extremely high levels of deforestation–the highest in Latin America. Every one of our watersheds is contaminated. All the large cities have air pollution. We are rapidly losing our biodiversity; it is a loss that has not been evaluated... The situation is grave” (p. 238). Simon (pp. 39-55) attributes most of the environmental degradation in the agricultural sector to the economic development and agricultural policies pursued by Mexican governments under the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) during the last fifty years with special emphasis given to those followed in implementation of the green revolution technologies. While recognizing that rapid population growth probably affected the degradation of the environment, Simon concluded that the relationship is “far from exact” .farming on marginal lands in many areas of Mexico and, thus, was an important factor in land degradation. There is little doubt that the resource degradation has occurred and that the environment has been severely and adversely affected in recent decades. A question that remains is whether NAFTA is causing additional adverse impacts that offset the gains from trade or, alternatively, if it is producing net positive effects. De Janvry, Sadoulet and Davis in an “early assessment” of the impacts of NAFTA on agriculture indicated that the agreement had produced positive impacts, raising public awareness of environmental issues and laws in Mexico, and through development of a mechanism, the CEC, for addressing trinational environmental issues. They state that bringing pressure on the Mexican government to enforce its environmental laws is “one of the very significant achievements of NAFTA...” (p. 13). However, they also concluded that the environmental side agreement had not achieved its full potential for improving the situation (p. 15). Hufbauer and Orejas and Hufbauer et al., reach similar conclusions, i.e., that the impacts have been positive but that the full potential of the CEC has not been realized. The election of Vincente Fox as Mexico’s President and the defeat of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) may further enhance the role of the environment in that country’s policy agenda. President Fox has indicated that improving the environment is an important policy of his administration. For instance, in his first report to the Mexican Congress he said: “... a fundamental decision of my administration is that the protection of the environment is not the function of a single department, it is for all departments, all of the government”