How NAFTA Has Changed American & Mexican Food Tracie McMillan - NPR.org
go to original February 14, 2015

See the report: NAFTA at 20: North America’s Free-Trade Area and Its Impact on Agriculture (PDF)

If you were to try and list the biggest game-changers for the American food system in the last two decades, you might note the Food Network, or the writing of Michael Pollan, or maybe even the evolution of Walmart.

But you'd probably overlook NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

And that would be a mistake, according to a lengthy report out early February from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In one fell swoop, the report finds, President Bill Clinton's 1994 landmark legislation unleashed a dizzying array of market forces on agriculture, with vast long-term impacts. And with greater access to the neighboring markets, farmers and other food producers in the U.S., Mexico and Canada have helped reshape diets in some pretty significant ways.

...But while NAFTA has largely meant that we're getting more of our favorite fresh foods from our next-door neighbors, the USDA suggests that NAFTA is profoundly transforming the food system in Mexico, sometimes in less healthful ways.

Read the rest at NPR.org

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