NAFTA + U.S. Farm Subsidies Devastates Mexican Agriculture

[QuatFax]

Of course, this would demonstrate that there is not actually free trade under NAFTA.

[KripDrip]

its the mexican peoples fault for choosing to buy cheap american corn instead of supporting the mexican farms by buying their corn.

[drbayoms]

Admittedly i do not know much about farm subsidies. Just to get me started I would like someone (regardless of political affiliation, gender, religious preference, etc) to explain it to me in terms as basic as you would like.

The 3 questions are: What are farm subsidies? Why were they started/created? Why do we need them?

Of course I am doing my own independent reading. But I would like to hear from someone else about this. For now I am indifferent, only because I am not informed. Thanks

[FireweedFarm]

What hurts Mexico is low farm prices, for maize (corn) for example. This is not "caused" by farm subsidies, however, it's merely "correlated" with it. Subsidies are given when prices are low, for example 1981-2006. The lowest prices in history, adjusted for inflation, were 1998-2005. 2005 was the lowest corn price in history. We need to change the farm bill. We need the Food from Family Farms Act of the National Family Farm Coalition. See links and documentation through my channel.

[cristopherkloeess]

Well well well whos taking whos jobs? Mexicans might be taking American jobs at Jack in the Box but it seems Americans are taking entire business sectors from Mexicans. Hard to accept that Mexico the land where corn was first cultivated over 800 years ago is now importing corn from the US. 800 years of harvested survival down the drain thanks to the all mighty elite!

[colibri1]

Why are all Mexico-oriented comment sections invaded by Libertarian, "NWO"-obsessed, Federal Reserve-obsessed, Trilateral Commission-obsessed, racist freaks from the US? What is the deal?

[zonilo1]

@colibri1

Because most USians don't understand about the system we live in Capitalism, and they instead live in a American Exceptionalist fantasy world and blame on it a staw man.

[zonilo1]

@colibri1

It also brings a whole new meaning to "Stupid Americans".

[paintmn1]

Hello my name is joe monroe and i just turned 85 and was in the eurorpean theater in ww2.I do believe we need these people in agriculture but as it comes to the trades watch out...I hired a paint company to paint my house....I couldn't under stand any of them and in my opinion did a substandard job.I evan rented a sani hut so they didn't have to come in and use my bathroom.I found a hole in my back yard with human shit in it.

[lvll138inrs]

protectionism in any form is extremely harmful

[TomUsherRLCC]

The American corn and soy is GMO. Mexican corn is being contaminated via cross pollination. It's a multifaceted crime against humanity, nature, and nature's God.

[Traveller1612]

They've forgot to mention the US is exported genectically modified CORN to Mexico.....

Eugenics is David Rockefellers mantra.......

[colibri1]

They didn't even touch on the fact that all of this drove farmers off the land, which is especially tragic in Mexico, the birthplace of corn and a place where many native varieties are grown. Once the farmers who had saved the seed and knew how to grow the rare landraces of corn are driven away from farming, the knowledge of them and the techniques for growing them are lost. And that's to say nothing of better known emigration issue.

[Thelight1337]

When this guests first sentence said, "The Woodrow Wilson Center", He was already dropped down a peg. If you work for a center that recognizes a president that signed the Federal Reserve into existence you have lost all credibility.

[Traveller1612]

@Thelight1337

+1000

!!!

[blackiron60]

Britain used to do the same thing to India: the dumping of commodities and manufactured goods is pretty standard in the economics of imperialism, it devastates the ability of a colony to fend for itself and shackles it to the imperial master. Mexico, economically at least, is essentially an American colony.

[TheUndercoverAthiest]

better late than never. This story is more than a decade stale

[mikepalomino]

God, this is so depressing. I really wish Real News would report some good news from time to time. Feels like we're all being cordoned off and enclosed by corporate interests ready to make us their serfs.

[tannersanta]

@mikepalomino True. Reality tends to bee pretty depressing, thats probably why many tend to deny it and ignore it.

[mikepalomino]

@tannersanta True. I think what's most depressing is that no one is doing anything about this and other issues. Most of my fellow American citizens are sadly misinformed and many of those who feel they are informed get their news from right wing corporate media.

[Nephtys80]

@mikepalomino Did you see "Direct Action from Brazil to Wisconsin", also from RNN recently? I thought that was pretty inspirational.

[mikepalomino]

@Nephtys80 I'll look into it. Thanks. Last few weeks have been busy, so I have been out of the RNN loop :)

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@mikepalomino Just realized Nephtys had recommended the same video to you as I did!

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@mikepalomino The recent article on US resistance movements gaining inspiration from Latin American movements springs to mind as good news to me.

[ThisLittleBlackBook]

let's focus on the real issues here people! mexican immigrants are teeming up with al qaeda to overthrow the united states government! it's red alert in america! every jose and achmed are in cahoots to undermine our very way of life! NAFTA is good! corporate america is good! obama, good!

[soulresistor]

@ThisLittleBlackBook Were did you get you bogus info we've been overthrown buy the britts 100's of years ago, wake up !!!!

[asperin]

Corporatism at its best, central planning, NOT a free market.

[NwZ2]

@asperin what are you smoking? a 'free market' is an ideological abstraction; without government intervention, monopolistic control would arise and stifle the so-called freedom. What you're talking about is government sponsored/government run market economy that favor a certain *type* of economic actor. =\

nothing more.

[asperin]

@NwZ2

Supply and Demand exists. Stop the fear mongering about Voluntarism.

[NwZ2]

@asperin total red herring.

you free-market fetishists can't escape the fact that without government intervention, your idea model wouldn't exist.

[asperin]

@NwZ2

Without govt intervention you wouldn't exist. That is why you fear it and oppose it.

[NwZ2]

@asperin A) no, people have survived and evolved without government being there.

B) Yes, in a sense life as we know it wouldn't exist. We'd be in a Hobbesian state of nature constantly. Try living the good life you're living now, shitting on the centuries of political struggle, theorizing, and construction that afforded those very same comforts to do so.

Sorta like shitting on the first amendment.

[asperin]

@NwZ2

What I advocate does not dismiss the philosophical debates humanity has had. It goes beyond what we have today, it is the next step, free societies, the individual over the State, Liberty. You on the other hand want to patch this old system(Statism) that has failed time after time over centuries. Statism is fundamentally wrong at its core because its main solution to problems is force, not reason, and a force enacted by a monopoly, the govt.

[Traveller1612]

@NwZ2

sorry but the government encourages monopolies....

Look at what happened in the Microsoft case....................

[NwZ2]

@Traveller1612 Too bad that point is irrelevant to the argument I make and to the larger picture as a whole. Capitalism as a SYSTEM itself encourages monopolies; it contradicts itself at every term, with its short term interests of squeezing out as much capital as possible out of a resource while at the same time trying to continuously pursue *more* capital (ie long term capital accumulation), so YEA, monopolies are as common to it as apple pie is to america.

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@Traveller1612 The US government encourages monopolies.

[greenday1978]

Is the tea party campaigning against agro subsidies too?

[asperin]

@greenday1978

IDK, I know that Ron Paul is against ALL subsidies, every single one of them.

[Xenthoid]

@greenday1978 lol i believe you know the answer to that question.

[greenday1978]

@Xenthoid lol...oh so you mean they, parafrasing the monthypython, are not the messiah...just very naughty boys?

[xchainlinkx]

destroy a country and demonize their people.

Mexico, the Middle East (muslims,) which one's next?

[BillymanWag]

Excellent Jay. Really disturbing this is.

[BillymanWag]

Leave it to our f'ing crap US government. God damn! Appalling!

[GnosticNinja]

They want G-d like control of food. Self appointed "scribes scribbling scripts" make it Lords Law (as J. Maxwell puts it) Monsanto works feverishly to render food into a "global-ism" Eugenics weapon under the fanciful LIE they're helping anything... but themselves. "sure he will do everything he can to end NAFTA and help the people of Mexico." O'Bomber a mouthpiece for UNITED STATES of AMERICA Inc. (NAFTA, CFR, ADL/AIPAC) blood cousin of Bush & Cheney aristocracy. Time to get a clue??

[VexZeez]

Very insightful videos.

Why Do Mexican Workers Head North?: watch?v=ANrs1i6-1OM

[bbburton]

It never ceases to amaze me how TRNN propounds taxing to redistribute wealth, and to then subsidize everything and everybody in the name of the liberal/progressive agenda, only to rile against how terrible it is to subsidize agriculture. Jay is a hypocrite. What he ignores is the very moral hazard that is created when anyone is subsidized by government. It promotes bad behavior by those who know that if they fail, they will get bailed out. Stealing, no matter how well intentioned, is wrong.

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@bbburton What if Paul is capable of distinguishing between subsidising health, education, and other basic needs for the poor to live a dignified life and subsidising powerful agro and weapons giants? How about if Paul is aware that US foreign policy preaches"free trade" (no protectionism) for other economies such as Mexico's while subsidising its own? How about if something ideological is preventing you from seeing these screamingly obvious and coherent points?

[micahgee]

@NicosNicosNicosNicos

I've never understood that either, we talk about "free trade" but never talk about how much the biggest corporation, oil, agri-business etc. industries get billions of dollars of subsidies and near zero tax. The largest companies pay nothing while the average worker is taxed on his/her meager income.

Subsiding decent living for everyone is cheap compared to the money thrown away on war, bailouts and subsidies and creates demand when there is little. We need more stimulus!

[redrajani]

omfg was he listening. the guy said GOVERNMENT monopoly that was broken up....monopoly power ONLY comes from governments!

[QuatFax]

@redrajani Do you actually know that for a fact? I realize that most monopolies had government assistance in attaining monopoly status, and many were coercively established by governments. But that doesn't mean that a monopoly couldn't exist without the government. The main force leading to monopolization is that of economies of scale, which can exist without government help.

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

@redrajani Not true. There are private monopolies of all sorts of things.

[redrajani]

end protectionism! end tariffs, quotas, and subsidies!

[QuatFax]

@redrajani How do you do that? Corporations control the United States government. How do you stop them from pressuring it into providing subsidies, protections, and favorable regulations?

[VexZeez]

I like to suggest the RealNews investigate money laundering and the role banks play helping the drug cartels. Or the RealNews can look into marijuana legalization and how it'll devastate the drug cartels. A couple of suggestions.

[soulresistor]

Of course starve the people out like the elites are also doing with Africa and all other 3rd world countries for population control that all, nothing personal!!!!

[agitcam]

Gosh, I hope Obama sees this video, I'm sure he will do everything he can to end NAFTA and help the people of Mexico. Could their be a link to Mexicans coming to the US because they have been forced off their land by dumping ag products? So as a result of NAFTA Mexicans end up coming to America to get jobs which suppress wages here, the US taxpayer pays for this process and the korporations make money on both ends. Quite a scam but then America is just one big scam for the wealthy's benefit.

[furseiseki]

@agitcam I'm gonna have to call bullshit and "they took our jerbs!" on you. Illegals don't supress our wages because they're part of the black market economy and they do slaughterhouse type jobs that us Blancos won't take. If anything the contribute to our budget by paying into Social Security and unemployment accounts they'll never use.

[agitcam]

@furseiseki Your shallow understanding of the issues is remarkable. I can only assume your a ditto head.

[Traveller1612]

@agitcam

I'm sorry but you're naive if you think Obama will do anything.....

Look up, learn, and understand the 'Council On Foreign Relations'...

Then you'll understand why nothing changes....

(hint - they and their members control the US political process....)

[underthebox]

@agitcam Barrack Obama is well aware of NAFTA's consequences. It may seem bad for some Americans, but many multinational corporations gain immensely from the exploitation of workers and their land. The conditions that we are now seeing in Mexico are significantly shaped by US trade policies. But we must remember. The US will tell great lies to serve its own interests. It's always done so and it will always find ways to justify them.

[zonilo1]

@underthebox

Obama is well aware of NAFTA's consequences because it's benefiting him and the system he represents which is capitalism.

[underthebox]

@agitcam Mexicans entering the US is nothing new, but with so much misery in the US today, politicians need a scapegoat. It's easy to blame a marginalized group of people who do not have equal rights and legal representation. Just ask the Japanese Americans who were forced into interment camps during World War II.

[kawola17]

@agitcam Mostly correct, but wages here are suppressed not because Mexicans are coming here. They are suppressed because Corporations are finding it much cheaper by sending these jobs to Mexico. People get laid off here. And the jobs that are left, are at a lower wage because the unions must compromise for fear that they'll send the remaining jobs to Mexico. It's "you'll take a pay cut or we'll send your job to Mexico."

[PQPRockford]

@kawola17 You are right but outsourcing is another issue. There are a lot of variables to what the corporations are doing.

[QuatFax]

Laissez-faire capitalism is pie-in-the-sky. We need to start discussing real economic policies, not pipe dreams.

[GnosticNinja]

@QuatFax The founders of United States had a "real economic policy" but was it illegally subverted by traitors of all humanity for the continuation of Babylon System.

Their legerdemain tactics has it such without an intense investigation you'll not recognize the whole foundation was replaced by a facsimile and 'assume' the dog for the disease and not the tics on his back.

[QuatFax]

@GnosticNinja The founders of the United States started all of this. It was Hamilton who began the protectionism and government industrial policies that lead to our modern economy. Jefferson and Madison opposed those policies before they were elected, but, while in power, they kept them going.

[GnosticNinja]

@QuatFax

No dude, they didn't start the Federal Reserve.

Nor were they "globalist" robber barons using economic hit-men to undermine other countries.

The "War of Independence" was United States going bankrupt.

Trying to pay back a wartime loan debt then getting suckered into permanent usury never being able to pay it off is not what they had planned.

United States went into receivership under British Maritime Admiralty Law Jurisdiction.

Basically America lost the war and had to pay.

[QuatFax]

@GnosticNinja They didn't start the Federal Reserve as such, but they started a Bank of the United States that was just as powerful (at least within US territory).

The United States had a number of protectionist policies designed to line the pockets of big business and grow American industry. That began under the Founding Fathers.

As did imperialism, by the way. It was Jefferson who approved the first major expansion of American hegemony.

[QuatFax]

Laissez-faire economics is impossible. If trade barriers are lowered, the corporations that get government subsidies will capture all the market share in countries that don't subsidize their businesses. The countries that adopt laissez-faire policies will see their economies dominated by corporations that DO receive subsidies and protections. So those economies will still be subject to economic planning, it's just that the planning will be done by foreign governments.

[MyTube22T]

Oh the good all USA always screwing everybody!

[solimiansky]

and the US blames the poor mexicans for going into the drug business

[mikecorbeil]

@solimiansky The US doesn't blame "the poor mexicans for going into the drug business". The CIA, DEA, possibly, if not proven anyway, the FBI are involved, to say the least, in international drug trafficking. If recalling correctly, then many guns used by the violent Mexican drug traffickers are from manufacturing in the US, as well. The federal government is against legalization of marijuana for any purpose, medical as well as recreational, but this is for business, not ethics or health.

[micahgee]

@mikecorbeil

The ironic part about Marijuana is, that you create a black market that is massive, so you have billions in untaxed dollars being used to consume a relatively safe drug while billions more tax dollars are being used to combat it.

We shouldn't make crimes out of soft drugs, yet openly sell alcohol and cigarettes, drugs that are proven to raise your risk of nearly every kind of cancer and use them long enough, they will kill you, something that cannot be said about Cannabis.

[mikecorbeil]

@micahgee I believe what you say about the fascist war on marijuana is about creating black market profits, etc., but there's a documentary by one of the people of the Alex Jones Network on the war on legal medical marijuana in California and possibly other states, where CIA and FBI moved in to shut down legal clinics, dispensaries. What I learned about the film includes that keeping pot illegal creates a larger consumer market for crack, cocaine and, I guess, heroin, very profitable drugs.

[mikecorbeil]

@micahgee Regarding the [fact] that "We shouldn't make crimes out of soft drugs", we shouldn't make crimes of any drugs. England, as well as Vancouver, B.C., in Canada, or else all of B.C., have legal clinics where heroin and cocaine addicts can walk in and get their daily dosages, and from a little that I've read about this, this measure helped to drastically reduce material crimes in England. I suppose the same would be true in Vacouver, but am not sure. It's a health issue; not a crime.

[mikecorbeil]

@micahgee And it's not really tobacco consumption that's the problem; it's the extremely toxic chemical additives; benzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, and surely others. Big Tob. used to use chemicals based on a list of around either 500 or 600; surely not all in any one tob. brand, but still having used chemicals from such a huge list, and surely many were toxic. They apparently used turpentine to keep cigs burning by themselves. Natural tob. is quite safe and much less addictive.

[tannersanta]

@solimiansky The US is the greatest customer of the Mexican cartels.

[tangent272]

@solimiansky

Of course, that's the American way.

[underthebox]

@solimiansky Poor Mexicans don't go into the drug business. They remain earnest hard-workers. The sons of rich wealthy Mexicans, who have long sold out to US' interests, go into the drug business.