Agri-food Industry's Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration By Eric Holt-Gimenez
Just weeks before the elections, Congress is unable to agree on legislation regarding the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants. Remarkably, not one single U.S. lawmaker has addressed why an estimated 1.1 million people cross the border every year looking for work. This omission allows our politicians to divert public attention away from the way U.S. policies cause massive migrations. The agri-food industry has created a vicious cycle of dispossession, appropriation, and substitution. With help from the Green Revolution, U.S. economic policies, and subsidies from the U.S. taxpayer, the agri-food industry is reaping windfall profits. Meanwhile, the impact on the health and economy of immigrant families is devastating. --- Eric Holt-Gimenez ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is the Executive Director of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, Oakland, California www.foodfirst.org. He is author of Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America's Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture and an analyst for the IRC Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org). See new IRC article online at: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3614 With printer-friendly pdf version at: http://americas.irc-online.org/pdf/commentary/0610AgrifoodIndustry.pdf -- Jim Devine / "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
