Mexico: Canned Imperialism
Around the world, agribusiness corporations are moving into regions that are struggling with the problems of malnutrition, poverty and land distribution. The corporations usually pose as...
...1 0 The grower who already has capital or land can enter into new areas of production which will further augment his wealth, while the ejidatario or small producer is increasingly marginalized and often forced out of production...
...7 Many of the reasons for working with larger growers are implicit in capitalist agriculture...
...For Del Monte it is easier to supervise a contract with one grower who has 50 acres than with five growers who each own 10 acres...
...determining the zones of production and the types of crops, and deciding what is to be exported...
...The middle class, developing as a result of jobs created by companies like ours, is a fast growing consumer of our products.24 Del Monte did not point out that of the more than 5,000 people who work for the company in the Bajio, only a small fraction receive wages adequate to fulfill their minimal dietary needs, let alone purchase Del Monte canned foods...
...The Bajio Valley is one of Mexico's richest agricultural regions...
...Located 200 miles north of Mexico City in the state of Guanajuato, the valley is endowed with fertile soils and a mild climate suitable for a wide variety of crops...
...A Del Monte vice-president, William Druehl, said in an interview that the company will move out of any country if these conditions change...
...3 By skillfully using its financial leverage, Del Monte affected the valley in several ways: it introduced crops that had never been grown there, favored the development of the larger growers at the expense of the smaller more marginal producers, and gained operating control over large tracts of land...
...McCann Erickson even developed a new symbol for the campaign - a talking parrot with the Del Monte emblem emblazoned across its chest...
...Some of these agricultural workers have been dispossessed of their lands, others maintain small plots that they and their families work to help sustain themselves, and still others form part of the migratory work force that moves around the valley looking for employment...
...Because the work force needed at the plant varies from day to day, Del Monte has a hiring hall where workers report to find out whether or not they are needed on a given day...
...When Del Monte entered Mexico in the early 1960's, it found that the Mexicans had little need or use for its products...
...Some spend hours traveling from their homes in the countryside, only to find no work available at Del Monte...
...Since most of the growers contracted only a portion of their land to Del Monte, their landholdings were actually much larger than the average ten to twenty acre farms that predominated in the valley...
...Lax safety standards have resulted in many chemical burns from acids used in the canning process...
...advertising agency for half a century, works closely with company executives out of its offices in Mexico City...
...Del Monte revealed just how influential its crop financing was when it noted that "in the early 1960's, Productos Del Monte was practically the only source that many of its growers could turn to for short term crop loans...
...for these companies depend on and reinforce an economic system that is in direct conflict with the real needs of the Mexican people...
...As one Del Monte vice-president noted, "when you go to the Bajio today, it's almost like being in one of California's valleys...
...The company boasts that: Canned foods are becoming more and more accepted, and are no longer found only in the homes of the Wealthy...
...Sometimes the poor condition of the produce is Del Monte's fault - one grower lost his entire pea crop because the company failed to send out its pea harvester on time...
...6 In the current year, NACLA investigators were told that the company has contracts with approximately 150 growers who work 7,500 acres, or an average of 50 acres...
...Economic, social and political conditions must remain stable: "You notice we're not in Argentina, Peru, or Chile" said Druehl.' 8 But Del Monte, while demanding low wages and a stable political environment in the countries where it operates, often violates the local laws that do not suit its interests...
...Grain production predominated, with corn and beans serving as the mainstays of the local diet...
...Del Monte also insists that the grower put up some of his agricultural equipment or machinery as collateral...
...The field workers do not have even an official government union to represent them, and minimum wage levels are ignored...
...During the course of a year the company employs approximately 1,750 workers...
...But the CTM is an official government union that is known more for its efforts to quell labor militancy than for its defense of worker interests...
...Under the contract system, the farmer or grower agrees to plant a set number of acres of a particular crop, and the company in return provides financial assistance which usually includes seeds and special machinery, as well as cash outlays for purchasing fertilizers and hiring farm labor...
...Three multinational food processing corporations - Del Monte, Campbell's, and General Foods - operate canning and packing plants in the Valley...
...Harvest time also "* For an in-depth study of U.S...
...Plant supervisors harass the workers to move faster, thereby causing industrial accidents as the workers try to speed up the process...
...There, they often sit and wait for hours before being told if there is work...
...All these costs are discounted from the farmer's or grower's income when the crop is delivered to the cannery...
...Canned peas and sweet corn are marketed as delicacies and purchased exclusively by the middle and upper classes...
...In a country like Mexico, where agricultural credit is limited or non-existent, contract farming is a powerful instrument...
...Some of the land was held in ejidos, large state-owned farms that are subdivided into many small plots and worked by peasants, or ejidatarios...
...Ford and John Deere tractors till the land, insecticides from Bayer are used to control plant diseases, and cattle are fed special formula feeds milled by Ralston Purina and Anderson Clayton...
...Due to the valley's population density, and the breakup of the large landed estates under Mexico's agrarian reform laws, the average land holding was small, ranging from 10 to 20 acres...
...These are mainly the field hands who work for the company's contract growers...
...agribusiness in Mexico, see NACLA's recent Report, "Harvest of Anger, Agro-Imperial- ism in Mexico's Northwest," July-August, 1976...
...In addition to the 1,750 cannery workers, Del Monte says it provides employment for another 3,500 people in the Bajio...
...As one grower commented, "the company does what it wants with the contract...
...The company itself admitted it confronted a difficult situation: Del Monte was an expensive brand in the minds of the consumers in the large population centers where our products could be found, and in the countryside Del Monte Brand awareness was virtually non- existent.2 But Del Monte and McCann Erickson moved aggressively to change this situation...
...AGRIBUSINESS UNLEASHED The cradle of Mexican independence, the Bajio today finds itself invaded by foreign agribusiness interests...
...But Del Monte found the perfect tool for changing the valley's agriculture - contract farming...
...They used radio, television, billboards, magazines and other media to create a public awareness of Del Monte...
...McCann Erickson, Del Monte's US...
...For a company used to owning plantations and working with U.S...
...For over a decade and a half, U.S...
...The seed varieties and fertilizers are specified and special planting equipment is often sent in by the company...
...Although the growers who work with Del Monte are relatively prosperous, their relationship to the company is a14 Women sorting asparagus at cannery in the Bajio Valley, Mexico difficult one...
...As Del Monte boasts, "from 1962 to 1972 yields per acre among Productos Del Monte contract growers rose steadily," while gross income per acre sometimes rose by 50 percent...
...For some at the hiring hall the situation is desperate...
...7 Thus Del Monte's contract farming leads to an increasing concentration of wealth among the valley's larger growers...
...The remainder are seasonal employees, 90 percent of whom work no more than four to six months of the year...
...If these specifications are not carried out, the contract gives Del Monte the right to take over direct control of the crop...
...4 Viewed from a narrow business perspective, this paternalistic system of agricultural production has some positive effects...
...As one agricultural technician in the valley noted, "the small landowner doesn't have the economic resources to plant vegetables...
...The tillers of the land as well as the factory workers have felt Del Monte's presence: agricultural techniques have been altered, and crops that were never seen before in the valley are now cultivated on large tracts of land for Del Monte.* CONTRACT FARMING When Del Monte first sent its technicians to look at the Bajio in 1959, they found a region ill-suited to the needs of the world's largest canner of fruits and vegetables...
...The far-reaching impact of these companies in Mexico was summed up by Fernando Carmora, a former director of the Economic Research Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico: The multinational food processing firms...
...2 The Bajio's land tenure system was also incompatible with Del Monte's needs...
...As one woman said "If I don't get work today, how will I manage to eat...
...LAW AND ORDER - DEL MONTE STYLE Del Monte remains in Mexico because conditions such as these are ideal for the company...
...After the land is sown, frequent visits are made by Del Monte technicians who insist that the company's irrigation and cultivation specifications be strictly followed...
...Mexican law prohibited the sale of these lands, and it also placed restrictions on land ownership by foreign corporations...
...As the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico noted in a recent study: In the Bajio, as elsewhere in the Republic, there is a sharp split between relatively prosperous commer- cial farming and the fragmented plots of ejidal land starved for investment and technology...
...act as monopolies, increasing the cost of food...
...The strike never occurred...
...standards, those with more land tend to be favored by the changes in agricultural production, while the smaller producers or ejidatarios are increasingly marginalized...
...finds Del Monte in the field: the company maintains the largest pool of machinery in the valley, much of which is sent to harvest its crops...
...5 But this system must be placed in the larger context of agricultural changes in the valley...
...One office manager at Productos Del Monte stated bluntly: "The Mexican shareholders don't have anything to do with the plant...
...8 Although Del Monte provides much of the credit for each vegetable crop, anywhere from 10 to 60 percent of the actual cash needs must come out of the grower's pocket...
...agribusiness has been at work altering the region's agriculture and integrating the valley into the network of international capitalism...
...In 1974 the company had 110 growers with a total of 5000 acres, or an average holding of 45 acres...
...Its factory, in Irapuato at the west end of the valley, employs more people than any other food processing company in the region, and the plant turns out the largest variety of fruits and vegetables of any Del Monte 1213 facility in the world...
...Del Monte is only one of the many multinationals that dominate the Mexican food industry...
...Crops delivered to the factory have to be of prime quality, or else price discounts are made...
...For example, according to Mexican law, 51 percent of the stock of local subsidiaries of foreign food processing companies must be held by Mexican nationals...
...The moving cans and the assembly lines produce a loud, deafening noise that often impairs hearing for hours after one leaves the plant...
...From the start, Del Monte worked with the larger growers in the valley...
...As one woman told NACLA: "I don't work at Del Monte because I like it - I have to feed my children...
...For the small producers who rent most of their machinery, this stipulation automatically prevents them from becoming Del Monte's contract growers...
...The majority, around 75 percent, are women...
...In Del Monte's own words, "vegetable production was small and limited to a few crops grown exclusively for the local fresh market...
...They also determine what seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, and machinery should be used, and they fix the salaries of the field and factory workers...
...Throughout the valley Del Monte has a reputation as a tight-fisted and manipulative company that drives a hard bargain and takes advantage of the growers whenever it can...
...The valley itself is sizable - about 100 miles in length and from 20 to 50 miles wide...
...Ownership of capital assets also determines who Del Monte works with...
...Some are young women, still in their mid-teens, who come to Del Monte looking for their first job, while others are older women who need any kind of work to sustain their families...
...s Many of the men and women who work at the plant are the sons and daughters of eiidatarios or small landowners who migrated to the valley's cities and towns looking for jobs that the land no longer provided...
...Although the local head of the CTM told NACLA that the union had made efforts to improve work place conditions, the workers said they saw no improvements...
...Since then, Del Monte has tended to work with even larger tracts of land...
...In 1964 the company had contracts with 21 growers for 413 acres, or an average of twenty acres per grower...
...None of these crops figures prominently in the diet of the Mexican people...
...Agricultural experts at several government agencies in the valley noted that a large number of small landowners are already renting or selling their lands to the larger growers...
...The first two were introduced to the valley by Del Monte, while the last one was brought in by Campbell's, although Del Monte is now the largest contractor for the crop...
...A cheap labor force and collaborative government unions, along with export subsidies, are several of the factors that Del Monte looks for wherever it operates...
...In 1974, alone, over $4 million worth of canned goods from the Irapuato plant were shipped to twenty different countries.' DEL MONTE'S WORK FORCE Del Monte's employment policies at the Irapuato plant contribute to the economic and social instability of the Bajio...
...On paper, Del Monte has fulfilled this requirement: Jose Ignacio Mendoza, a Mexican businessman with interests in a large strawberry freezing plant in the valley, heads up a small group of Mexicans who legally hold 51 percent of the stock in Productos Del Monte...
...growers who own hundreds or even thousands of acres, the conditions in the Bajio did not appear auspicious...
...Wages for these workers are the minimum required by Mexican law - 61 pesos per day, or approximately $4.90...
...However, as this study of the Ba4io Valley in Mexico will show, the modem agribusiness corporation accentuates the extremes of wealth and poverty, turns out highly processed foods that are priced beyond the reach of most of the country's population, and forces peasants off their lands...
...The dispossessed either serve as paid farm workers for the new owner, or search for other ways to eke out a living in a valley that is already noted for its high rate of unemployment...
...The three largest crops that Del Monte contracts for are sweet corn (1,000 acres), peas (1,500 acres) and asparagus (2,250 acres...
...The union representatives at the plant are all men, and none of the workers with whom NACLA talked could remember when an election had ever been held...
...These workers, like the factory employees, can expect only seasonal employment since the asparagus harvest season lasts only a hundred days...
...One woman said that a couple of years ago "we wanted to15 strike for better wages, but the union leaders said no, that people would be brought in from the countryside to take our jobs...
...The corporations usually pose as saviors, claiming that their fertilizers, tractors, hybrid seeds, and food processing plants will help solve the Third World's problems by expanding food production and providing employment opportunities...
...1 In theory the workers at Del Monte are represented by a union affiliated with the Confederacion de Trabajadores Mexicanos, or the CTM...
...In the broadest sense Mexican agriculture is victimized and controlled by the foreign firms in the food industry.2 As long as multinational firms like Del Monte play a decisive role in Mexican agriculture, there can be no real solution to hunger and underdevelopment...
...But according to a plant administrator who worked for Del Monte for a number of years, neither Ignacio Mendoza nor his associates actually own a single share of stock in the company.' 9 They are merely "hombres de paia" or straw men who lend their names to Del Monte to give its Mexican operations a legal facade...
...Del Monte, like other multinationals in Mexico, has complete control over its subsidiary .20 As elsewhere, advertising has been the key to Del Monte's market expansion in Mexico...
...Although the Bajio's landowners are small by U.S...
...During Del Monte's fourteen year history in Irapuato, there has been only one strike, in 1969, which only lasted several hours...
...Del Monte itself has two snack food factories in Mexico, besides its plant at Irapuato...
...Bustling cities and towns dot the Bajio, linking the region to greater Mexico and the rest of the world...
...Even people who have worked at the cannery for six years receive no more than the minimum wage.14 To keep its wages low, Del Monte draws on the valley's large pool of unemployed laborers, using those who most desperately need work...
...The growers who survive the pressures of capitalist agriculture are driven to produce for the national and international markets instead of raising staples for local consumption...
...On one Del Monte asparagus field visited by NACLA, the workers receive $3 a day for backbreaking, menial work...
...From the start of each growing season, Del Monte exerts tight control over its contract growers...
...By 1968, Del Monte propaganda had made an imprint on the public mind: a survey found that 70 percent of the Mexican people were aware of the Del Monte brand name.23 Del Monte makes no secret of the fact that its primary market is not the working masses who make up the majority of Mexico's population, but the nouveau riche and the upper class...
...He insisted "the countries have to remain competitive if Del Monte is to stay," and that 'labor is one of the main factors that has to be kept under control...
...During the past two decades, foreign food processing companies such as Kraft, General Foods, Carnation, Anderson Clayton, and Nestle have established new plants and acquired locally-owned companies...
...But only 120 are permanent workers...
...Del Monte's asparagus production is even more marginal to the Mexican diet: over 90 percent of it is shipped abroad to markets in the industrialized countries...
...I Del Monte has had a more profound impact upon the people and agriculture in the valley than any other corporation...
Vol. 10 • September 1976 • No. 7
