NAFTA, Smithfield Farms, and Immigration

I first learned about the story of Smithfield Hog Farms while watching the move “Food Inc.” a few years back. However, I recently stumbled upon another great piece of journalism that sheds even more light on the Farm’s controversial practices. Throughout the article, you can find encapsulating themes of environmental degradation, oppression of organized labor, neoliberalism, and immigration. You can find the article here

I would like to briefly discuss the latter issue with which I deal on a daily basis. I'm sure the Immakolee volunteers would also have some great thought on this issue. In short, the effects of Smithfield's practices on immigration can be summed up this way, “In the mid-’90s, Mexicans pushed by the effects of NAFTA to leave the Veracruz countryside began arriving in North Carolina and going to work at the Tar Heel slaughterhouse” Once the neoliberal reforms of NAFTA went into effect, Smithfield dumped cheap pork on the Mexican market, forcing small farmers out of work and choose between two options; stay in Veracruz Mexico in immense poverty, or migrate to the U.S to work... wait for it.... in the Smithfield hog farms in North Carolina.

Once the migrant workers (many of which were undocumented - a fact that im sure Smithfield was compliant to ignore) began to empower themselves through organized labor, Smithfield basically called Immigration Customs Enforcement on themselves. Much of the workforce was scared into submission by the company as many migrant workers were thus deported.

The article is a very good read and sheds light on some very controversial practices. However, some points of discussion stemming from this piece are clear. With immigration being such a hot political topic in the US, how far will Americans go in discerning their own role in forcing workers to migrate to the US? With the facts presented in the article about NAFTA's affects on Mexican migration, is immigration reform possible without a intense scrutinization of NAFTA and our current neoliberal trade policies? How responsible is Smithfield farms? Just some food for thought, and I hope you give it a read!

Cheers!

Anthony