Exporting obesity: US farm and trade policy and the transformation of the Mexican consumer food environment

Abstract

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, in the United States as well as among its trade partners such as Mexico. It has been established that an “obesogenic”�(obesity-causing) food environment is one influence on obesity prevalence. To isolate the particular role of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, in changing Mexico's food environment, we plotted the flow of several key products between the United States and Mexico over the 14-year NAFTA period (1994-2008) and situated them in a broader historical context. Key sources of USDA data include the Foreign Agricultural Service’s Global Agricultural Trade System, its official repository for current and historical data on imports, exports and re-exports, and its Production, Supply, and Distribution online database. US export data were queried for agricultural products linked to shifting diet patterns including: corn, soybeans, sugar and sweeteners, consumer-oriented products, and livestock products. The Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Balance of Payments and Direct Investment Position Data in their web-based International Economic Accounts system also helped determine changes in US direct investment abroad from 1982 to 2009. Directly and indirectly, the United States has exported increasing amounts of corn, soybeans, sugar, snack foods, and meat products into Mexico over the last two decades. Facilitated by NAFTA, these exports are one important way in which US agriculture and trade policy influences Mexico’s food system. Because of significant US agribusiness investment in Mexico across the full spectrum of the latter’s food supply chain, from production and processing to distribution and retail, the Mexican food system increasingly looks like the industrialized food system of the United States.

Keywords:

• Obesity
• Food systems
• Food environment
• Agricultural trade
• NAFTA
• Trade policy

Funding for this research was provided by Healthy Eating Research, a National Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

a An “industrial food system” is characterized by ever fewer and larger farms that specialize in one or two crops and rely on energy-intensive off-farm resources such as fossil fuels, chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

b Subsequent agreements negotiated between the United States and Central American countries, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru, Colombia, and South Korea all proceeded with the clear expectation that all productive sectors, particularly agriculture, would be liberalized without the safeguard mechanisms that came to dominate discussion on agriculture in the WTO talks.

c The drop in exports in 2009 (to 7 million metric tons from 9 million metric tons in 2008) may be accounted for by the increase in biofuel production in the United States, which created a significant new domestic market for US cornmodities.

d The “consumer-oriented product” classification is according to the BICO HS-10 Product Group in the USDA FAS GATS database. This category contains products that have either undergone substantial transformation or have been prepared in a way that makes them ready for final consumption. These products are generally ready for final consumption at the food service or food retail level, however in some cases they may be used by food processors as ingredients in other foods. For more information, please see http://www.ats.agr.gc.ca/stats/3988-eng.htm