Mexican Avocado Scare Rocks the Guac Out of USA

After a week-long pause, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allowed imports of Mexican avocados to resume on Saturday, replenishing US guacamole reserves exhausted by Super Bowl parties. Imports ceased after a Mexico-based avocado inspector from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) was threatened by crime cartels anxious to pass off Jalisco ‘cados as Michoacán-grown, the only ones currently allowed into the States.

With $3 billion in annual avocado exports, Mexican crime cartels have targeted another US drug of choice, guacamole. Mexico’s avocado growers face cartel extortion and hijackings. The boom crop is also responsible for drought, deforestation, and violence.

While the US has agreed to begin importing avocados from additional Mexican states as their crops are declared pest-free, those harvests will never be crime free.

More:

“United States lifts Mexican avocado ban — averting what could have been a costly crisis,” By María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post

“How the Avocado Became Key to Mexican Drug Cartel Turf War,” Khaleda Rahman, Newsweek

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Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Why Trump Is Cranky

Last week President Trump suddenly imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, much to the horror of free-trade Republicans, economists, farmers, and Americans who make things out of metal or buy that kind of stuff. The market plunged, and trading partners prepared to retaliate. Mr. Trump made the move without the knowledge of White House staff because he was in a bad mood. Why was he cranky? For the past two weeks the president has been on a diet, eating salads instead of his adored Big Macs.

More:

“Officials try to contain damage from Trump trade war declaration,” Ben White and Nancy Cook, Politico

“This story about how Trump impulsively launched a trade war is shocking — and shockingly unsurprising,” Aaron Blake, Washington Post

“Trump was angry and ‘unglued’ when he started a trade war, officials say,” Stephanie Ruhle and Peter Alexander, NBC News

“Trump’s trade war could erase all the tax-cut gains,” John Podhoretz, New York Post

“Five US jobs will be lost for every new one created by Trump’s steel tariffs,” Heather Timmons, Quartz

“Trump’s Tariffs Dim the Prospects for Trump’s Wall,” Kriston Capps, CityLab

“Trump’s disdain for experts, even on his own staff, drives tariffs push,” Nancy Cook, Politico

Canada Bans Marmite

Canada has banned imports of Marmite – not because it’s made from British brewery waste, but because it’s artificially fortified with vitamins to back up dubious health claims, and food spreads in Canada aren’t allowed such fortification.

The stuff was imported by Brit Foods, a Canadian retailer specializing in British comestibles. The yeasty brown gunk is an iconic UK product, a cherished symbol of the Empire to which Canada once belonged. We have not been able to determine if the Marmite ban endangers Canada’s membership in the Commonwealth.

To avoid the appearance of favoritism in the upcoming independence referendum, Canada also banned imports of Scotland’s Irn-Bru, a ghastly orange-colored soft drink and symbol of modern Scottish identity. That color is supplied by Ponceau 4R, a pigment derived from coal tar which, unlike clubbing baby seals to death, is prohibited in the Great White North.

Romney Takes a Ride

Ex-Financier Mitt Romney, failed Republican presidential candidate and son of American Motors president George Romney, has moved to his beach house in La Jolla, California, the one with the elevator for his cars.

“The son of Detroit — who boasted of the Cadillacs he owned as a sign of support for the U.S. auto industry during the campaign — was spotted driving a new black Audi Q7, a luxury sport-utility vehicle manufactured in Slovakia.”

— “A detached Romney tends wounds in seclusion after failed White House bid,”  Philip Rucker, Washington Post

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

 Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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