Food Production & Campesino Protestors

To elaborate on my previous post, I talked with my Spanish teacher today about Guatemala's export-based agricultural economy, and it seems like the U.S. does not play a great role in importing produce from Guatemala because of its relatively strict quality standards and demand for organic produce. That was not something I expected to hear since U.S. as well as German multinationals supply the bulk of chemical inputs (read: pesticides) and GMO food crops to Guatemala. Morever, most of exported produce is distributed to other Central American countries since they (from my teacher's perspective) have lower quality standards. I feel these claims need to be further reviewed when I am not busy studying Spanish. More to come later.

Another point in need of clarification is that the campesinos who are suffering the most from the drought are located in the corredor seco or the eastern highlands near the Pacific where the landscape is rocky and the soil so poor it is barely arable to begin with. Currently, the type of aid the government is giving consists of weekly packages of basic rations (eg. beans, rice). Despite the relative agricultural prosperity in other parts of the country, people in the west aren't getting local produce because they cannot afford it (and apparently neither can the government). No wonder there is talk of unrest. As we found out today, in anticipation of the protests, organizers of the cycling tour decided to change the route so that the cyclists wouldn't have to ride through an area of potential dissent. And so there we have it. Hopefully, the international aid that should have arrived today will help stave off malnutrition and starvation in that region for the time being. Ironically again, it is currently raining in Xela for the second night in a row.

Switching to our northerly neighbor, during "smoko" (aka mid-morning snack and tea time), we also read in today's paper that Obama has decided to dedicate significant funds to support renewable energy. Finally, some good news.