Written by Eryn Austin-Bergen, Sarah Harrington, Isaac Jonas, Colton Martin
What's for dinner?
I walk into the supermarket on a mission.
Isn’t the globalization of our food system good?
Good for our nutrition and making us more open-minded by exposing us to different cultures? Good for the low-wage farm workers who need our markets to support their income? Good for all the dock workers, factory employees, and truck drivers?
Doesn’t buying a mango in March in Canada love my global neighbour who needs my support? To explore these questions (and more!), we followed the journey a mango takes from tropical tree to Canadian table.
Global markets 101
For example, a business located in Canada may purchase parts (goods) for one of its products from South Korea and Germany. The parts may be shipped by a shipping company from Greece (services) to an outsourcing firm in China for assembly (labour), then transported across transcontinental railroads for distribution in European retail stores, or through ecommerce anywhere in the world.
Global food markets work in a similar fashion. With growing interconnectedness, our daily purchases in the supermarket can impact the livelihoods and wealth of families far away.
The global market for mangoes was estimated to be around 17 billion USD in 2018 and is forecasted to grow by 6.4 per cent every year into 2025. Why? Because of rising demand, mainly from North America and Germany. In other words, because you and I want to eat mangoes.
In the Mango Orchard
In Mexico, these companies typically rent fields from farmers on five-to-seven year leases. They farm the land intensively before moving on to a new area and starting over. Part of the agreement is to leave behind infrastructure—irrigation wells, electrical installations, and water extraction tools—for local farmers. If you’re thinking that sounds too good to be true, you’d be right.
When soil is farmed intensively, especially for a singular crop without rotation, the nutrients in the soil deplete with each harvest. Over time, this leads to struggling crops and infertile soil. In the case of orchards, soil erosion is just as dangerous as nutrient depletion. With the type of irrigation required for large-scale farming, the extraction of water from underground sources often far outpaces the natural rate of replenishment. Irrigation can lead to topsoil being swept away, which not only destabilizes trees and root systems, but can contaminate the local water supply with pesticides and other chemicals.
Yet the companies responsible don’t stay to address these issues. Instead, they move on, leaving the local population with subpar land and compromised water.
The potential for labour exploitation is just as serious in migratory farming.
But not every orchard in Mexico has these issues.
As awareness about issues such as direct trade, resource depletion, and working conditions continues to grow, however, some large companies are keeping up and adapting their practices. And after a series of protests in San Quintin, some workers were able to negotiate better wages and conditions.
Over Land and Through the Skies
So, for a product that needs to be transported before it ripens, the environmental toll of getting a flat of mangoes flown all the way from Mexico to Canada is going to be a lot steeper per unit than moving hardier produce or locally grown products.
Transporting produce from farm to store also involves human costs and benefits. There are middlemen who collect the mangoes from the farm, labourers who pack them, and pilots who fly them. There are customs inspectors who ensure no invasive species of plant-killing bugs are hiding amongst the fruit and truck drivers who haul them overnight down the Number 1.
Fresh, Frozen, Dried, and Pickled
In Africa and Asia, farmers have been known to lose an estimated 50 per cent—half!—of their crop during the main harvesting season. To address this loss, many exporting countries process the mangoes. Mangoes can be transformed into purees, canned or frozen slices, chutneys, pickles, curries, beverages, and various dried products that extend their shelf-life. They can then be supplied to the market even outside the growing season.
Consumer Power (Or, I Really Want To Eat A Mango)
One of the foundational drivers of the global food market is consumer demand, that is, what you and I say we want to eat and are willing to pay for.
These purchases are often motivated by emotional and social desire and culinary preference rather than a consideration of what is in season (loving the environment); who grew, harvested, processed, packaged, and moved our food (loving our neighbour); and what our bodies actually need and wallets can afford (loving ourselves).
Whether the Mexican mango we buy is in or out of season, fresh, frozen, dried, or pickled, one thing remains the same—a desire to eat a tropical fruit means we are participating in a community of production larger than ourselves.
These purchases are often motivated by emotional and social desire and culinary preference rather than a consideration of what is in season (loving the environment); who grew, harvested, processed, packaged, and moved our food (loving our neighbour); and what our bodies actually need and wallets can afford (loving ourselves).
Whether the Mexican mango we buy is in or out of season, fresh, frozen, dried, or pickled, one thing remains the same—a desire to eat a tropical fruit means we are participating in a community of production larger than ourselves.
For example, the Canadian prairies are well suited to growing cereals. They are not, however, suited to growing coffee. Yet the Canadian consumer demand for coffee last year totaled 298.8 million kilos. Lucky for us, Colombia has the perfect climate for growing coffee. So, instead of growing food for their own consumption, Colombia produces and exports coffee, then imports cereals from countries like Canada. The result? The Canadian demand for coffee now has control over a share of Colombia’s economy, while their people are dependent on countries like Canada to produce their basic foods. When events like the COVID-19 pandemic shut down agricultural production and import/export capacity, the average Colombian family depending on imported food may go hungry.
What does coffee have to do with mangoes from Mexico? It’s another example of how our preferences can have incredible global reach and can inadvertently put families at risk who survive on food that’s grown thousands of miles away.
So…what’s the point?
One thing’s for sure—our food systems are complicated!
Moving communities away from mono-cropping and dependence on foreign appetites reduces their risk of hunger and gives them more freedom and agency over their own health, their own lives, their own futures.
Should we in Canada also consider a return to eating what is locally and seasonally possible? As we’ve seen, there are pros and cons to purchasing mangoes in a sub-arctic region and it wouldn’t hurt to ask a few more questions about all of our food.
Questions like, “Does this purchase love the land it was grown in? Does it help or hurt the farmer, factory worker, and truck driver? Does it feed me in the ways I truly need to be fed?” And, ultimately, “Does my purchase of this food love God?” Because we cannot love God without loving our neighbours (1 John 4:20).
And perhaps that’s the real point of this mango journey—to realize our food (and all our purchases) connects us to people and land far beyond our daily experiences, connects us to ourselves and to God in ways we rarely pause to reflect on.
Because whether or not we can see the global difference our personal decisions make, knowing our values and consistently living them out draws us deeper into the flourishing God has planned for our lives.
Food for the Hungry Canada’s stated purpose is to end poverty—one community at a time. This involves the reconciliation of four primary relationships—with God, self, others, and creation. Want to learn more about the complex nature of poverty and how we can heal relationships and help each other thrive? Check out fhcanada.org/education
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