🍅 From Mexico to Your Table: Understanding Winter Tariffs and Their Impact
A deep dive into how tariffs are affecting grocery prices and the cultural significance of produce.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🍪 Imagine you have a jar of cookies that you share with your friend from next door. One day, someone says you have to pay a fee each time you share a cookie, making it much more expensive. This is similar to what’s happening with certain foods. 🌽 The government put a “fee” on some vegetables we get from Mexico, making them cost more in the stores. Now, people have to pay more for these foods, which is hard, especially when money is tight. 🤝 But folks are finding ways to work together and 🌱 grow their own veggies to make things better.
🗝️ Takeaways
🌍 Tariffs Impact Everyone: A 25% tariff on Mexican imports has led to higher prices for fresh produce at grocery stores.
🥑 Produce Price Hike: Consumers are already seeing increased costs for veggies like avocados, tomatoes, and cilantro.
🔁 Cycle of Struggle: Tariffs are part of a cycle creating economic hardship, impacting families, and potentially increasing migration.
🏛️ Political Intentions: These policies are not just economic but also a tool for power and control over borders.
🌾 Hope Through Unity: Communities are finding hope through local agriculture, mutual aid, and cross-border solidarity.
The Bitter Harvest: Trump’s Tariffs and the Rising Cost of Our Daily Bread
Escribo estas palabras mientras miro a través de mi ventana hacia el sur, hacia la tierra de mis antepasados que ahora está separada por muros y políticas, pero nunca por el espíritu.
It’s a frigid March morning here in Tucson, the kind of day when the desert feels like it’s holding its breath, waiting for spring. My window faces south, toward the invisible line we call a border, and I find myself thinking about the journey of the tomatoes sitting in my fruit bowl. These small, red orbs hold tales of ancestral wisdom, migration, labor, and now—the newest economic warfare being waged against our communities.
The Empty Promise: “Trump: Lower Prices”
Let’s start with the irony that’s thicker than winter fog.
Throughout the 2024 campaign, those red MAGA hats bobbed in crowds while their wearers chanted about lower prices. Campaign signs proclaimed “Trump: Lower Prices” as if repeating something makes it true.
I observed my neighbors—some of whom share my Indigenous heritage but have forgotten our collective history—nodding in agreement as candidates promised that tariffs would somehow, magically, through some economic alchemy that defies basic principles, lower the cost of living.
Qué chiste más amargo.
These same neighbors are about to learn an expensive lesson in Economics 101.
What’s Actually Happening: Tariffs 101
For readers who haven’t followed the latest developments, here’s what’s happening: President Trump has implemented a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico (along with Canada and other countries, but I’m focusing on our southern neighbor today). This means that when products cross the border into the United States, importers must pay an additional 25% tax to the U.S. government.
Who ultimately pays this tax? Not Mexico, despite what was claimed. Not even the importers, not really. They just pass that cost on to distributors, who then pass it on to retailers, who—you guessed it—pass it straight to us, the consumers.
Target’s CEO has already warned that prices for fresh produce will rise “within days”—not weeks or months—but DAYS. When corporate America tells you to brace for impact, you know the storm will be severe.
Winter’s Dependence: Why Mexican Produce Matters Now
There’s a reason this timing is particularly painful. If you live anywhere north of the Sun Belt, look outside your window. What do you see? Snow? Frozen ground? Not exactly ideal growing conditions.
During winter months, the United States becomes heavily dependent on imports for fresh produce, and Mexico is our primary supplier. Here’s what that relationship actually looks like:
Approximately 75% of U.S. fresh vegetable imports come from Mexico
During January through March, Mexican imports dominate our produce aisles
Key winter imports include tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, green beans, and berries
In 2024 alone, the U.S. imported $9 billion in fresh fruits and $8.3 billion in fresh vegetables from Mexico
Mi abuelo trabajaba los campos de Sonora. Ahora los frutos de tierras como la suya enfrentan una barrera invisible pero costosa.
The relationship between our food systems is not new – it’s ancient. Indigenous trade routes crossed these lands for millennia before any border existed. The movement of foods, seeds, and agricultural knowledge doesn’t recognize the artificial boundaries drawn by colonizers.
Yet here we are, watching as policy decisions ignore this reality.
The Direct Impact: From Farm to Table to Empty Wallet
So, what does a 25% tariff actually mean for your grocery bill? Let’s break it down:
Immediate Price Increases: That bunch of cilantro that cost $1.29 last week might cost $1.60 tomorrow. A $3 avocado could jump to $3.75. These may seem like small increases, but they compound across your entire grocery cart.
Reduced Availability: Some importers may decide certain products aren’t worth bringing across the border if profit margins shrink. This means less selection at the store.
Quality Concerns: To maintain price points, some suppliers might switch to lower-quality produce that can be sold at the same pre-tariff price point.
Ripple Effects: When fresh produce prices rise, so do restaurant costs, processed food costs, and school lunch program expenses.
For families already struggling with inflation, these increases aren’t just inconvenient—they’re devastating. The single mother choosing between fresh vegetables and paying the electric bill. The elderly couple on fixed income watching their grocery budget buy less each week. The children whose nutritional needs take a backseat to financial reality.
The Broader Economic Warfare
Make no mistake: these tariffs aren’t just about economics—they’re about power. They’re about creating economic hardship on both sides of the border to justify increasingly harsh policies against migrants and asylum seekers.
When Mexican agricultural workers lose their livelihoods because American demand drops, where do you think they’ll turn? Migration isn’t a choice people make lightly—it’s often the last resort when economic opportunities disappear.
Es un círculo vicioso diseñado para crear más sufrimiento y luego usarlo como justificación para políticas aún más crueles.
The cruel irony: the same administration implementing these tariffs claims to want to reduce migration from Mexico and Central America. Yet their policies actively destabilize the very economies that keep people rooted in their home communities.
The Colonial Legacy Continues
There’s something particularly sinister about tariffs targeting foods central to Indigenous and Mexican diets. When prices rise for avocados, tomatoes, chiles, and corn products, the impact falls disproportionately on communities that incorporate these foods not just as sustenance but as cultural patrimony.
The colonization of our lands continues through the colonization of our food systems. What was once taken by the sword is now regulated by tariff codes and trade agreements. The weapons have changed, but the impact on Indigenous communities remains devastating.
For those of us navigating these worlds—Indigenous identity in a colonized land—watching these policies unfold feels like witnessing history repeat itself with new characters but the same storyline.
The Media Narrative: What’s Missing
Mainstream coverage of these tariffs often focuses narrowly on macroeconomic impacts or political strategy. What’s absent is the human experience—the everyday effects felt on both sides of the border.
Where are the interviews with the jornaleros whose wages will be cut when export demand drops? Where are the stories from American families already choosing between heating their homes and feeding their children nutritious meals?
What’s also missing is historical context. These tariffs don’t operate in isolation—they’re part of a long history of economic policies that use the border for political gain, no matter the human cost.
Resistance Is Fertile: Finding Hope and Taking Action
Despite the grim reality of these policies, I refuse to end without hope. Our communities have survived centuries of economic warfare, and we’ll survive this too.
Here’s what gives me hope:
Community-based agriculture: All across the borderlands, people are reclaiming ancestral growing practices and establishing local food systems less vulnerable to political whims
Mutual aid networks: When government policies fail us, we turn to each other
Cross-border solidarity: Relationships between farmers, workers, and consumers on both sides of the border are often stronger than the policies trying to divide us
Growing awareness: More people are understanding the connections between food justice, immigration policy, and Indigenous rights
And here’s what you can do:
Support local farmers and food producers who are working outside the industrial agriculture system
Join or create community gardens that increase local food security
Build relationships with food producers across borders through fair trade initiatives
Educate yourself and others about the real impacts of trade policies on human lives
Pressure elected officials to consider the human cost of economic decisions
Share your food and resources with neighbors who are struggling
La resistencia se parece a las semillas – pequeña pero poderosa, paciente pero imparable.
Remember that long before there were borders, there were trade routes. Long before there were tariffs, there was community reciprocity. The systems trying to separate us are new; our connections to each other and to this land are ancient.
The path forward isn’t just about fighting against bad policies – it’s about building alternatives that reconnect us to our food, our land, and each other. Resistance looks like tomato plants growing through concrete. It looks like sharing harvest across fences. It looks like remembering that these borders are new, but our connections to this land are ancient.
What will you plant today?
What do you think about these tariffs? Have they already affected your grocery bill? How are you adapting to rising food costs in your community? Leave a comment below – I’d especially like to hear if you’ve found creative ways to access fresh produce during these challenging times.
