The Transnational State and Empire: U.S. Certification in the Mexican Mango and Persian Lime Industries

The US-Mexico Mango and Lime export industries illustrate the impact of US food certification on rural Mexican society and in the structure of production, packing, and transport of export fruit for the US Market. US Certification is a hemispheric process that does not take regional or local diversity in production and distribution into account. Mango producers and distributors throughout the Republic have incorporated the USDA and FDA protocol, while in Lime production areas of Veracruz, certification has been met with fear, misunderstanding and staunch resistance. This article outlines the complex change that has occurred in the Mango export system over the last 15 years and compares this with the recent introduction of US certification for limes that threatens a complex regional system of distribution and buying. In addition to the challenge posed to Mexican sovereignty, these cases illustrate unintended consequences of NAFTA and the increased stratification of Mexican Agriculture. I argue that US imperatives need be viewed in a larger pattern of transnational and systemic control that suggests new forms of post-colonialism.