High Taxes And Over-Regulation Killing New Mexico Chile Growers

Taxes and over regulation are killing our jobs.  The New Mexico agriculture industry supports over 23,000 jobs in the state, with cash receipts close to $3 billion annually.  The following blog, "American chile production cools while consumption increases," written by Todd Fitchette, provides one more example of where New Mexico jobs are being lost.

A Conservative Political Blog
American chile production cools while consumption increases

While eating my chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant last week in New Mexico I came across one of those informational brochures on the table that further illustrates the lackluster opinion our elected leaders have of American agriculture and why we’re destined to lose much more than a vital American industry if we don’t put the brakes on fast.

According to the New Mexico Chile Association the New Mexico chile industry is in steep decline thanks to foreign competition that is raising chile peppers cheaper than it costs to grow them here. Sound familiar?

Since the height of New Mexico’s chile production in 1992, when 34,500 acres of chiles were harvested, that acreage has dropped to around 11,000 acres. While China is trying to corner the oleoresin market — oleoresin is a natural plant product — Mexican companies are taking advantage of reduced regulations and cheap labor to steal the US market share of green chili. All this, plus competition from other foreign nations, has led to a dramatic drop in the domestic production of chile peppers.

Why is this important? Because American phytosanitary regulations are why consumers here have such high confidence in American-produced agricultural goods. American agriculture is also why this country remains sovereign, though President Obama is working hard to cede our sovereignty to other nations by selling our debt to nations such as China, but I digress.

Moreover, American-grown chiles have scored better in taste tests, particularly those from the Hatch, NM area, and in restaurant surveys than foreign-grown chiles. Ironically, the consumption of chile peppers in the United States has increased, according to the New Mexico Chile Association, while we continue to decrease our domestic production.

We need to protect our domestic food source from foreign competition through all means necessary. We have very little domestic oil production right now and look where that’s got us! The catastrophe awaiting us if we cede our food production to third-world nations with little to no food safety regulations will literally kill us.