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Guatemalan farms shift to palm oil, fueling family migration
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS JANUARY 6, 2019 / 12:05 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Guatemalan farms shift to palm oil, fueling family migration
Sofia Menchu
6 MIN READ
RAXRUHA, Guatemala (Reuters) - In the poor, hot region of Guatemala that was home to a seven-year-old migrant girl before she died in U.S. border custody last month, palm oil cultivation is taking over from subsistence farming, adding to pressure on people to leave.
Many villagers around the municipality of Raxruha have sold land to palm oil producers, residents and local officials say, helping to make Guatemala one of the world’s biggest exporters of the versatile product in the space of just a few years.
Supporters of the industry say it has created jobs and investment in an area where poverty and violence have long been the main drivers of migration.
But critics say farmers have given up land that long fed them, with many then entering a state of co-dependency with palm oil companies that have become major employers, but do not pay well enough to stop people migrating.
-snip-
Guatemalan farms shift to palm oil, fueling family migration
Sofia Menchu
6 MIN READ
RAXRUHA, Guatemala (Reuters) - In the poor, hot region of Guatemala that was home to a seven-year-old migrant girl before she died in U.S. border custody last month, palm oil cultivation is taking over from subsistence farming, adding to pressure on people to leave.
Many villagers around the municipality of Raxruha have sold land to palm oil producers, residents and local officials say, helping to make Guatemala one of the world’s biggest exporters of the versatile product in the space of just a few years.
Supporters of the industry say it has created jobs and investment in an area where poverty and violence have long been the main drivers of migration.
But critics say farmers have given up land that long fed them, with many then entering a state of co-dependency with palm oil companies that have become major employers, but do not pay well enough to stop people migrating.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-border-guatemala/guatemalan-farms-shift-to-palm-oil-fueling-family-migration-idUSKCN1P00IU
