The Politics of Produce · Episode 15 of 17 · 25 min
The Three Sisters vs. the Trade War: Squash
Even the humble squash carries the same fight as sugar or cotton. One of the oldest crops in the Americas and part of the Indigenous Three Sisters, a food-sovereignty model later displaced by monoculture, it is now a USMCA trade-war flashpoint as Southeastern growers lobby for tariffs on Mexican imports.
Where it happens
- Guila Naquitz cave, Oaxaca, Mexicoearliest direct evidence of squash domestication
- Georgia, United States+1 more episodeSoutheastern squash and cucumber growing state hit by imports
- Sinaloa, Mexico+1 more episodesource of most U.S. winter squash and cucumber imports
Timeline
- c. 8,000-10,000 years agosquash domesticated in Mexico, before maize and beans
- By c. 1070 CEthe full Three Sisters complex is in place in North America
- 1994NAFTA takes effect
- 2020USMCA replaces NAFTA
- March 2026bipartisan letter urges seasonal tariff-rate quotas on produce
Still debated
Growers say targeted seasonal protection keeps Southeastern farms alive, while economists say its main effect is higher retail prices. Whether Mexican imports complement or displace U.S. growers is read differently from the same data.