Author Archives: Shui Mauser

Climate Change and Mexico’s Beer Industry

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/americas/mexico-beer-climate.html

This article details the effect of the heavy droughts in northern Mexico on the country’s beer industry which has become a target for climate activists in Mexico. Mexico’s beer industry largely operates in the drought-prone northern regions of Mexico where it can capitalize on its proximity to the United States. In fact, Mexico is the top global exporter of beer. At the same time, a quarter of Mexico’s states have experienced moderate to extreme drought and more than half of its municipalities are experiencing water shortages. As a result, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has expressed a plan to move the majority of the beer industry’s operators to southern regions where water is more abundant. As water shortages have worsened, cities have begun to pressure private companies to cede some of their water allotments to the city, while activists argue that federally granted water permits to industrial users have not adequately accounted for local needs, such as water access for households. Furthermore, a challenge to moving the industry south is a lack of infrastructure and railroad transportation. This article raises such questions as how the government of Mexico will continue to respond to water shortages, how this will affect various industries, such as the beer industry, and how people will react as climate change worsens. It connects to our course as it exemplifies the significant impact climate change can have on a country and the varying and interrelated responses, including activism, a heightened awareness, and rethinking development, that arises in response to such a challenge.

9/5 Blog Post — The World in 1900: Jaffa

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In Monday’s class on the 5th, we covered some common fallacies in thinking about history, such as teleology. We then covered an overview of the key forces and trends of the 1900s, after which Professor Friedman went in depth on the city of Jaffa and its surrounding influences.

Jaffa was a small port city, which became a focal point of change in the 1900s. The city was a point of contact between the European Christendom and the Ottoman Empire. During this time, a weakened Ottoman Empire was attempting reform in order to remain competent with Europe. This reform included the transformation of land from communal to private use that resulted in peasants losing land to become tenant farms. The Ottoman Empire also signed an agreement with 5 European states that allowed these nations to do trade within the Ottoman Empire without being subject to Ottoman laws. Land became commonly used to produce cash crops for export to Europe, and the land of Jaffa was no exception with it being used to produce Jaffa oranges. This trade with Europe was expedited by the invention of the steamship which made travel across the Mediterranean easier. The steamship also bolstered another significant influence on Jaffa which was the draw of tourism and religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem that caused the land outside Jaffa to be established as a Jewish agricultural community. Ultimately, by studying the city of Jaffa, we can better contextualize and understand the forces of change that were occuring more broadly between Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the 1900s.