Hightower Lowdown

Guacamole, of course, is the simple—and simply delicious—dish made by mashing the pulp of a fresh avocado, then spicing it with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. In the New World Order, however, nothing so tasty and uncomplicated can be allowed to stand in the way of global profiteering.

So along comes the food processing conglomerate, J.R. Simplot Co., taking advantage of NAFTA to move U.S. guacamole-making to Mexico, paying poverty-level wages there to mass-produce what amounts to industrialized green glop, then shipping the guacamole paste back here to Taco Bell, T.G.I. Friday's, Bennigan's, Chili's, and other restaurant chains.

In a report on the Simplot guacamole factory in Morelia, Mexico, the Wall Street Journal notes that wages start at $48 a week—a level that's well below the Mexican minimum wage. But paying poverty wages is not the only advantage Taco Bell and the rest get: "By outsourcing, vendors also cut down on the workers compensation they pay for injuries," the Journal reports. Not because there are fewer workers injured in Mexico, but because the companies don't have to pay for the injuries there. It's a corporate savings paid in workers' blood.

None of this means that the restaurants lower the price of your guacamole one dime. Indeed, some try to fool you—T.G.I. Friday's and Chili's add chunks of avocado to the green paste, giving their guacamole a made-on-site look. But even the chunks come frozen from a Mexican factory.