In Mexicali, the New River is full of bacteria, industrial chemicals, and heavy metals. In addition to poisoning water, corporations deplete it during industrial processes. Border cities are using groundwater at a rate 20 times faster than the aquifers can refill them. In 1989, the multinational Grand Met took over Pillsbury-Green Giant and moved its Watsonville, California plant to Irapuato, Mexico. Hundreds of women averaging 14 years employment lost their jobs.
Many Irapuato citizens are without clean running water.
The water table has dropped by 400 feet. Depletion of groundwater will only exacerbate the process of deforestation. Mexican agricultural production has been shifting from staple crops to beef and other cash and export products. Expanding corporate agriculture has accelerated the destruction of croplands and rain forests. GATT began in 1948.