Opinion

Trump can protect California avocado farmers and take a bite out of Mexican cartels, too

Avocado shipments from Mexico surged 32% this year as cartel activity threatens US farmers' viability

By Vince Fong , Andrew Gruel Fox News

Published August 17, 2026 9:00am EDT

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President Donald Trump has made Make America Healthy Again a national priority, with avocados at the center of his administration's new food pyramid. But America cannot promote real, healthy food while allowing the American farmers who grow it to disappear.

That is exactly what is happening to California's roughly 3,000 avocado growers, who are being undercut by a surge of Mexican imports from regions where cartel activity extorts growers, seizes land and controls communities. Trump has committed to making America healthy again, putting American interests first and stopping cartel criminal activity at our border. Prioritizing California's avocado farmers does all three.

California’s avocado growers, many of them small, multigenerational family farms, meet some of the world’s most rigorous labor, environmental and production standards. Yet during their March-through-October harvest season, they face surges of imported fruit from Mexico that disrupt the U.S. market, destroy the market price and threaten their future.

SEC BROOKE ROLLINS: HOW TRUMP IS REVIVING THE FIBER WOVEN INTO........

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