Leamington, Ontario: Growing Tomatoes in the Era of Free Trade

http://johnwwarnock.blogspot.ca/2016/02/leamington-ontario-growing-tomatoes-in_10.html
Date Written:  2016-02-10
Publisher:  John Warnock
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX18727

Southwestern Ontario is the historic home of Canadian tomato growers. The bulk of the crop goes to processing, and since 1909 the dominant corporation had been H. J. Heinz, a food giant based in Pittsburgh. But in 2013 the Heinz Corporation was bought by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (26%) and 3G Capital (51%), based in Brazil. It was soon announced that they were planning to close their plant in Leamington. The story has been a snapshot of what has happened to the manufacturing industry in Ontario following the "free trade" agreements with the United States.