#291 – The Expat Files: Navigating Organic Foods, Health Stores, and Pest Control in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America the show that tells you just what it's like to live Work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started I just have to mention that I'm getting quite a nice little list coming along of people who are really interested in Coming to my next expat wisdom seminar down in Latin America, which I believe is gonna be in January So again, if you're interested just pop me an email at the expat files at gmail.com or Johnny at expat wisdom calm

[00:52] Again, that's only if you're seriously interested in attending And again, I promise you won't be disappointed and you'll make some fabulous connections down here, too So again, pop me an email at the expat files at gmail.com or Johnny at expat wisdom calm And I'll keep you on my personal mailing list Okay, I've said about that and by the way that little promo only took 36 seconds That's for all of you guys out there who might be thinking I'm spending way too much time promoting these seminars Hey, what am I gonna do people keep asking so I gotta tell them right? Anyway, we've got 26 and a quarter minutes left So let's get on with it now GMOs and organic foods and Natural methods of food production are on the minds of quite a large percentage of us expats and expat wannabes And of course expat guanabes and you know, I do get a lot of emails from people saying Johnny

[01:41] How do I know for sure that the food that I get at those big supermarkets or at those gigantic? chaotic central markets aren't completely sprayed down with chemicals and pesticides and hormones and petroleum based fertilizers because Obviously south of the border things are a lot more lax up in the states You actually have to abide by truth in advertising laws Kind of since by now we all know the truth about places like Whole Foods and they're occasionally not so honest claims about Certain products of theirs being truly organic and natural. Oh, well, I guess even up in the states It's buyer beware and there's nothing wrong with that really which means don't put your faith and trust in anything Anyone says that means business government or even yours truly you're always better off doing a little investigation on your own

[02:28] And with the internet, it's so easy these days I mean really college kids today wouldn't have any idea how to write a term paper without the internet and baby boomers like me And some of you guys and gals out there We actually had to go to the library and do our research or pay a nerd or your college roommate to write your term Papers up for you back then there was a lot of that going on Remember and in the interest of full disclosure here back then I made a nice little piece of change myself Writing term papers for dumbbells with athletic scholarships, you know that old stereotype and guess what? It was pretty much true and for me that was easy money and if you're broke, well you make do right? But let's get back to what really goes on behind the scenes with the food and produce down here in Latin America Down here you can say basically anything you want about your product and put it on the label

[03:17] Since no one's really watching or testing and yes They're always as a government bureau and a building and a staff and a parking lot and executives and secretaries Etc that are supposed to be in charge of monitoring such things yet They sit on their dead asses just feeding at the government trough 24-7 like every other government department down here Does that sound familiar back in Chicago? We used to call make work government jobs like that Sack jobs. Have you heard of that term? Maybe it's just a Chicagoism. I don't know so bottom line Can you believe anything it says on labels down here or anything the farmers or the produce sellers in the market tell you again? It's buyer beware, but it's not tough to figure out But you do have to keep your eyes open Whereas these days up in the states you have to keep your eyes open to you only really know of a products purely organic

[04:07] up in Minneapolis or Cleveland by making sure that it says certified organic on the label or by trusting the farmers and the Sellers in a farmers market or food co-op who are certified organic growers themselves Even up north some of it's still based on trust and of course word of mouth So anyway, what's the real story on that down here in Latin America? Well, first of all You're not gonna see certified organic labels on anything unless you go to one of these upscale neighborhoods where they have their tiny versions of health food stores and those copies I've seen lately in high-end neighborhoods of Something like Whole Foods and not that Whole Foods itself is the be all and end all it's not I'm just mentioning that because like I've said before when something goes great guns up in the first world

[04:52] Latins always seem to try to copy it in their half-ass sort of way some years later and when it catches on and starts making Money down here. There's always some astute gringo expat who notices that it is half ass Then they open a store take care of all the details and become the competition that beats the pants off the copycats in a hurry but you know that story already now don't you and Even so when you buy what you think is organic food in those stores Whether the copycat versions owned by Latins or gringos that come down here and actually do it upright They will carry certified organic products imported from up in the States. So you'll know that stuff is really organic But here's the thing You just won't find gringos owning and operating health food stores not off the tourist trail

[05:37] You won't but in those high-volume tourist areas like Panama and Costa Rica where there are plenty of gringos who insist on eating Organic whether they're actually into health or it's the trendy thing to do who knows? Anyway on the tourist trail you'll find the occasional small health food store owned by a gringos or expats That's a carbon copy of what you'd see up in the first world and you'll see that it's just stocked with all kinds of local organic herbs and spices and fruits and vegetables that you've never even seen before and Like I said when you're in these stores whether they're owned by gringos or locals They will stock a lot of certified organic products coming from the first world So when they've got the certified organic label, they're gonna be the real McCoy But remember anything you get that's imported from the first world will have a big premium on it

[06:24] So don't be surprised if you pay half again more or even double what you pay for Organic peanut or almond butter up in the States and that's just a common example However down here, you could buy 10 or 20 different kinds of nuts Locally grown and you can find them in huge sacks in those big central markets and make your own peanut or cashew or almond Or macadamia butter in your little kuzin art food processor For a quarter or less of what you'd pay for the imported stuff in the health food store down here now Let me mention that you will have your choice of a lot of little health food stores Some of them just tiny little kiosks in rundown middle-class shopping malls selling all kinds of natural stuff herbs and spices Local indigenous remedies etc and a lot of plants and herbs and spices and remedies you never heard of I certainly haven't stuff

[07:12] You'll never find it that ripoff joint GNC, which also has landed hundreds If not thousands of stores down here And you'll find one in almost every central Plaza practically every medium and large-sized mall in Latin America has one of these ripoff joints And of course, you're gonna pay outrageous prices for that stuff And I noticed walking into one of these GNC's the other day that most of the store is now devoted to Bodybuilding powders and energy stuff for weight lifters and iron pumpers people who get their health advice From some steroid infused fitness trainer at the local gym And by the way in the last couple years I've noticed that all the grocery store magazine racks have copies of men's health magazine in Spanish down here with a buff Gringo guy always on the cover Yep

[07:58] Go figure young male upper middle-class Latins just snap that stuff up because they've got that gringo wannabe disease So bad that they can't get enough of anything gringo including men's health magazine in Spanish And I don't know if you've ever picked up that magazine, but GNC Advertises quite heavily in it anyway regarding GNC stores down here when you walk into one of these you'll notice About one quarter or less of the GNC store devoted to actual vitamins and supplements What's up with that the rest is all protein powders and muscle building formulas and stuff not to mention? What's up with the Latin said it can afford to buy that high-priced crap and at first you know I didn't get it Why all these little GNC store outlets? I mean there must be 25 or more of them in the city of San Pedro Sula Honduras alone, and you've probably never even heard of that town

[08:45] But if you think on it a bit it's not hard to figure out why their business plan really works first of all They got the gringo advantage because it's a first world store It looks like it, and they're in virtually all medium and high-end shopping centers Secondly its marketing ads are all over cable TV coming down from the states So that's a lot of free advertising not to mention the only widely circulated Fitness magazine is men's health in Spanish And you can't miss the GNC ads when you flip through that thing and thirdly shopping center rent down here is dirt cheap even in High-end malls it's often a buck or less a square foot per month and personally I've never seen a GNC store in a mall that had over 500 square feet and most GNC's I've seen down here have only two Or three hundred square feet which means two or three hundred dollars a month or less for rent

[09:31] I mean really what are rents going for in the states for medium high-end mall space well I'll tell you the average monthly rent for mall space in the United States right now is $3.50 a square foot per month And that's in an average middle-class strip mall if you're looking at a high-end mall in the states It could be ten or twenty bucks a square foot and like I said in medium and high-end malls in Latin America You're gonna pay not more than a buck a square foot It's just mind-boggling how cheap you can get rents for down here now Of course if you're looking to rent in a high-end tourist area you could pay three to five bucks a square foot down here, too But like I said before if you really want to be on the tourist trail you might as well stay back in the states Because then you're looking at first-world prices and a lot of gringo competition Which is what you don't want, but even on the tourist trail a store like GNC is a special case

[10:23] So how do their stores on the tourist trail make money? Well, there are plenty of clueless gringos around who can afford to pay those prices not to mention They've got no mass marketing competition down here They're kind of the only big transnational health food store chain That's got any Latin American presence at all and the topper is they're only paying their help about 300 bucks a month So if they've only got two employees for example, and they're rented 300 a month pretty much their entire overhead except maybe their electric bill could be less than a thousand bucks a month and for example if you go into a GNC and you buy a bottle of a hundred milligram coq10 with 120 capsules in it you'll end up paying 40 or 50 bucks for that now it may be cheaper in the states But that's the price down here whereas if you shopped around on the internet you could get the equivalent or better for like

[11:11] 15 or 20 bucks a bottle and Guaranteed the actual cost for GNC and the volume they buy things at is under 5 bucks a bottle in fact I know some people in the wholesale vitamin and supplement business and they'll vouch for that So you can bet they're working on at least a thousand percent margin What a markup so figure it like this suppose you have one of those little 300 square foot GNC stores down here in Latin America off the tourist trail If your overhead is a thousand bucks a month and you make 35 bucks profit off of each bottle of coq10 you sell That means if you tell just one bottle a day after 28 days you cover your entire monthly overhead Rent labor and utilities so there I rest my case and that's why it down here First world franchise is almost never fail even when the numbers look really screwy by first world standards and don't seem to jive at all

[12:02] Bottom line you have to know about all the little social and economic things we talk about here on the expat files to help you Make a decision whether you want to bring a franchise down or go with your own independent business idea once you get down here Either way, it's a whole different world and you have to get your boots on the ground here for a while Before making a decision like that which is why I've been sponsoring those expat wisdom seminars And I'm happy to report that a good percentage of the attendees are putting their business ideas to work right now So what about buying food and produce down here at the big markets and the grocery stores? Are they organic? Are they loaded with pesticides? Is it hit-and-miss? What's up with that? Well, obviously if you look at the apples for example that are coming from Chile You know they seem to supply the world with apples these days

[12:48] They not only export to the first world they export to all other Latin American countries, too But only to the medium and high-end grocery stores You won't find their products in the big chaotic local central markets because produce there comes in daily from the local farmers My point here is if you're in Latin America, and you're buying produce That's been shipped in from another Latin American country believe it or not You will know that because they'll have tiny little stickers on them That's a product of Chile or Argentina whatever and by the way when you're at a big Latin American grocery store or supermarket It seems almost all the extra food that is imported comes from two countries Argentina and Chile and just occasionally Mexico, and that's because nearly every Latin American country is Self-sufficient in produce in fact every country has so much variety and sheer volume

[13:36] That tons and tons of it goes to waste every single day and I can vouch for that because me and so many other Expat gringos down here have varieties of fruit trees and some even have vegetable gardens on their properties, too And I can honestly tell you in my case about three-quarters of all the fruit that my trees produce hits the ground and gets wasted Just rots there even though I give my cleaning lady and gardener all they can carry in fact sometimes when you're driving through the boonies You'll see a mango or an avocado tree with hundreds and hundreds of specimens on it with 50 or 60 of them on the ground rotting So then why do Latin American countries need to import fruit from Argentina and Chile well It's like this when you're in a manago in Nicaragua market And you see those nice beautiful green or red apples coming from Chile

[14:23] You'll also notice in that store there will be some oblong and imperfect looking apples to add a third to a half less than the Imported apples from Chile and those funky looking apples that taste just as good and are just as good for you Almost always tastes better because they're local and so much fresher They were picked two days ago not two weeks ago and didn't come from a thousand or two thousand miles away Anyway, it can be explained like this Upscale Latins are becoming victims of the same gringo disease that we up north have been afflicted with for some decades Lately in just the past few years they want their vegetables to look nice symmetrical shiny and pretty So if you want good looking apples you can buy the ones imported from Argentina or Chile and if you just want good tasting apples you buy the local ones and have change left over from your peso or

[15:11] Change from your boulevard or lampita or whatever So think of it like this if you're buying any fresh produce Imported like apples from Chile or Argentina you can be sure especially if they're absolutely perfect looking that they've been sprayed Intended to with all kinds of chemicals along the way just to make sure that they're beautiful looking because that perfect look is the only Real marketing advantage they have because you can get the local Uglier ones so much cheaper and that means when you go to those big central markets where everything is so cheap You'll see some really twisted contorted modeled and sometimes really ugly looking fruit and vegetables there But don't let that scare you you'll get over it, but they're absolutely fresh and have a terrific taste nothing like those waxy cardboard Tasting but shiny and pretty fruits you get up in the stores up in Detroit. Wait a minute. Is there still a Detroit and

[16:00] Anyway down here in Latin America if you do buy local produce at those big markets or even in the grocery store you still might see a little dusting on them like for example on those gigantic papayas and you got to know that some kind of Insecticide so you really can't get away from it a hundred percent but I'll tell you it's rare that local farmers go out of their way to do that kind of stuff because it's just too expensive and If they do get any chemical help It's the absolute minimum they can get away with and of course you've all heard the rumors that down in Latin America and in the rest of the third world They're using all kinds of banned pesticides and herbicides that would never be allowed up in the first world now Honestly in my 20-something years down here. I haven't seen one two-headed baby nor have I seen any Cerebrally stunted pinheads except in government, but that's a prerequisite for the job just like it is up in the States

[16:52] Anyway, here's the real story on that for example in the little country of El Salvador in the last few years their parliament has passed a law prohibiting 53 agrochemicals from being used in the country. That's 53 I didn't even know there were 53 dangerous agrochemicals I thought there were only a handful like Roundup DDT malathion in 24d So the good news is all the countries in Latin America have passed such laws Prohibiting a large percentage of what was formerly available out there since over the years Farmers and their kids have been exposed to a lot of bad chemicals and there's been enough outcry that tough Restrictions have been adopted, but you might say this is Latin America

[17:37] So there's no enforcement so they're probably using them anyway. Well, I was told by a small farmer Yes, both he and his farm are small He's a coffee farmer by the way, and he does admit to using certain pesticides himself No, not on himself, but on his coffee plants Hmm. He said when they pass laws like that the farmers use up the available stock That's in the country and the prohibited agrochemicals are no longer permitted to be made or imported So eventually they just completely disappear from the shelves of the farm supply stores So yes, there is some pesticide spraying going on But only in a big way where food exports are huge business like with chili in Argentina so basically when you're in the market and you're buying local you can be pretty sure that very little petroleum based fertilizer and

[18:27] Pesticides have been used but like I said a crop like papaya for example or pears if they don't give them a dusting once In a while the birds will come in mercilessly peck holes in them. I've seen it for myself right outside my own window So even if the vast majority of local produce down here isn't tainted at all You never really know what is and that's why I have my own particular system of washing and sanitizing fruits and vegetables myself And you know it takes very little time because I'm naturally lazy And I made sure that it turned out that way and I bet whatever you do to clean your fruits and vegetables up north mine Are cleaner and more sanitary than yours and here's how I suggest you do it so pay attention But first a word of warning now remember like I've said many times before When you're at a market or on the street and someone tries to sell you some fruits or vegetables

[19:16] They'll often try to give you a sample Please don't eat it and if you take it you can't save it for later Because the guys are gonna expect you to eat it right there So the best thing is to just politely refuse and the other thing you have to remember is that people who pick the fruits and Vegetables here are always Relieving themselves in the fields where the fruit and vegetables grow and remember to a lot of vegetables lie close to the ground So you can imagine in the rainy season when a field floods out for an hour or two What those fruits and vegetables come in contact with because I'm not just talking about number one here Enough said about that now it took me a lot of years to figure out quick and easy ways to clean my fruits and vegetables And I'm talking about the ones that I buy in the store and the markets because the ones that are growing on my own property

[20:02] Well, I just usually run out to the trees and pick that stuff myself So I know where it's coming from and I still give it a cleaning because well You think birds care where they dump number one or two? And that was a trick question because for them one and two are the same So anyway, I run all my fruits through the same cleaning process now first things first You will notice that when you go to any Latin American grocery store in the produce aisle There'll be a stand that sells little plastic bottles of some kind of Disinfectant solution that you buy to clean and disinfect your fruits and vegetables when you get them home Well forget about that stuff. You don't have to use it. In fact I don't think I've ever seen anyone buy that stuff in the store. So it can't be a big seller Anyway, all you really need to have at home is your water purifier

[20:47] Some chlorine bleach and a supply of those little green scotch scouring pads You know, they look kind of like very very coarse sandpaper made out of a woven green plastic stuff Anyway down here, they're called pastes And of course, they have the scotch brand and they have the local brands too that are about two-thirds cheaper So buy those then you take your scissors and you cut those things into little two by two inch squares And of course, you'll use those things to clean your dishes in your sink, too And I always throw mine away after about two or three days or any time it shows any sign of being clogged with nasty stuff That's accumulated while you're cleaning your plates forks and knives or pots and pans And the biggest mistake people make here is keeping those things around too long You've just got to throw away the one you're using after a couple of days and grab a new one

[21:35] And believe me those things are so cheap the local brands that is For a buck you could cut up about 10 or 15 of those little squares and that'll last you a month or more So anyway, here's how I clean fruit and veggies Oh, and by the way, I do have a dishwasher But since I live alone and it takes me about a week to fill the thing up I rarely use it. Instead. I just clean my dishes as I go Which like I said in a previous show I always recommend you do never never leave dirty dishes in the sink or let them pile up Always get in the habit of doing them right after you eat. Otherwise, it's an open invitation for the cucarachas And you know what? I haven't seen a cucaracha around my house for over two years And if you listen to that show I did about three quarters of a year ago on keeping your house and kitchen Completely free from cucaraches. I'm here to report that. I still haven't seen a single

[22:23] Cucaracha since then either and you know what when I have company over I can always tell Who has a cucaracha problem in their house by the way, they eat Put their stuff in the garbage and what they do with their dishes The thing is you just have to have a few simple rules and a little discipline and you know what? I know a lot of gringos and expats that don't have a cucaracha problem at all But every single latin I know has learned to live with them In fact, i've actually seen cucarachas running around in some cars of some of my latin friends And that's because so many of them use the floor in the back seat as a garbage bin for their junk food and mcdonald's wrappers Well, that might be okay up in chicago and montreal, but down here in the tropics big mistake Oh and one last thing about cucarachas if you have a dishwasher and don't run it at least every other day

[23:11] Cucarachas will find their way in there and feast on that dirty dinnerware. That's out of sight not a mind I mean face it. It's dark. It's humid the perfect setup for Cucarachas, there's almost no way around that because there are so many vents and ports inside of a dishwasher The cucarachas will find a way. So how do you handle that? Well, I always recommend that when you run your dishwasher Take a half a cap full of chlorine bleach and throw it in the bottom of the dishwasher Be sure you do it every time you run it and that will really keep them at bay And that half cap full of bleach is not enough to do any damage to the mechanism or the plumbing in your dishwasher And it will completely sterilize all your dishes nicely and it won't stain streak or damage your wedge wood or waterford crystal either Yeah, and if you bring your wedge wood down here, don't forget to ship the steinway, too

[24:00] Anyway to clean your fruits and vegetables you take a big plastic dish that holds about two gallons of water And you place a big colander in it now Sometimes you can buy those two things as a pair a matching plastic bowl and a colander that fits in it You stick that in your sink and let's say you're cleaning tomatoes with the colander in the plastic bowl. You'll load the colander up Till about half full with your tomatoes then fill the whole thing up with regular tap water That's not your pure filtered water yet. That's regular tap water Till the water gets at least an inch above the top of the tomatoes Then you throw in about a quarter cap full or less of chlorine bleach and you gently agitate those tomatoes in the water for about

[24:45] A minute then you let it sit there for about five minutes Then you agitate those tomatoes again for a half a minute or so Then lift the colander out with the tomatoes in it and look down at the water in the plastic bowl and you'll see it's pretty nasty Then you throw that water out and stick the colander with the tomatoes back into the bowl and fill it up again With tap water not pure water yet Then you agitate those tomatoes again for another 30 seconds or less No chlorine bleach this time then lift the colander out again with tomatoes throw that water out And now you fill it up with pure filtered water from your water purifier Till the water is about an inch higher than the tomatoes again You agitate that for 10 or 15 seconds lift the colander out and your tomatoes are nice and clean And then I place a fresh towel on the countertop and lay the tomatoes out to dry

[25:34] Or you can hand dry them one by one if you're in a hurry And that's how I clean grapes and oranges and apples and pears But with grapes after the chlorine bit and i've done the first rinse I take them all off their stems and do the rest of the cleaning as individual grapes floating in the water And I emphasize again, you should see how dirty the water is after that first rinse And believe me after that you'll never want to eat any fruit or vegetable you see on the street again without washing it thoroughly And if you're washing any delicate fruit like strawberries or raspberries You should use just a drop or two of chlorine not a quarter capful Because they seem to deteriorate quite fast if you use any more chlorine than a few drops And when you agitate do it very gently And by the way when I do strawberries I cut the green tops off with a knife before I go through the cleaning process and when i'm done cleaning

[26:25] I freeze the strawberries and raspberries for smoothies later And by the way, you'll see the dirtiest rinse water by far with strawberries In fact after you see the first rinse water you might quit eating strawberries for good after that Now there are some fruits that are very hard to clean like pineapple It's almost impossible to clean the outside. I just fill up a plastic bowl with pure filtered water Cut the slices off the pineapple toss them in the water and agitate them a bit and it seems to work fine No chlorine there because if you use it you'll taste it and that's no good And when you're talking about cooking rice or any kind of dried grain or seed I always throw the rice for example in the stainless steel cooking pan i'm going to use fill it almost to the top with pure filtered water Then agitate the rice with my fingers and you'll see the water is really cloudy then dump off that water

[27:14] Then fill the pan to the proper cooking level and you're set And when you're talking about apples and pears and fruits where you eat the skin Make sure to throw a little liquid soap on that scotch scouring pad and do a nice job scrubbing the skin Then give it another pure water rinse, then you're all set You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me the expat files at gmail.com And don't forget to check out expatwisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on latin america See you next time. Nos vemos