Source: NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES MAGAZINE, FALL 2021

Avocado and corn make an unlikely, but highly successful, pair. Turn Mexican avocados into guacamole, and you increase the demand for U.S. corn chips. And with more corn chips, you increase the market for avocados.

In other words, a good year for Mexican avocado growers translates into a good year for U.S. corn chip producers.

As Jose Cisneros, the CALS International Programs director, says, “It doesn’t matter how you look at it—from here to there or from there to here—our economies are linked and we depend on one another.

“It’s a beauty to see how the economy and entrepreneurship can be developed here based on ingredients we don’t grow here—things like the beans used to make coffee and chocolate.”

And, he adds, it’s a beauty to see how NC State’s education, research and Extension programs work in North Carolina and abroad to spur economic growth, improve quality of life and prepare students for careers that span borders.

For the full story, click here.