The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Trump Wall; US Companies Move To Mexico; Mexican Companies Move To The US -- May 1, 2016

This is pretty cool. Just the other day I had a post on top ten reasons why the nation should appreciate North Dakota. Now Don sends me this story from today's MSP StarTribune:

FARIBAULT, MINN. – At Faribault Foods’ cannery here, beans rule. Black, pinto, navy, kidney — if it’s a dried bean, Faribault cans it. And the plant will be churning out a lot more beans as it undertakes a $100 million-plus expansion.

The leap forward stems from the 2014 acquisition of Faribault Foods by La Costeña. One of Mexico’s largest canned food companies, La Costeña wants to make a bigger mark in the United States, and it’s using Faribault Foods to pave the way

The Faribault plant employs 319 workers and is the sole U.S. canner of refried beans sold under General Mills’ Old El Paso brand. It also makes K.C. Masterpiece beans and several private-label brands for supermarkets.

And then this, buried deep in the article:

Faribault Foods is in the middle of America’s bean pot as far supply goes. North Dakota is the country’s biggest dried bean producer, and Minnesota is third (with Michigan in between), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“The Red River Valley is the dominant place for dried beans,” Kindseth said.

Wow, it must be hard for the MSPST editors to let that go unedited. Suffice it to say if Minnesota were #1, that would have been the lede. Whatever. 

But again, this supports a recurring theme in the blog. Geographically, the Bakken accounts for a very small footprint in North Dakota.