MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – U.S. importers of fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico say they are beginning to face losses from delays after U.S. quality inspectors pulled out of Mexico fearing escalating drug violence.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture, or ADA, decided last month to stop sending inspectors to northern Sonora state to check fresh produce quality prior to import, citing fears of surging drug murders south of the border.

AMATA, Mexico (Reuters) – Farmers growing marijuana in remote Mexican mountains are adopting techniques pioneered in the United States to produce more potent pot and boost profits from the cash crop that is fueling a deadly drug war.

In the fertile mountain valleys of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico, soldiers this year found 60 acres of covered greenhouses equipped with sophisticated irrigation and fertilization systems growing seemingly endless rows of marijuana plants.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico City, known for its high crime rates and kidnappings, is becoming a safe haven for small businesses fleeing even worse drug violence raging elsewhere in the country, especially near the U.S. border.

But even as the sprawling metropolis of 20 million people escapes the grizzliest drug murders and daytime shootouts, traffickers are moving into the city’s outskirts and threatening to encroach on the capital’s relative calm.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico City, known for its high crime rates and kidnappings, is becoming a safe haven for small businesses fleeing even worse drug violence raging elsewhere in the country, especially near the U.S. border.

But even as the sprawling metropolis of 20 million people escapes the grizzliest drug murders and daytime shootouts, traffickers are moving into the city’s outskirts and threatening to encroach on the capital’s relative calm.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico City, known for its high crime rates and kidnappings, is becoming a safe haven for small businesses fleeing even worse drug violence raging elsewhere in the country, especially near the U.S. border.

But even as the sprawling metropolis of 20 million people escapes the grizzliest drug murders and daytime shootouts, traffickers are moving into the city’s outskirts and threatening to encroach on the capital’s relative calm.

AGUA BENDITA, Mexico (Reuters) – Local landowners collectively running a small lumber yard in the pine forests of central Mexico say they are making profits from logging and cutting carbon emissions at the same time.

Eleven communities share one sawmill in the town of Agua Bendita, processing planks for furniture and construction and earning enough to convince them that saving the forest is better than clear-cutting for agriculture.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s divided Congress is unlikely to pass President Felipe Calderon’s pivotal plans to reform the police and combat money laundering, risking a major setback in the war against violent drug cartels.

The conservative president is under rising pressure from investors, the United States and fearful Mexicans to contain a conflict that has killed more than 31,000 people in the last four years.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Heavy rains and storms this year have left Mexico and Central America with hundreds of millions of dollars in repair bills, a trend officials expect to be a perennial strain on budgets as climate change sets in.

The unusually fierce hurricane season, which brought 19 major storms through the region, left local governments scrambling to find the money to rebuild roads, bridges and homes, forcing them to rethink tax cuts or seek outside aid.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Popular coffee
brand Eight O’Clock Coffee is eyeing alternative origins to buy
its beans as arabica prices soar and output in traditional
producers like Colombia and Central America falls.

The company’s “100 percent Colombian” brand, a big seller
in U.S. stores, was recently rated the best buy for brewed
coffee by U.S. magazine Consumer Reports, but Eight O’Clock has
raised prices as arabica futures KCc2 hover at their highest
levels since 1997.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican drug cartels are sidestepping laws that target the production of methamphetamines by importing new kinds of input chemicals, a blow to U.S. and Mexican efforts to halt the thriving trade.

Innovations in producing the highly addictive drug add new challenges to President Felipe Calderon’s campaign to stem the turf wars that have killed over 10,000 people this year.