The Bumpy Road To Global Trade

Mary Ellen Mooney, co-owner of $15 million Mooney Farms, was a woman with a mission. She had joined "Baja 2000," a trade tour to Mexico, with one overriding goal: to sell her sun-dried tomato products up and down the coastline they call the Mexican Riviera.

But there were problems from the start. First, the bus carrying about 20 California entrepreneurs in food-related businesses spent 45 minutes waiting in Tijuana for one of the organizers. As the bus edged southward along the coastal road, the group was dismayed to see the rugged seascape marred by haphazard lean-tos, ancient trailers, and windblown trash. "Is this who we're coming down to sell to?" asked Mooney's friend Pam Pittman, a producer of organic salad dressings, as they passed a lot full of rusty, junked cars. "Mexico hasn't changed as much as they say it has," Mooney replied glumly.