Among the residents of Dixon, New Mexico, Stanley Crawford has long been known as a gentleman farmer and a thoughtful man of letters.
He’s the author of such books as “A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm” and “Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico,” and teaches creative writing at Colorado College.
Crawford is such a personage in the sleepy village that a stop at the Dixon Cooperative Market for directions to El Bosque Garlic Farm quickly brings the reply, “Follow the bend in the road and make a quick left after the bridge.
But Crawford’s image has shifted in recent years: He has become a lightning rod for controversy. The 82-year-old brought on the change in 2014 when he agreed to file a complaint against Harmoni International Spice, an American company that is owned by Chinese exporter Zhengzhou Harmoni Spice.
Crawford maintains that Harmoni enjoys a unique advantage in the U.S. garlic market because it sells product being “dumped” by its parent at below-market prices without having to pay any anti-dumping duty.
The ensuing years of litigation between Crawford and Harmoni and its allies in California, garlic wholesaler Christopher Ranch and the Fresh Garlic Producers Association, have unleashed vitriol and a complicated legal saga that few could have foreseen. >> READ more at the ABQ Journal
Photos by: Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal
