My favorite breakfast is granola, yogurt and blueberries. I do love my blueberries, and the grocery stores have them almost all the time. It’s fun to read the labels and see where they come from.

 In August we get delicious locally grown Massachusetts blueberries in the store. But blueberry season is short here, so where do the blueberries come from the rest of the year? Well in September the source of the blueberries moves up through Vermont and then into Canada as the growing season moves north.

Before August, you can watch blueberry season approach from the south as it moves up the coast. In June we’re getting blueberries from New Jersey. Before that the Carolinas, Florida and initially Mexico which leads off the North American blueberry season.

And over the winter? It’s amazing as we can see the same thing happen. There are blueberries in the grocery stores that are grown in South America, where it’s summer during our winter. The growing season moves down the South American coast, starting in Peru and winding up in Chile.

I enjoy tracking the seasons reading the labels on blueberries.

I just bought the first of the spring blueberries at my local grocery store. They were imported from Mexico by Driscoll’s Inc., a major distributor of berries in our stores. So, they will be tariffed.

Because Driscoll’s will have to pay the new tariffs on those imports, Mexico won’t bear any added cost.

Driscoll’s will then write a check to the United States Treasury to cover the tariffs, and then factor that cost into the price they charge for the blueberries. So there is no added cost to Driscoll’s, which means I’m the one who will bear the financial cost of the tariffs on my April blueberries from Mexico. But the tariffs, I’m told, are good because they will bring jobs and industries back to the United States. OK. How will that work?

If I agree to pay the higher price for my blueberries, then there is no harm to Mexico, and no incentive for Driscoll’s to do anything different. There is certainly no incentive for the government to do anything because the added tariff is a huge financial windfall for the U.S. Treasury. The higher the tariff, the higher the government windfall.

So where will the pressure to move the blueberry industry to the United States come from? It will come from those living closer to the edge on their grocery bills. They are the ones who will forego the pleasure of April blueberries because of the added cost. It’s their sacrifices that will put pressure on Driscoll’s as Driscoll’s sells fewer berries.

It’s that pressure from the working classes, not purchasing the tariffed blueberries that, theoretically, will motivate Driscoll’s to find a way to move the spring blueberry growing season up from Mexico to the United States. And to move the fall blueberry growing season down from Canada to the United States. And the winter season up from South America. By moving the growing seasons, we can have USA-grown blueberries all year round!

Oh wait, is that absurd? Well if the tariffs can’t move the blueberry growing seasons here, then what good are they? Oh, right, they raise money for the U.S. Treasury outside of the normal tax system.

And where does the money come from? U.S. consumers willing to pay more for out-of-season blueberries. Who else is affected by the tariff? Those who go without blueberries in the spring. What other impact will that have? Driscoll’s revenues will go down, and Mexico’s economy will take a hit as well.

Misery all around, but, the U.S. government will raise more non-tax money from its citizens, and then be able to lower taxes on those citizens. Brilliant.

Dennis Merritt lives in Shelburne Falls.