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Building the local food movement in Chiapas, Mexico: rationales, benefits, and limitations

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Abstract

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have become a common response to the socio-ecological injustices generated by the industrialized food system. Using a political ecology framework, this paper evaluates the emergence of an AFN in Chiapas, Mexico. While the Mexican context presents a particular set of challenges, the case study also reveals the strength the alternative food movement derives from a diverse network of actors committed to building a “community economy” that reasserts the multifunctional values of organic agriculture and local commodity chains. Nonetheless, just as the AFN functions as an important livelihood strategy for otherwise disenfranchised producers it simultaneously encounters similar limitations as those observed in other market-driven approaches to sustainable food governance.

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Notes

  1. To protect the anonymity of study participants, all names in this study are pseudonyms.

  2. This field research is one component of my longer engagement with Chiapas since 2001, including 5 years of residence and numerous extended visits for research and collaboration.

  3. In 2013, the TCSC’s organization and governance was transferred entirely to the market vendors.

  4. I use the term “foodscape” to refer to food production, distribution, and consumption practices operating within and around the city of San Cristobal.

  5. One is a family that exports organic mango and chocolate to specialty buyers in Mexico City; the other is a member of an organic milk cooperative.

  6. Thirteen of 25 individuals surveyed report family-based production and sales.

  7. Oportunidades (now known as Prospera) is a conditional cash transfer program that provides cash payments in exchange for regular school attendance, health check-ups, and nutritional support.

  8. Informal interviews in the open-air markets of San Cristobal revealed there are many more organic micro-producers beyond those in the TCSC who could benefit from peer certification and/or participation in an AFN. In a walking survey of one public produce market alone, I counted nearly 80 such vendors. Speaking with some of these “informal” vendors, I found that most sell the surplus from their own subsistence production, most of which is produced without agrochemicals. Some are aware of the TCSC and specifically asked me if I could help them gain admittance to become a TCSC vendor.

Abbreviations

AFN:

Alternative food networks

PC:

Participatory certification

PGS:

Participatory guarantee systems

TCSC:

Tianguis de Comida Sana y Cercana (The marketplace of healthy and local food)

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Acknowledgments

This research was carried out with the thoughtful guidance of Drs. Margaret Wilder, Tracey Osborne, Gary Nabhan, and Maribel Alvarez. I am indebted to the members of the Food Security and Social Justice Network at the University of Arizona for their constructive comments on this paper and to my geography colleagues Sarah Kelly-Richards and Carly Nichols for their helpful edits. Many thanks to the valuable input provided by three anonymous reviewers and to the Tinker Foundation, the SBSRI Pre-Doc Graduate Research Grant Program, the AAG Latin America Specialty Group, and the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Summer Fellowship for research funding. And most importantly, thanks to all of the producers and organizers of the Tianguis de Comida Sana y Cercana who welcomed me into their homes, farms, and marketplaces.

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  1. School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210137, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Laurel Bellante

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Bellante, L. Building the local food movement in Chiapas, Mexico: rationales, benefits, and limitations. Agric Hum Values 34, 119–134 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-016-9700-9

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