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

• Main Author: Bellante, Laurel
• Other Authors: Univ Arizona, Sch Geog & Dev
• Language: en
• Published: SPRINGER 2016
• Subjects: Organic agriculture; Alternative food networks; Neoliberalism; Sustainability; Participatory guarantee systems
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/623140; http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/623140

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have become a common response to the socioecological 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.