Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses the role anthropologists play in the making of Mexico policies related to food and agriculture. It shows how their actions illustrate farmers and urban groups' struggle against neoliberal policies and global food market, while promoting small-scale farming and the right to food.

Paper long abstract:

Mexicans are experiencing the decrease of their households' incomes and the rise of food prices. From 2008 to 2012, Mexico´s poverty index went from 49.5% to 53.3%. Indeed, those without food increased from 21.7% to 24.9%. Simultaneously, the right to food has become an arena in which distinctive actors -members of civil society (scholars included) and/or the State along with international organizations (FAO)—interplay. These fluid and dialogical encounters set in motion a variety of meanings, actions, and processes that aim to impact the making of public policy in regard to citizens' right to food, agriculture, health, inequality, the state to openly support socioeconomic inclusion/exclusion forms. This paper addresses the role that anthropologists play in the making of Mexico policies related to food and agriculture by examining workshops organized by them and other actors to discuss food, agriculture, and health. These are spaces for exchanging and discussing scientific, technical and local knowledge, experiences, strategies, and agendas. They are illustrations of farmers and urban groups' struggle against Mexico´s neoliberal policies and global food market instability, while promoting small-scale staple farming as a way to cope with the growth of Mexico´s food insecurity and poverty.