Returning to the roots of the organic ideal: Local markets and participatory certification in Mexico (comentarios)

Leer artículo | 4 de Abril 2007

Autor: Laura Gómez Tovar [1], Manuel Ángel Gómez Cruz, Rita Schwentesius [2], Erin Nelson[3]*

The amount of organic production in Mexico has been increasing rapidly over the past several years, and today over 80 000 producers farm organically on over 300 000 hectares of land. The vast majority of this production is focused on monocrop farming of export goods "“ particularly coffee, but also cacao, coconut, and other fruits and vegetables. This situation raises questions regarding the degree to which organics is truly providing an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable alternative for Mexican producers and consumers. However, over the past three years a network of local organic markets has begun to emerge across the country.

These markets are an important means of ensuring that organic foods are not just available as a luxury product in the North, but also to consumers in the South. One of the many challenges confronting these new markets is that economic and bureaucratic barriers make it difficult for the small scale producers involved to obtain organic certification. The notion of participatory certification offers a means to address this problem, as it relies on a combination of community based inspections, transparency, and trust between producer and consumer to maintain the integrity of the organic label. While this system may be problematic for export oriented production, it is a useful way of helping promote and support local networks of organic production and consumption. Although still in its early phases, the Mexican experience with local organic markets and participatory certification offers an important alternative to the industrialized, export-oriented, "˜mainstream’ organic sector.

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