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Local food networks and maizeagrodiversity conservation: two casestudies from MexicoLauren E. Baker aa Faculty of Environmental Studies , York University , Toronto,CanadaPublished online: 19 May 2008.

To cite this article: Lauren E. Baker (2008) Local food networks and maize agrodiversityconservation: two case studies from Mexico, Local Environment: The International Journal ofJustice and Sustainability, 13:3, 235-251, DOI: 10.1080/13549830701668973

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Local food networks and maizeagrodiversity conservation: two casestudies from Mexico

Lauren E. Baker�

Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACT The challenges facing Mexican campesinos growing traditional varieties of maizeare formidable in the current neoliberal economic context. The elimination of trade-relatedbarriers for corn grown in the US under NAFTA has had a number of economic,environmental and cultural ramifications. This article examines two projects to createshortened tortilla supply chains that provide locally grown maize to local consumers.Beyond linking producers to consumers, these short tortilla supply chains are connected tobroader social movements, civil society organisations and researchers working onagrodiversity conservation and food issues. The article describes the opportunities andchallenges facing these initiatives in their efforts to bridge agrodiversity conservation andrural economic development objectives.

Local food networks and agrodiversity conservation

The industrialisation of farming and global food distribution practices since the1950s has threatened food crop diversity in their centres of origin around the world.Fowler and Mooney report a staggering loss of food plant genetic resources – only3% of vegetable varieties1 survived between 1903 and 1982 (Fowler andMooney 1996). Modern, improved and hybrid varieties displace old varieties, atrend that has been compounded by green revolution technologies and globaltrade regimes. This is worrisome for a number of reasons. Global agricultural pro-ductivity and food security are reliant on old varieties to address new and ever-changing crop breeding problems such as drought resistance and disease (Brush2004). Small-scale farmers are dependent on the local ecological adaptability of oldvarieties. Socio-cultural practices – culinary, spiritual, and community – depend

Local EnvironmentVol. 13, No. 3, 235–251, April 2008

�Email: lauren@yorku.ca

1354-9839 Print/1469-6711 Online/08/030235-17# 2008 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13549830701668973http://www.informaworld.com

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on the availability of different varieties. The issue of agrodiversity loss is addressedinternationally through a number of conservation efforts.2

Agrodiversity conservation efforts are sometimes connected to agro-food move-ments. These movements use diverse strategies to address the social, economic andenvironmental costs of the industrial food system, as well as to regenerate local foodsystems (Allen et al. 2003). Varied in their focus, agro-food movements have beendescribed as embedded in local food networks and encompass efforts to improvefood safety, encourage local food consumption and greater food self-sufficiency, toaddress hunger and poverty and to promote sustainable agriculture (Pretty 2002).3

In response to agrodiversity loss, food scares, consumer health consciousness andthe environmental implications of the food system, local food economies thatconnect consumers to producers are being created. These efforts advocate a shor-tened food supply chain and emphasise the qualities of health, taste and seasonality.InMexico the impact of neoliberal policies such as the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA) on maize agrodiversity has led to a number of conservationefforts. This article describes two projects that address agrodiversity loss throughthe creation of shortened food supply chains. Two case studies illustrate the waysdirect-marketing efforts are responding to the particular demands and constraintsof local contexts. As well as connecting producers to consumers, both of theseinitiatives have linkages with broader social movements, civil society organisationsand researchers working on agrodiversity conservation and food issues.

The ecological and economic context of maize in Mexico

Maize in Mexico is a highly politicised food item with deep cultural and spiritualmeaning, intricately connected to Mexico’s colonial history, as well as to culinaryand agronomic resistance (Lind and Barham 2004). To explore the importance ofmaize in Mexico and for the global economy, I first describe the political ecologyof maize as it relates to agrodiversity conservation. Second, I shift to focus on thepolitical economy of maize as it relates to national, regional and internationaltrade policies – NAFTA in particular.Maize was domesticated in Mexico from its wild relative teosinte about 9000

years ago (Bellon and Berthaud 2006, p. 4), and Mexico is commonly known asthe centre of origin for maize. Maize diversity in Mexico4 is a result of complexbiological and sociocultural interactions between local environments, farmersand maize plants. Throughout Mexico, maize cultivated as part of a milpa5 bysmall-scale farmers on plots of land of 3–5 hectares represents an incredibleresource of maize agrodiversity. Also contributing to maize agrodiversity arehousehold and culinary uses, community agricultural practices, geographic andecological diversity, and ethnocultural diversity (Paczka 2003, p. 127).Maize is adaptable to diverse environmental and agronomic conditions, which

led to its relatively easy spread and acceptance globally. Maize has multiple agro-industrial applications and is used for animal feed, in processed foods in the formof high fructose corn syrup and in ethanol production. Maize varieties fromMexico have supplied germplasm or genetic resources that contribute to modernplant breeding and the development of hybrid varieties for particular uses(Fowler and Mooney 1996).

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The global political economic context, and how it is translated domestically inMexico, is threatening maize agrodiversity and the livelihood of small-scalefarmers. The 3.1 million farmers who grow maize in Mexico (Cevallos 2006)have been deemed inefficient in comparison with corn farmers in the US. Indeed,average yields per hectare are very low – 1.8 tonnes in Mexico compared withnine tonnes per hectare in the US corn belt (Nadal 2006). However, small-scalefarmers growing for their personal consumption produce approximately half ofthe national demand for maize in Mexico. Another quarter of the demand formaize in Mexico is supplied by larger-scale producers who sell in the nationalmarket. The rest is imported (Antal Fodroczy 2004).Mexico’s agriculture and food policies have always had an impact on the coun-

try’s small-scale farmers as well as maize agrodiversity. In post-revolutionMexico,the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) administration pursued economic policiesbased on national food security. These programmes began to be dismantled withthe embrace of neoliberal economic policy in the early 1980s (Fitting 2006, p. 16).When Mexico defaulted on its foreign debt payments in 1982, a neoliberal policyframework (commonly referred to as a “structural adjustment programme”) wasimposed by international lending institutions. From 1988 to 1994 the agriculturalsector underwent reforms that radically restructured the Mexican countryside byeliminating food and agricultural-input subsidies, liberalising imports of agricul-tural goods, reducing publicly funded farm credit and technological assistanceand privatising communally held ejido lands (Appendini 2001; Preibisch et al.2002). By signing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1987,joining the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)and signing NAFTA in 1994, Mexico consolidated its neoliberal agenda.Under GATT and NAFTA, maize was granted special status due to its role as a

basic grain and a subsistence food crop. Guaranteed prices for maize were pro-tected for 15 years under the NAFTA agreement through a quota-based tariffsystem. The Mexican government, however, chose to accelerate the liberalisationof the maize market. The subsequent flooding of the Mexican market with highlysubsidised maize produced in the US meant that maize prices for Mexican produ-cers dropped from 807 pesos per ton in 1994 to 559 pesos per ton in 1999 (Barkin2002, p. 64). The national price support mechanisms for basic grains were also dis-mantled. Small-scale farmers who produce maize primarily for their family’s sub-sistence have been hurt by these policies, losing income from the sale of smallquantities of maize.While prices for basic grains plummeted, the price of tortillas soared. Food

policy since the 1950s ensured fixed tortilla prices for urban consumers toprotect them from price increases. This policy was dismantled in 1999 (Pilcher2005, p. 240). Although the quantity of maize imported into Mexico more thandoubled between 1994 and 1999, causing grain prices to fall, the consolidationof the tortilla industry meant cost savings were not passed on to the consumer(Pilcher 2005, p. 241).A compounding factor has been the introduction of genetically modified maize

to Mexico. This is a result of planting imported maize from the US. Geneticallymodified (GM) maize has crossed with native landraces resulting in concernabout Mexico’s maize agrodiversity (Cummings 2002). The GM maize debates

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in Mexico were sparked in 2001 with the publication of a paper in Nature (Quistand Chapella 2001) describing the contamination of Mexican maize landraces byGM maize, which galvanised the anti-GM maize movement in Mexico.Despite the economic pressure on Mexican campesinos, maize production has

remained stable since 1994 (Barkin 2002, p. 63). This paradox speaks to themany extra-economic reasons that people produce maize in the Mexican country-side. Maize is valued for cultural and spiritual reasons – for example, its taste, useand agro-ecological contribution in the field. As rural people become more econ-omically insecure, they grow maize to ensure household food security (EscobarMoreno 2005). Economic pressure, however, has meant that more rural peopleare migrating to work in the United States. Fitting describes how migrantsyounger than 20 years of age have limited knowledge about maize productionand little interest in farming (Fitting 2006). Similarly, the farmers interviewed aspart of this research expressed concern about the future of maize production inMexico, especially in the face of the complete dismantling of tariffs on importedmaize in 2008.In summary, the impact of the “neoliberal maize regime” (Fitting 2006) and

NAFTA on maize production has been dramatic: the price of maize has decreased,rural poverty has increased, leading to migration, and the price of tortillas hasincreased while their quality has decreased (Henriques and Patel 2004, p. 4). Ifmaize agrodiversity in Mexico depends on the farming, cultural and culinary prac-tices of small-scale farmers the future of maize agrodiversity is uncertain.The case studies discussed below are two of many strategies to mitigate the impact

of neoliberal policy on maize agrodiversity and rural livelihood. The spectrum ofthese efforts in Mexico include seed collection, documentation and banking; politi-cal action regardingGMmaize; projects that focus on the use of maize landraces andon generating sustainable rural livelihoods; initiatives that focus on education andappreciation of agrodiversity; and the development of markets for maize landraces.The network In Defense of Maize, for example, is a coalition of local and transna-tional environmental and social justice organisations working to educate Mexicanson the impacts of GM maize in Mexico, and lobby the government to prohibit GMmaize being grown in the country (S. Ribiero, personal communication, 2005). Simi-larly, a network of agronomists and researchers has been formed to discuss agrodi-versity conservation strategies (Paczka, personal communication, 2006). Thisactivity illustrates the plural politics of maize in Mexico, with strategies that encom-pass political organising, advocacy, research, changing consumption practices anddeveloping alternative commercial outlets.

Methodology and research questions

The case studies presented in this article were documented as part of doctoralresearch that seeks to understand the connection between agrodiversity conserva-tion and local food networks. Local food networks encompass the complex andnon-linear household, community, regional and institutional relationshipsinvolved in getting food from the field to the table. Although local food networksare rooted in place – historically, culturally and geographically – they are alsoconnected globally through transnational social movements.

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Local food networks are being explored and documented by researchers in theUnited States, Canada and Europe, but less work is being done on shortened foodsupply chains within the global South. The tremendous pressures on maize agro-diversity and farmers in Mexico due to the “neoliberal maize regime” has led tocreative efforts to mitigate these pressures. The case studies I develop in thispaper represent two such efforts and are a result of three months of fieldwork inMexico. A combination of participatory and case study research was used. First,the shortened tortilla supply chains of these two initiatives were documented.Interviews with project coordinators, agronomists, farmers, academics, the restau-rant owner and workers, and activists were conducted. Second, as part of theseinterviews I asked interviewees to map their agrodiversity network. An importantpart of the research was working at the Itanonı Tortillerıa. This was a way for meto spend more time with the owners and workers, get to know the consumers andvisit the farmers involved. I spent less time with the people at the National Associ-ation of CampesinoMarketing Organisations (ANEC)/Nuestro Maız, resulting ina less intimate case study.This paper explores two components of my research. First I address the tension

between agrodiversity conservation and rural development which emerges forthese initiatives. Second I illustrate the way that these social entrepreneurial,direct-marketing projects intersect with other social movement efforts to addressmaize agrodiversity. Many themes emerge from the case studies which are not ela-borated in this paper, including the interconnections between cultural diversityand biodiversity; shifting notions of quality in the global agro-food context;how efforts to reclaim and revive culinary and agroecological practices are beingarticulated by different actors; expanded ideas about agrodiversity; and howsynergies and conflict between practice and politics are being mediated. Below, Idescribe the two case studies and draw out some of the key lessons learnedthrough this research for local food networks.

Two local maize networks

Itanonı Tortillerıa and Nuestro Maız, in different ways, are attempting to nurturea market that appreciates Mexican maize, a trend that has connected culinary andnationalist discourses in Mexico since the 1940s (Pilcher 1998). In recent years theimpact of NAFTA on rural farmers and the GM maize debate has galvanisedpublic interest in the fate of Mexican maize, culinary traditions and cultural iden-tity (Pilcher 2005).Itanonı and Nuestro Maız emerged as part of this interest, and both have

reclaimed aspects of the craft of making tortillas. The practice of making tortillas,once a daily activity for women in Mexico, has been largely replaced by tortillasmade from maize flour (as opposed to masa, or maize dough). As the tortilla-making process was industrialised, tortillerıas stopped using the Nixtamalprocess, a Mesoamerican culinary invention that transforms the nutrient contentof maize to enable nutrients to be better absorbed by the human digestivesystem. The maize is soaked with lime and then ground into masa or maizedough, which is used to make a variety of dishes and drinks. Tortilla production,since the mid 1970s, has replaced the masa with ground maize flour, which is

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nutritionally inferior (Rivera et al. 2004). As people’s consumption practicesbecome integrated into the global economy and they shop more frequently atsupermarket chains, the purchase of tortillas made from maize flour has increased.Currently, 49% of tortillas consumed in Mexico are made with maize flour(Ocampo 2007).The Itanonı and Nuestro Maız initiatives are using the Nixtamal process and

promoting Mexican maize in their tortilla production. In the case of Itanonı,this is being done through an artisanal family restaurant. In the case of NuestroMaız, this is being done through a non-profit tortilla enterprise. In the era offree trade, corporate globalisation and genetically modified maize, it is interestingto find evidence of the re-emergence of a trend to use local maize in the tortillasector. It is not difficult to find neighbourhood tortillerıas advertising that theyuse “100%maız mexicano”. Itanonı and NuestroMaız are examples of shortenedfood supply chains that link producers to consumers. These networks, as I prefer tocall them, are described below.

Nuestro Maız

Nuestro Maız is a project of ANEC, a network of over 200 producer group coop-eratives founded in 1995 to develop marketing opportunities for grain producersin Mexico. ANEC is located in Mexico City and has two goals. The first is torevalue peasant agriculture, which ANEC views as economically and sociallyviable, and essential for national food security and for the conservation ofMexico’s biodiversity. The second is to engage in policy-making processes thataffect the lives and livelihoods of Mexico’s small- and medium-scale producers(Acuna Rodarte 2003, pp. 142–143).ANEC is a direct response to the structural changes that took place inMexico as

neoliberal economic policies were implemented in the rural sector. As theMexicangovernment withdrew its support of agricultural activity and rural economicdevelopment from 1985 to 1994, producer groups and organisations began organ-ising in the vacuum (Acuna Rodarte 2003, p. 139). In 1995, as rural leaders weremobilising around Mexico to address agricultural policy, ANEC was formed tocoordinate their dispersed activities and to produce coherent policy proposals tobe presented to the government. As part of this process Peasant CommercializingEnterprises (ECCs) were developed to market basic grains including maize,sorghum, beans, wheat and some other crops on behalf of small and mediumsize formers. In recent years, 600,000 tons of maize was collected and tradedthrough 135 grain warehouses. In total, ANEC trades an estimated 10% ofMexico’s production of basic grains, earning producers a price premium of 10–15% (Acuna Rodarte 2003, p. 141).In 2002 a group was created to look at various ways to add value to the maize

produced by members. Nuestro Maız was created to connect ANEC’s rural devel-opment and agro-industrial objectives. NuestroMaız works with seven campesinoorganisations in nine states that are part of ANEC’s wider network, and involves34 local organisations with approximately 2200 participating corn producers.Tortilla production began in 2003 and adds value to the producers’ maize by trans-forming it into masa that is then distributed to a network of tortillerıas that sell

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freshly produced tortillas to the surrounding communities. NuestroMaız is experi-menting with a rural development strategy to keep local maize and maize profitscirculating in the community. By working with Mexico’s producer groups,which have historically been strong and nationally supported, it is thought thatsuch efforts could be replicated and adapted to each regional and communitycontext. The national scope and political connections of ANEC facilitate thisscale of organising and the rural development process.Nuestro Maız has 17 Nixtamal plants in nine Mexican states with a network of

over 200 tortillerıas. Six hundred workers are employed by the project, 70% ofwhom are family members of the producer groups. The project is primarilyfunded by the government programme Alianza Para el Campo (Alliance for theCountryside), with loans to build the necessary infrastructure and grants forcapacity-building and technical assistance. The participating producer groupsown the local technology and share the profits and risk of the business amongstthemselves. Each producer group produces maize that it sells to its own centralwarehouse. Instead of selling the maize as grain, it is sold as tortilla, addingvalue to the maize. A kilo of maize is worth 1.5 pesos on the market. If thesame kilo of maize is made into tortillas it can be sold for 10 pesos. The goal ofthe project is to add value to 50% of the producer’s maize. Right now, thevolume is still quite small and most of the maize produced goes to the conventionalmarket.This case study focuses on the activities of the San Antonio Atotonilco producer

group living in San Antonio Atotonilco, Puebla. The 38 producers who are part ofthis group have anywhere from three to 40 hectares under production. In total, theproducers have 175 hectares under maize production and 200 hectares producingother crops. Agricultural inputs such as chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbi-cides are used by the farmers. The San Antonio Atotonilco producer groupoffers financing for production inputs and maize-marketing services, and now,with the Nixtamal plant, value-added services as well.The associate producers grow maize, some of which is sold to the Nixtamal

plant. The plant, built in 2003, transforms the maize into masa, which is delivereddaily to 30 tortillerıas located in the surrounding towns and villages. The tortillasare freshly made at each tortillerıa and sold to the local community. Members ofthe producer families and local community work at the tortillerıas. Customers arecommunity members. The project, however, has not returned any profits to theproducers and the producer group is still paying off the debt accrued for construc-tion of the Nixtamal plant (Figure 1).The industrialisation of the Nixtamal process has presented several challenges

for Nuestro Maız. The same maize landraces that the project wants to conservehave proven difficult to make tortillas with. Consumers, used to tortillas that area particular colour (white) and particular texture (that hold together under amoist filling), have complained about the heterogeneous characteristics of thetortillas, as they reflect the particular batch of local maize. The colourful diver-sity of the maize landraces grown locally clashes with the homogenising ten-dencies of consumer demands and industrialised processes. The associateproducers in the project, to address this problem, are planting hybrid varietiesof maize with their maize landraces to improve the uniformity of the grain.

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Nuestro Maız has instituted a rigorous crop improvement programme, workingclosely with agronomists and crop improvement specialists to improve themaize landraces used by local producers. As well as working to find suitablelandraces to use in the Nixtamal plant, Nuestro Maız is also working to raisethe consciousness of consumers regarding maize agrodiversity. This is beingdone through the development of communications materials that are thenplaced in the tortillerıas and include posters and packaging (Figure 2) thatspeak to the process used to make the tortillas, the absence of additives and pre-servatives, and the fact that the maize used is locally grown and not geneticallymodified.The success of the San Antonio Atotonilco producer group – starting up the

project and working through production and quality-related issues – is a resultof the strength of the producer group. The San Antonio Atotonilco group has along history of working collectively to market their maize and the leadership isstrong. The Nuestro Maız model has been difficult to replicate across thecountry and the success of each individual project has depended on the participat-ing producer group. Nuestro Maız and the parent organisation, ANEC, havedeveloped group capacity-building programmes and people involved clearlyarticulate the challenges for such a project in a context where the price of maizeis falling and government support for campesinos is dwindling. The eliminationof the remaining barriers to importing maize to Mexico in 2008 under NAFTAfurther undermines the success of the Nuestro Maız project. Campesino producersexpress concern about their ability to continue growing maize in the future, andeven about staying on their land.

Figure 1. The Nixtamal plant in San Antonio de Atotonilco.

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ANEC has provided avenues for producers across Mexico to advocate for agri-culture and food policies that support small-scale maize production. The organis-ation has had some success influencing Mexican agricultural and rural policydecisions, although the overall direction of government policy has not beenshifted. Most significantly, ANEC convinced the government to charge tariffs onabove-quota imports of maize, beans and sorghum from 2000 to 2006 anddefeated a Fox administration motion to decrease the agriculture budget,winning an increase of more thanMEX$400million (Acuna Rodarte 2003, p. 144).The organisation engages producers across Mexico in solidarity work related to

food and agriculture policy nationally and internationally. One example of this issolidarity markets, which support regions in Mexico that are experiencing pro-duction shortfalls due to drought or other environmental or social factors.Grain is supplied directly to those regions from ECCs with a surplus to ensureregional food security. In the international realm, ANEC collaborates withnational and international producer and rural organisations including Mexicancoffee farmers and rural credit organisations, producer groups across the Americas,and transnational organisations such as Via Campesina, the InterAmericanAgriculture and Democracy Network and the Global Peasant Agriculture andGlobalization Network (Acuna Rodarte 2003, p. 142).Organising alternative markets for small-scale farmers is extremely difficult in

the current economic climate in Mexico. The dismantling of all trade-related bar-riers for imported maize in 2008 was stated by producers as the biggest challengefor maize production into the future. Some farmers question whether there will bea place for maize production inMexico when this occurs. Other difficulties emerge

Figure 2. Nuestro Maız Tortilla packaging.

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from the experience ofNuestroMaız, aswell, illustrating the complexity of creatinglocal food networks in the era of globalised food production, distribution andmar-keting. The landraces grown by small-scale farmers do not meet consumer prefer-ences for standardised tortillas. The Nuestro Maız project is working to findlandraces suitable for their tortilla production facilities, sometimes resulting inthe displacement of the landraces they are working to conserve. Consumer edu-cation has become an important aspect of their marketing and promotion strategy.Another challenge has been the fragility of producer groups across the country. Thisreflects the severity of the economic climate for producers and the challenges of col-lective organising faced by such projects. The opportunity to network with produ-cers across Mexico and collectively work on policy proposals and internationalcampaigns was articulated as one of the benefits of being associated with ANEC.

Itanonı Tortillerıa

The Itanonı Tortillerıa is one family’s effort to address maize agrodiversity loss inOaxaca, Mexico. The tortillerıa owners, a husband and wife team, believe thatthrough the act of eating and the experience of tasting maize’s diversity, urbanconsciousness about maize agrodiversity and the plight of campesinos can beraised. By educating customers about the value and quality of tortillas and the indi-vidual characteristics of maize landraces, the restaurant aims to develop a marketfor maize landraces and instil an appreciation forMexico’s agrodiversity. Throughthese efforts, a group of four farmers is supported to focus on improving the pro-duction of their maize landraces, shift to organic and ecological farming practicesand diversify their production to grow other products needed by the restaurant.The participating farmers receive a higher price for their maize.The Itanonı Tortilleira (Figure 3) was started by Amado Ramırez Leyva and Lea

Gabriela FernandezOrantes. They opened a tortillerıa in September 2001 selling tor-tillas made from four maize landraces. By January 2002 the demand for tacos madewith the tortillas and guisos (taco fillings) encouraged Ramırez Leyva and FernandezOrantes to open a restaurant in a middle-class neighbourhood with a simple menuand table service. Both Ramırez Leyva and Fernandez Orantes have backgroundsworking on rural development projects in Oaxaca and Chiapas. FernandezOrantes is a chemical engineer who spent the early part of her career as a ruraldevelopment worker. She then studied Gestalt therapy. Ramırez Leyva is an agri-cultural engineer, and has worked on numerous maize agrodiversity initiatives inMexico. The two opened Itanonı to promote maize agrodiversity in the city ofOaxaca, to address the link between agrodiversity and culinary practice and tosupport local farmers through the purchase and use of their maize.At the restaurant, the public is welcome to walk through the processing facility

and see maize soaked, mixed with lime, ground, and then pressed by hand into tor-tillas – blue, yellow, white and red. Surrounded by tables, the clay comal is a hubof cooking activity and the place where all the dishes available at the tortillerıa areprepared. The numerous guisos surrounding the comal are prepared to augmentthe taste of the maize used. On the menu are tacos, quesadillas and memelas,dishes commonly found in other tortillerıas. More unique are dishes such as thetetela espirituosa, a tortilla folded into a triangle and filled with beans, cream

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and oja de santa,6 inspired by the dishes made by the grandmother of one of theowners from the Mixtec region of Oaxaca. The tortillerıa seeks to offercommon Mexican snacks, but also aims to recover, reclaim and promoteMexican culinary specialties.Itanonı has created a small niche market for maize landraces, geared towards

urban consumers. The people who eat at the restaurant are generally middle-class urban Oaxacans. Many tourists are beginning to learn about the restaurant,so there is an increasingly international clientele. Most consumers understand thatthey are eating maize landraces grown by regional producers. They learn thisthrough educational materials that are visible at the restaurant – a banner thathangs at the front of the restaurant (Figure 4), a menu that depicts traditionalmaize agricultural practices and placemats that tell a story of the cultural import-ance of maize in Mexico. Ramırez Leyva describes the purpose of these edu-cational materials as efforts to raise urban consciousness about maizeagricultural diversity in Mexico and feels that his customers will be transformedby the taste of the maize. Itanonı is catering to, and attempting to nurture, anurban market that appreciates Mexican culinary specialties, in particular, maizediversity.Ramırez Leyva and Fernandez Orantes have a network of four farmers growing

eight varieties of maize for the restaurant. The relationships with these producers,located around the state of Oaxaca, were developed through Ramırez Leyva’s pre-vious work growing and selling maize seed. The producers were chosen becauseRamırez Leyva felt they were good farmers, and because the varieties they weregrowing were good-quality, flavourful and suited the dishes planned for the

Figure 3. Itanonı Tortillerıa.

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Figure 4. Educational materials include a banner describing the mission of the restaurant as youwalk in. The banner states: Itanonı, maize flower. . . Native maize selected from Oaxaca.Consuming it you will have the opportunity to: Digest the pure flavours of maize developed inour diverse soils and villages. Contribute to the preservation and reproduction of diversity: thebiological, cultural, and culinary diversity of Oaxacan maize. Ensure fair prices for thecampesinos who cultivate our maize. Understand and digest maize products made with artisanalmethods and processes.

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restaurant. Each of the producers owns 3–5 hectares of land. Some land is alsorented to produce the maize. One of the producers has irrigation. The restdepend on the seasonal rains.Ramırez Leyva works with the farmers in a number of ways. He contracts to buy

their maize. This represents small quantities of maize not needed for householdconsumption. Ramırez Leyva assists the farmers with maize production andseed selection on a yearly basis. The costs of inputs (such as organic fertilisers)and labour are shared between the producer and Ramırez Leyva. Ramırez Leyvacan afford to pay a premium for the maize, due to the direct relationshipbetween himself and the farmer. At the time of this research, local maize wassold on the market for four pesos per kilo. Imported maize from the US was avail-able for 2.5 pesos a kilo. Itanonı paid its farmers six pesos a kilo. Farmers are sup-ported through difficult production cycles. In 2005, for example, one producer’sharvest was destroyed by a persistent drought. The support of Ramırez Leyvaand Itanonı encouraged him to continue planting his maize, despite the difficultconditions and a job off the farm which ensures a steady income.The producers sell maize directly to Itanonı. The producer who lives closest to

Oaxaca City supplies other products to the restaurant as well, including onions,tomatoes, black beans and tamales. All of the farm families have off-farmincome and rely on remittances received from children or close relatives whowork in the US. Other income is generated through selling agricultural crops, orworking outside the farm.The meaning of the relationship with Itanonı for the farmers supplying maize to

the restaurant differs fromproducer to producer. For example, the farmerwho livesclosest to Oaxaca is more involved with the restaurant and earns approximately aquarter of his income from sales of maize, vegetables and tamales to the restaurant.More income is earned through small jobs at the restaurant, such as building a reedwall to create additional seating space. The farmer hosts tours of his farm and“workbees” – opportunities for international students studying in Oaxaca tocome to the farm to participate in maize production. For the producers who livefarther away from Oaxaca City, the small scale of their production means thatthey are growing for their own family’s consumption and selling small amountsto supplement their primary income from off-farm work and remittances. Thefour farmers articulated three reasons they grow maize for Itanonı. First, therelationship with the restaurant demonstrates that there is a value to the maizetheir families and communities have grown for generations. Second, workingwith Ramırez Leyva has improved their production and given them access tonew production methods and inputs such as organic fertilisers. Third, they enjoybeing part of the network of farmers and participating in forums and workshopswith Ramırez Leyva related to maize agrodiversity and local culinary traditions.Oaxaca is the centre of struggles for maize agrodiversity conservation in

Mexico, and the tortillerıa is connected to environmental and indigenous networksworking to preserve agrodiversity. Ramırez Leyva and Fernandez Orantes haveparticipated in the Slow Food movement’s Terra Madre conference that bringstogether artisanal food producers.7 They are part of a growing movement inMexico to link producers with consumers through farmers’ markets and the devel-opment of markets for Mexican natural and organic products. Ramırez Leyva is

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part of a network of agronomists working on maize agrodiversity in the state ofOaxaca, and also participates in research on maize agrodiversity. RamırezLeyva and Fernandez Orantes view their work at the tortillerıa to promotemaize agrodiversity as parallel to the work of activists who are protesting GMmaize in Mexico.Ramırez Leyva and Fernandez Orantes have recently established the Identity

and Diversity Foundation to promote cultural identity and the agrodiversity ofmaize and other native crops. Through the work of the Foundation, RamırezLeyva and Fernandez Orantes hope to distinguish the work of the restaurantfrom the educational and advocacy work they are often called upon for. The Foun-dation’s mission is to recognise the intimate relationship between natural environ-ments, food crops, kitchens and the table. This mission will be achieved througheducational activities related to maize agrodiversity and Mexican agriculturaland culinary traditions. This project is in its infancy, but involves Mexican andinternational advisors who are guiding the development of an organisational con-stitution and working to register it as a non-profit organisation.Although the scale and impact of the Itanonı Tortillerıa are minimal, a close

look at their activities is instructive to the creation of local food networks.Social entrepreneurs are playing an important role in urban food economies(Donald and Blay-Palmer 2006), and Ramırez Leyva and Fernandez Orantes’effort to galvanise interest in maize agrodiversity by reviving aspects ofMexico’s culinary culture reveals the challenges for these businesses. Strugglingto develop and expand a successful business while keeping activist and researchnetworks alive is time-consuming. The artisanal aspect of the business could bereplicated in other urban areas, but it is questionable whether the market willexpand from its current middle-class niche. Activists and researchers associatedwith Itanonı describe the importance of alternative businesses reflecting thegoals and objectives of social movements. The farmers involved in this projectsee the potential to earn income from their maize production as the businessexpands. The economic climate in Mexico, however, especially the competitive,subsidised tortilla industry, makes it unlikely that the project could scale up toinvolve a more significant number of producers and consumers.

Conclusion

David Lind and Elizabeth Barham, in their article “The social life of the tortilla”use the tortilla to illustrate historical and ongoing material and symbolic discursiveshifts related to maize inMexico. They suggest that the commodification of food iscontestable and contested by everyday practices (Lind and Barham 2004, p. 58).Itanonı and Nuestro Maız are two examples of how commodity markets are nothomogeneous, and how people are claiming space for alternative economicactivity (Leyson and Lee 2003) that embodies social and environmental values.They are also examples of the challenges faced by local food networks developingshortened food supply chains in the context of global maize markets.Itanonı’s focus on reclaiming regional culinary culture seeks to increase urban

consciousness about the producers of maize landraces. The work of NuestroMaız engages producer groups to close the production–consumption cycle by

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selling tortillas made from local maize in communities in the surrounding region.Despite being connected to broader social movements addressing agrodiversityand rural development, both projects lack institutional and policy support andresources that might help them scale up their activities to include largernumbers of producers and consumers (Johnston and Baker 2005). Creating amarket for maize landraces has perhaps meant higher prices for the participatingfarmers. But it has also demonstrated that agrodiversity conservation throughrural economic development is fraught with challenges related to mobilising pro-ducers, standardising production and educating consumers.The challenges for Nuestro Maız and Itanonı Tortillerıa are formidable. As

stated by Victor Suarez, ANECs former executive director, who currently holdsa seat in the Camera de Diputados (Mexico’s federal government congress),ANEC’s success has been to “value the national capacity that we have as acountry to produce healthy food in adequate supplies for everyone who lives inthe country, and this speaks to the revaluation of indigenous peasant farmers, aswell as sustainable, organic, and other alternative forms of production” (quotedin Acuna Rodarte 2003, p. 144). This has been achieved through creating econ-omic alternatives for producers, connecting farmers across Mexico and workinginternationally with groups and organisations addressing similar issues.To conclude, my research examines how initiatives such as the Itanonı

Tortillerıa and Nuestro Maız bridge rural development and agrodiversity conser-vation strategies. Examining the tensions between these two issues sheds light onthe following questions and points to the need for further research in this area.What role can local markets – in essence more intimate links between producersand consumers – play in agrodiversity conservation and the creation of sustainablerural livelihoods? Can reclaiming and transforming culinary and agronomictraditions contribute to poverty reduction, improved health and sustainable agroe-cosystems? This paper suggests that in order to answer these questions we need tostudy local efforts to create alternative food economies in the context of regional,national and global processes.

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council DoctoralAward, an International Development Research Centre EcoHealth Graduate Award and anOntario Graduate Scholarship.

Notes

1. Fowler and Mooney distinguish “variety” and “landrace” (a term used below) in the following way. “A cul-

tivated plant variety is a distinct, named, rather uniform, modern creation also referred to as a cultivar . . .

Landraces are usually more variable, less distinct and less uniform . . . A landrace may express tremendous

variation in a single field, days to maturity, even pest resistance” (Fowler and Mooney 1996, p. xv).2. Agrodiversity conservation strategies have been developed by the following international institutions: the

Convention on Biological Diversity, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research institutions

such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, and Slow Food, to name a few. Seed savingand exchange programmes, community seed banks and diversity gardens represent examples of local,

regional and national efforts to conserve agrodiversity.

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3. One example of an agrodiversity conservation effort that is connected to an agro-food movement is the SlowFood Foundation for Biodiversity. This initiative supports agricultural biodiversity conservation through pro-

jects (known as “presidia”) around the world that promote and strengthen ecologically and culturally specific

gastronomic traditions. In Mexico there are two such presidia: one is an effort in the Thehuacan Valley to

revive the growing and eating of amaranth, and the other is a project in southern Oaxaca to improve the pro-duction of vanilla. See http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/eng/presidi/dettaglio.lasso?cod¼200.

4. Researchers have documented 59 landraces (Paczka 2003, p. 133).

5. A milpa is an agroecological system common in Mesoamerica, characterised by the intercropping of maize,

beans and squash.6. The common English name for oja de santa is “sacred herb”. The Latin name is Piper auritum. It has a deep

aroma similar to anise.

7. See www.slowfood.com.

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