Reflexive Consumer Markets as Opportunities for New Peasant Farmers in Mexico and France: Constructing Food Sovereignty Through Alternative Food Networks

AbstractAlternate food networks (AFN) in Mexico and France are seen as an anti-systemic, post-capitalist social behavior and a form of anticommodity production. We report on two local market initiatives in Mexico, comparing similar institutions in southern France. Despite the adverse situation facing peasant agriculture, consumers and producers—urban and rural—are mobilizing to vindicate the ethical, agroecological, and cultural dimensions of food and support the smallholder family economy, seeking more direct, face-to-face relationships. The participation of women in AFN is definitive, as consumers, producers, and processors, and as organizers and promoters as well. AFN are one dimension of a process of the "Return of the Peasants," that is, ideological spaces where farmers and consumers collectively are redefining the values of the agro-food system.KEYWORDS: alternative food networkslocal marketsfood sovereigntyparticipatory certification Notes1. Recent Ecofiestas have reported and affluence of between 700 and 1500 consumers interested in visiting farms practicing sustainable methods. These events receive no outside funding but are supported by consumers and farmers seeking to establish closer relations.2. See González Cabañas and Nigh (2005) for earlier background and Kimura (Citation2010) for a more recent discussion.3. Comité National du Développement Durable et du Grenelle de l'Environnement (CNDDGE); http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr