Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910

by Enrique C. Ochoa (Editor)

Overview

Winner of the 1998 Michael C. Meyer Manuscript Prize!

Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910 traces the Mexican government's intervention in the regulation, production, and distribution of food from the days of Cardenas to the recent privatization inspired by NAFTA. Professor Ochoa argues that the real goals of the government's food subsidies were political, driven by presidential desires to court urban labor. Many of the agencies and policies were hastily set in place in response to short-term political or economic crises. Since the goals were not to alleviate poverty, but to provide modest subsidies to urban consumers, the policies did not eliminate destitution or malnutrition in the country. Despite the minimal achievements of these interventionist policies, the State Food Agency provided a symbol of the state's concern for the workers. The elimination of the Agency in the 1990s prompted social protest and unrest.

Feeding Mexico is the first study to examine the creation of networks to deliver food products, the relationship of these channels of distribution to the food crisis, and the role of the state in trying to ameliorate the problem. Based on exhaustive research of new archival material and richly documented with statistical tables, this book exposes the dynamics and outcome of social policy in twentieth-century Mexico.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742579828
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2001
Series:	Latin American Silhouettes
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	267
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Enrique C. Ochoa is associae professor of history and associate coordinator of Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Abbreviations
Chapter 2 Introduction: Food and Society in Postrevolutionary Mexico
Chapter 3 From Local to Federal Intervention: Food Policy Prior to the 1920s
Chapter 4 Lazaro Cardenas and the Politics of State Intervention, 1934?1940
Chapter 5 World War II, Economic Modernization, Food Crisis, and Urban Relief, 1940?1946
Chapter 6 Between Economic Efficiency and Political Expediency, 1946?1952
Chapter 7 Social Welfare and the State Food Agency, 1952?1958
Chapter 8 Rural Crisis and the Creeping Hand of the State in the Countryside, 1958?1970
Chapter 9 The Apogee of the State Food Agency, 1970?1982
Chapter 10 Neoliberalism and the Dismantling of the State Food Agency after 1982
Chapter 11 The State Food Agency and the Persistence of Poverty
Chapter 12 Bibliography
Chapter 13 Index

Editorial Reviews

This outstanding work is essential reading for anyone who hopes to understand Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican standards of living in the twenty-first.

The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History

This outstanding work is essential reading for anyone who hopes to understand Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican standards of living in the twenty-first.

The Americas: A Quarterly Review Of Inter-American Cultural

Ochoa has made an important contribution to the examination of how food has been used as a political tool by the Mexican state in the 20th century, demonstrating how the Mexican government responded to crises affecting Mexico by intervening in the nation's food production and distribution sector.

This outstanding work is essential reading for anyone who hopes to understand Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican standards of living in the twenty-first. Ochoa has explained the creation of an elaborate welfare bureaucracy dedicated to providing cheap food for the nation's capital in order to maintain political support for the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

The Americas

Based on archival material and statistical tables, Ochoa (history and Latin American Studies, California State University, Los Angeles) traces the Mexican government's intervention in the regulation, production, and distribution of food from the days of Cardenas to the recent NAFTA-based privatization program. Ochoa argues that the government's food subsidies have been politically motivated and hastily designed, and have failed to alleviate malnutrition. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

This outstanding work is essential reading for anyone who hopes to understand Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican politics in the twentieth century or to improve Mexican standards of living in the twenty-first.

The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History

Feeding Mexico provides a theory as to the government's policy toward subsidizing food in Mexico. The author's central thesis is that subsidies were created and maintained in Mexico not to alleviate poverty but to cater to the interest of urban labor. While the subsidies benefited the working classes, they failed to raise the standard of living of the rural masses throughout Mexico.

Cuslar Newsletter

Enrique Ochoa has made an important contribution to the examination of how food has been used as a political tool by the Mexican state in the twentieth century, demonstrating how the Mexican government responded to crises affecting Mexico by intervening in the nation's food production and distribution sector.

Choice Reviews

Economists once praised the 'Mexican miracle' of rapid growth achieved through 'stabilizing development,' but the real miracle of the postrevolutionary era was maintaining political stability despite a wide gap between rich and poor. Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910 shows how the ruling party constructed a welfare system that both subsidized industrialization and bought social peace.

Lingua France

Enrique Ochoa combines original archival research with a deep understanding of the political ramifications of food subsidies and programs as an influential public policy to explain its evolution.

Roderic Ai Camp

Enrique Ochoa has made an important contribution to the examination of how food has been used as a political tool by the Mexican state in the twentieth century, demonstrating how the Mexican government responded to crises affecting Mexico by intervening in the nation's food production and distribution sector.

CHOICE

Enrique Ochoa has made an important contribution to the examination of how food has been used as a political tool by the Mexican state in the twentieth century, demonstrating how the Mexican government responded to crises affecting Mexico by intervening in the nation's food production and distribution sector.

Choice