The Food Consumption Pattern of the Free Market: The Mexican Experience Under NAFTA

Abstract

This article accesses the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), now the US, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA), on the Mexican food system, specifically on the country’s food consumption patterns. The double burden of malnutrition, that is, the coexistence of undernutrition with obesity, is identified as one of the most significant global health challenges. The article explores the main explanations for this malnutrition crisis and the links between the free-market policies pursued under NAFTA and the perverse change in food consumption patterns that affect Mexico, and mainly developing countries. The Mexican experience is presented in terms of the change in food consumption patterns and the food-system transformation over the past decades. It is argued that free-market policies do not merely change the origin of the food consumed but also affect its quality and the general consumption and production patterns. Under the NAFTA, the Mexican food system suffered a restructuring process that struck at its heart, by subsuming maize under capitalist logic.