A Look at a Book: Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910

Ochoa, Enrique. Feeding Mexico : the political uses of food since 1910. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources, 2000.

There is little wonder why this book received the Michael C. Meyer Manuscript award. It is impeccably organized and very well presented. The book offers a look back at food policy in Mexico from right after the Porfiriato to contemporary times, showing how the State Food Agency in Mexico expanded both in size and in scope as it responded to crises in various presidential administrations and shrunk as those crises reverted. Its main purpose, according to Ochoa, was to achieve political stability as opposed to make lasting changes. The reader will follow retail food subsidies as they begin in urban areas and as they eventually travel to rural areas; this is also concurrent with the formulation of a more centralized state. The conclusion ends with the drastic contraction of the State Food Agency in the 80s and 90s, which the author shows was connected to social and political turmoil.

One of the somewhat unrelated questions I am left with at the end is, does war increase dependency? As exports surge during wars because their price surges as well, doesn't the exporting country have a vested interest in keeping that war machine afloat? When war doesn't pull in exports, economies that depended on those exports are left in a weak bargaining position. Though I have no idea what the U.S. military supply chain looks like, I wonder what that dynamic looks like - how many countries are exporting goods that are military related? How dependent are they on those exports? This is probably simplifying a complex set of variables, but it's interesting to think about.