EXPERIENCES OF SOLIDARITY ECONOMY AND RESPONSABLE CONSUMPTION IN AGROECOLOGICAL MARKETS IN MEXICO: LEARNING AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Given the dominant agribusiness and economic model that has had adverse effects within local food systems around the world, various organizational experiences have been formed within the framework of social economy and fair trade. Since the end of the decade of the 90’s, in Mexico the emergence of local markets begins whose objective is to promote forms of organic production and healthy food and which, in turn, promote responsible consumption with the natural and social environment at the territorial level. In this work we reflect the different experiences of agroecological markets in central Mexico such as: Tianguis Organic Chapingo, Tianguis Alternativo of Puebla, Mercado Maculli Teotzin, Tianguis del Mayab, and Tianguis Agroecológico of José María Morelos. We expose under the focus of solidarity economy and responsible consumption, intermediation processes, participatory certification, as well as the challenges of these markets. The objective of this paper is to analyze and make visible some of the characteristics, challenges and virtues offered by these experiences around the supply of healthy foods, the consolidation of marketing channels, the recovery of physical and symbolic spaces for the exchange of products, dialogues, strategies and links, among others. For this, the contributions of the solidarity economy that puts work and the human being at the center of the discussion, are recovered, to have a positive impact on the quality of life of its participants, and thus reconfigure the social and economic relations that are showed among the different actors.