Agriculture in Mexico

Hola,

This is part two of the environment in Mexico. For this one, I just did an interview with the same host brother.

What (food) crops are here in Mexico?

• Corn, beans, sorghum, avocados, apples, lemons, tomatoes, cactus, onion, garlic, oranges, and chili.

What is life like for farmers?

• Life is hard, and food is often sold indirectly, meaning that it is sold to a factory and then the factory gets it to the people. The farmers earn very little.
• The farmers that do sell directly often have to bargain to sell anything. For example, they might sell a fruit for eight pesos instead of ten.
• Farmers need to have huge plots of land in order to make enough money.

Tell me about pesticide use and water.

• There is lack of necessary equipment to handle pesticides, so people using them may get intoxicated.
• Pesticides will intoxicate soil.
• It is not known how many farmers use pesticides.
• Crops are usually watered with wastewater from toiletry use such as showers, sinks, and toilets. However, this does not affect food quality.*

Tell me about food waste.

• There is a lot in Mexico
• Estimate about 1/4 of food is wasted, which ends up in the trash, not compost.
• Caused by the rich and middle class.

So, in the last two posts, we have looked at the environment and agriculture in Mexico. Overall, the environment is something that is simply in the background of Mexico. Few people are actually causing it direct harm, however, there is a lot of indirect harm. Indirect harm would be littering, not recycling, and pollution. While the environment is improving, it is happening at an insufficiently slow rate, especially because of lack of education. But things are getting better.

Adios,

Benjamín

*Wastewater such as from toiletry uses is okay for plants because 1. That water is composed very little of actual human waste and 2. Plants only absorb the water part of the wastewater. The reason why some plants get infected by pesticide runoff is because that is synthetic chemical waste, which plants are not adapted to not take in.