Cultivating Food Sovereignty: Peasant women’s agrifood knowledge and the traspatios in the High Mixtec Region, Oaxaca

Abstract (English)

Mexican campesino agriculture is wealthy in terms of biocultural diversity, agroecological practices, and territorial relations. In the Hight Mixtec Region (HMR) –in the Southern state of Oaxaca– socioeconomic vulnerability interacts with diverse threats to food self-sufficiency, such as loss of agrobiodiversity, gender inequality, and climate variability. Under the premise that the disappearance of peasant agriculture can lead to more efficient food production, the dominant development paradigm in rural Mexico has impaired the survival and social reproduction of peasant communities. However, principles of reciprocity, social capital, and collective capacity continue to be foundational for local agrifood systems, even as these undergo liberalization. This participatory research project emphasizes the importance of recognizing ‘other’ forms of knowledge and science as crucial for co-imagining alternatives to food and nutritional self-sufficiency in peasant communities. Focusing on the backyard as an object of study opens a window into rethinking alternatives for strengthening food sovereignty, communality, and maintaining the livelihoods of rural communities from a gendered perspective. Commonly thought to have disappeared due to harsh socio-ecological conditions in the HMR, the solar or traspatio is typically maintained by women as an adaptive strategy, and serves as a site of resistance. This project, grounded in the belief that transdisciplinarity and knowledge co-production are vital to agroecological socio-ecological movements, employs feminist and participatory research methods to closely examine peasant women’s lived experiences, their engagement with, and contributions to local agrifood systems.