The agrifood vision and its influence on eating behavior in two regions of Mexico: the case of Jocotepec and the San Luis Potosí desert

Abstract

The study of the food phenomenon is broad, extensive, and multiple; hence the visions and perspectives are diverse. The Instituto de Investigaciones en Comportamiento Alimentario y Nutrición (IICAN), with 15 years of history, is a consolidated proof that research on the food phenomenon fruitful and vast, to the point of being inexhaustible. What is addressed in this article is intended to serve as a demonstration and motivation, especially for in training researchers interested in considering the study of food from other perspectives. This paper shares two investigations in which food is approached from an anthropological perspective, intertwining cultural, agricultural, environmental, social, economic and political aspects, in such a way that the study of food becomes more complex and enriched at the same time. The first case addresses an agrifood “paradox” in the state of Jalisco, in which berries are used as an emblem of the narrative that recognizes Jalisco as “Agrifood Giant”; what is argued is that berries serve as an example of the disconnection between agricultural production and food consumption. In contrast, the second case shows a very particular territorial context: the Potosí desert; here, despite appearances, there is a variety of sociocultural links with different parts of the local environment, resulting in a diversity of food manifestations.