Chapter Fourteen - The Organic Market of Mazatlan (Sinaloa, Mexico). Paradoxes of food supply, tourism, and migration

Abstract

Mazatlán is a tourist destination in Mexico located in the State of Sinaloa, one of the most important suppliers of farm products for human consumption at the national level in Mexico, with a large tradition of intensive agriculture. Although it is true that in this destination the demand of the national tourist does not necessarily look for the origin of the agricultural products within their tourist experience as an added value to it, there is an emergence of a new profile of consumers—generally permanent residents, temporary residents, and foreign tourists—who are interested in the origin of their food, and that some of them have organized themselves to develop collective initiatives through new spaces where agrochemical-free products are offered in the port. One of the supply centers that confirms the above is the Mazatlán Organic Market (MOM): a mobile market that offers organic products installed temporarily during the winter months in the central area of the city. The market has become a recurring space for foreign retirees who live in the port during this season and for some locals who are looking for other, healthier food options. It has also been included in the recommended itineraries for this sector of visitors as a means of tourist promotion. Although these types of initiatives make food production and supply chains more dynamic, shortening the distance between producers and consumers, it is also true that the segmentation of the market to which they are directed restricts access to these foods to other sectors of the port’s inhabitants due to the sale prices and the formats in which the products offered there are sold. Due to the above, the objective of this chapter is to analyze, through an anthropological lens, the relationship between migration and tourism as mobility phenomena that restructure the context of food production and distribution in the city of Mazatlán and reflect on the impact of this dynamic on the promotion of more sustainable and resilient food system.