Feeding the Urban Leviathan

Abstract

Mexico City, a crowded and sprawling metropolis of 22 million residents, is not only one of the world’s most populated urban settlements but also one of the most vulnerable. Overburdened by a centuries-long series of compounding crises, Mexico City has always lived on the verge of an imminent and irreversible collapse. Water scarcity, floods, earthquakes, pollution, violence, traffic, overpopulation, and health issues have all taken their toll on a city that has, nonetheless and against all odds, managed to survive. When the first wave of COVID-19 hit in early 2020, Mexico City faced a hitherto overlooked threat: food insecurity. One of the communities hardest hit by the pandemic was the central wholesale market, Central de Abasto, which controls 80 percent of the food bought, sold, and consumed throughout the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico. This article takes a close look at the political, economic, and ideological causes and effects of Mexico City’s over-centralized model of food supply and distribution and how it has added to its state of permanent crisis.