Urban agriculture in Mexico City; balancing between ecological, economic, social and symbolic value

Abstract

The article presents urban agriculture as a practice that is gaining attention in many cities worldwide, and focuses in particular on the experiences in Mexico City. It first gives a general description of urban agriculture, introduces some conceptual dimensions and presents a policy framework to stimulate agriculture in cities worldwide. It then discusses current practices in the periurban, suburban and interurban parts of Mexico City, and analyses them in terms of their economic, ecological, social and symbolic dimension. The article shows that Mexico City produces some 20% of its own food, but that its importance in economic terms – seen as employment and income generation – is still limited. Its contribution to the ecological infrastructure of the city equally is limited but has potential, as recent policies firmly integrate urban agriculture in environmental policies of the city. An important challenge is to expand urban agriculture to the 22,000 m2 of green roof gardens recently created in the city. In terms of the social dimension, it is observed that Mexico City clearly follows international policy recommendations, invests in capacity building and has policies to help vulnerable groups and women. Finally it addresses the symbolic dimension and observes that this is very important in Mexico City, as urban agriculture is seen as a way to restore some of the pre-Hispanic practices of the Aztecs especially the Floating gardens or Chinampas that have largely been lost due to colonization. Its final conclusion is that a policy to balance the economic, ecological, social and symbolic dimensions of urban agriculture is missing, and that such a policy is important, especially for the periurban zone of the city, where most of the food is produced.