Episode summary
In our conversation with social anthropologist Elena Lazos Chavero (National University of Mexico), we discuss how her research interests were formed around rainforest conservation, food systems and indigenous rights in Veracruz, Mexico. Elena explains how local and global food systems as well as urban and rural communities are highly dependent on each other. We also explore what the food sovereignty movement in Mexico stands for today.
This episode originally aired on 19 April 2021.
About Elena Lazos Chavero
Elena Lazos Chavero is a professor-researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico since 1992 and a member of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). As an interdisciplinary researcher with degrees in biology and social anthropology, she has a wide range of research interests that include the long-term evolution of rural commons, history of rural conflicts and rural development, the institutional dynamics of social-ecological systems, the contradictions of traditional environmental knowledges, and the challenges of community-based management in order to achieve food sovereignty. She is also interested in the risks of agrodiversity loss, particularly, the loss of different maize populations, and culture and power around the conservation of natural resources.
Background reading and resources
The rediscovery of native "super-foods" in Mexico
Peasant micropower in an agrifood supply system of the Sierra Madre of Chiapas, Mexico
The Drink of the Gods: An Introduction to Pulque (Serious eats)
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