1 June 2010 | News | Linking Alternatives 4 | Food Sovereignty
Feet on the ground
Mexican peasant women are the worst affected by agribusiness model
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As it happens in most of the countries, the consolidation of the agribusiness model in the Mexican rural areas has led to an increasing migration to the big urban centers.
Tired of the lack of credit and land grabbing, usually the men of the family or elder brothers are the first ones to leave the land and look for new sources of income.
“The women are left in charge of our families and we keep working in our small plots of land. We are the worst affected by the agribusiness model”, said Maria Susana Nava Jaramillo, representative of the National Union of Indigenous and Peasant Women (UNMIC), which is part of the National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations (UNORCA).
Real World Radio interviewed the peasant leader, who talked about the impacts of climate change in the everyday life of the Mexican peasants.
“Now it rains in the dry season, and it is still cold when it should be hot. There are constant rains and hail in places where these phenomena would not happen before”, she said.
UNORCA’s activist also said that these unprecedented climate phenomena have already caused big economic losses for small farmers and she mentioned the example of what happened in the recent months with the production of avocado, mango and orange.
