The Food Front: Securing Our Future

Each year, World Food Day encourages us to reflect on the major challenges of our time. But in 2025, reflection alone is not enough. Food has become a critical variable in global stability — a strategic asset in today’s geopolitical chessboard.

The war in Ukraine, for instance, triggered a 40% spike in global wheat prices and reduced fertilizer availability by 20%, pushing more than 345 million people into acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme. Mexico was not immune.

Despite being a global agro-export powerhouse, Mexico remains highly dependent on grain imports to meet domestic demand. In 2024, we imported over 17 million tons of yellow corn, more than 70% of the total used by our livestock and agro-industrial sectors. That dependency means any disruption in global trade — armed conflicts, export restrictions, or currency volatility — can directly impact the price of eggs, milk, tortillas, and meat on Mexican tables.

And the pressure isn’t just external. Mexico faces deep structural vulnerabilities at home. By 2030, our population will surpass 135 million, increasingly urban, aging, and demanding more diversified diets. According to INEGI, over 60% of monthly household spending in Mexico’s lowest income brackets goes to food. FAO data shows food inflation averaged 9.4% in 2023, with staple items like sugar and cooking oil rising by as much as 30%. These trends are not just economic, they represent rising social discontent and growing food poverty.

The only structural solution is to produce more, produce smarter, and produce closer to where people live. To do this, we must stop treating sustainability as a luxury and start recognizing it as critical infrastructure. Precision agriculture, biofertilizers, smart irrigation, digital field management, and gene editing are no longer optional. According to the World Bank, climate change has already caused an average 8% decline in crop yields across Latin America. These technologies are our only viable defense.

But Mexico lags behind in adoption. Only 2% of our agricultural land uses modern irrigation systems. While other countries are advancing on agri-carbon markets, traceability systems, and green finance strategies, Mexico has an incredible opportunity to unite its efforts in innovation, climate resilience, and food security under a single, powerful public policy framework. To realize this potential we can collaborate to create a National Food Security and Sustainability Plan with a clear vision for 2030, grounded in five fundamental actions. This plan will serve as a shared roadmap for a resilient and thriving future for all:

• Strengthen domestic production of strategic grains, through crop reconversion programs, bio-inputs, and green credit access for small and mid-sized farmers.
   
• Create a national agtech agency to centralize digital innovation, applied research, technology transfer, and technical extension services.
   
• Promote an active food diplomacy agenda, with technical capacity to engage in global forums shaping trade, sustainability standards, and market access.
   
• Implement a nationwide food education policy, to reduce waste, encourage responsible consumption, and promote local products, from schools to digital platforms.
• Accelerate the technological adoption, and foster an integrated ecosystem where innovation, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing with collective cooperation are the driving forces of progress.
   

These aren’t isolated programs. They must form part of a coordinated, cross-sectoral national effort involving government, private enterprise, academia, civil society, and consumers. Because if there’s one thing this era of uncertainty has made clear, it’s that food security can no longer rest solely on farmers’ shoulders. It also depends on policy, science, cooperation — and the choices we make today.

The future can’t be improvised. It must be built.

World Food Day must no longer be a symbolic event. It should mark a turning point. Mexico has the talent, knowledge, and natural resources to not only feed itself, but to lead Latin America’s sustainable agrifood transition. What’s missing is political will, multisector coordination, and a long-term strategic vision.

The future of food in Mexico won’t be determined by harvest cycles. It will be shaped by the agreements we forge now. And each day we delay this strategic decision, we raise the social, economic, and environmental cost of inaction.

Now more than ever, feeding people well is governing well. And ensuring Mexico’s food sovereignty is not a matter of choice, it is a responsibility of the state with collective cooperation.