Mexico Takes the Lead on Food Safety

During World Food Day, researchers Evangelina Villegas and Sanjaya Rajaram were awarded the “Nobel Prize of Food” in recognition of their efforts to improve agricultural systems. Both scientists developed mechanisms to sustainably produce corn that have been used in Mexico and other countries to prevent food scarcity.

According to SADER, the work of Villegas and Rajaram has allowed thousands of Mexican producers of all sizes to adopt sustainable practices with the support of the strategic programs of the Ministry such as Production for Well-being, Mexican Food Safety Guarantee Prices (Segalmex) and Fertilizer for Welfare. This program has been implemented in Mexico and Colombia and will eventually be exported to other Latin American countries to help reduce forced migration out of necessity.

Recently, UNICED had urged Mexico to take highly necessary measures to address the deterioration of health and nutrition of its population, which were further worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mexico has developed innovative and helpful solutions that aim to improve food safety and reduce hunger in the country. Mexico has also built numerous alliances to strengthen food safety through science and good practices, which would allow achieving better production of foodstuffs, as previously mentioned by MBN.

Numerous parties in the country are now generating a large platform for collaboration between the public, private, social and academic sectors to promote the Mexican countryside. These initiatives include the “Corn for Mexico” platform, which is one of the components of Crops for Mexico and one of the flagship initiatives of the World Economic Forum’s Alliance for Food Action to support alliances to transform food systems.

“Crops for Mexico is a reality and we are making progress so consumers know that they are buying healthy grains in Mexico,” said Minister of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos Arámbula. This program has made it possible to increase the number of producers that use sustainable practices, which has resulted in increases in yield production from 10 percent to triple yields in the south-southeast of the country. Finally, the initiative made it possible to establish post-harvest machinery points and platforms, where intelligent mechanization allows producers to minimize post-harvest losses that can reach up to 40 percent. The program has also hosted other trials of blue and “pozolero” corn that aim to advance the selection of the best materials to increase production and quality.