Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
following quote from the president of a cooperative in Pochuape, Nica-
ragua, they regard promotores quite differently. “The Mexicans are
campesinos just like us,” he said. “We understand each other. They have
shown us what we can become” (quoted in Holt-Giménez 2006, 16).
Such bonds are not only generated by cultural similarity but by a peda-
gogy that fuses research, training, and education. Thus, the promotores
are always learning along with those who attend workshops, and, armed
with their own place-based ecological knowledge, the learners are always
teaching as well. For this reason, Holt-Giménez (2006) regards campesino
pedagogy not only as a methodology, but as a practice of cultural resis-
tance against the reliance on outside, expert knowledge and drive toward
privatization that characterize the globalization of agriculture. Although
emphasis on local knowledge has often been associated with insular
strategies (Harvey 1996), here it becomes essential to the creation of
transnational networks. Such an emphasis on local knowledge also
informs the U.S. food justice movement's creation of local alternative
food systems through farmers' markets and community gardens, high-
lighting the possibility for increasing transnational alliances.
Solidarity Ranch
While the Campesino a Campesino movement is primarily concerned
with production,
El Ranchero Solidario
maintains a similar approach
toward distribution. El Ranchero Solidario is a cooperative grocery store
owned by fi fty-two farm families in the town of Anáhuac in Chihuahua,
Mexico. Until the 1980s, farmers in this area sold much of their grain
to the National Food Staples Company (CONASUPO), a government
distribution agency that set prices for staple foods. Although smaller
farms lacked access to this market, they benefi ted indirectly from its price
fl oors. CONASUPO was disbanded under the structural adjustments
mandated by the IMF and World Bank in exchange for refi nancing
Mexico's defaulted loans. Transnational corporations such as Cargill and
Gruma became the region's primary purchasers and distributors (Stone
2009).
El Ranchero Solidario seeks to enrich the livelihoods of its members,
who receive fi rst priority to sell their goods there, as well as other local
farmers. Co-op members set prices in accordance with the Chicago Stock
Exchange, refl ecting ongoing ties to the global market. However, because
the co-op itself does not seek to make a profi t, it can pay farmers the
bulk of those prices while offering competitive rates to consumers. Thus,
