Implications of family livestock production in food security in Mexico

Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicate that 70% of the world's poorest people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and livestock as their main income. The increased food demand, degradation of natural resources, and the serious effects of climate change seriously threaten their livelihood. Under this context of demand, food prices are becoming increasingly inaccessible to rural populations, especially those with a greater degree of marginalization or social backwardness; which compromises their warranty of having healthy and high-quality food. There is a potential in family-based production in the Mexican rural environment, which may address appropriately this problem of food availability at a lower cost, in order to reduce the issues of poverty, hunger and inequity that encourage the persistent migration of people from the countryside to large cities or to the United States of America. Unwarranted feeding is a complex problem that must be addressed from a strategy arranged upon agreement by all actors and canalized through comprehensive action plans. These plans should be circumscribed in the scope of sustainable production, which includes the development of various agricultural production systems, either in large, medium or small scale; and which, of course, include family or backyard production.