2004 Annual Meeting - Abstract


Bridging the Cultural Divide in Alternative Food Movements:

Reflections from New Mexico

Lois Stanford
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
New Mexico State University

Increased concentration of the US agricultural industry and commercial markets has marginalized certain rural regions, undermining rural economies and small producers’ traditional livelihoods. In New Mexico, family farms comprise 89% of total farms, 50% of farms are less than 100 acres, and 81% of farms report annual sales of less than $50,000. Thus New Mexican small farmers do not compete effectively in the US commercial market. Yet, despite national declines in agricultural land and total numbers of farmers, some sub-sectors in the US agricultural system have provided alternative directions in food production and marketing that support sustainable and economically viable agricultural development. The 1990s witnessed a dramatic increase in organic food production and product sales. As well, alternative forms of marketing and farm organization, such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) and farmers’ markets.

In New Mexico, food and food policy activists recognize that these new forms of marketing and farm organization could enable New Mexican small farmers and ranchers to bypass commercial markets and integrate local food systems in new ways. Despite this acknowledgment, a cultural chasm exists between this new food movement and the economic reality of small New Mexico growers, ranchers, and consumers. Thus, there are currently 17 CSAs scattered throughout different counties across New Mexico, but only one CSA is managed by a minority farmer. There are 36 New Mexico farmers’ markets, and the most famous, the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market generated gross sales of $1.25 million in 2001. Yet, New Mexican consumers are relatively poor and face constraints in purchasing fresh produce. In New Mexico, a new WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program now provides subsidies for participating women and children to purchase fresh produce. In the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market, WIC sales comprise 1% of total sales, while WIC sales make up 73% of farmer sales in farmers’ markets in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Whether or not the new food movement provides options for poor, Hispanic growers and consumers requires both a clear recognition of this cultural and economic chasm and a concerted effort to bridge this gap. Drawing on taped ethnographic interviews with food activists, CSA leaders, and small growers, this paper examines their interpretations on bridging this cultural gap. In discussing these challenges, activists and growers alike examine such issues as marketing “rural” lifeways, communicating common interests across cultural divides, and reconfiguring an urbane slow food movement to meet the needs of low-income consumers. Bridging this gap requires organizing culturally disparate groups in ways that build on the cultural and agricultural traditions of rural New Mexico and form new linkages between producers and consumers of different cultural backgrounds.