The General Law on Adequate and Sustainable Food from a Critical and Comprehensive Human Rights Perspective

Abstract

On April 17, 2024, the General Law on Adequate and Sustainable Food (hereinafter LGAAS) was enacted, following years of legislative obstruction by various opposition groups within the processed foods industry. The implementation of this law faces a range of institutional challenges that go beyond mere compliance with its regulations.
Ensuring adequate and sustainable food calls for reflection on the social dynamics surrounding the production of healthy food, such as the territorialization of local agriculture, the limitation of transnational food distribution chains, the preservation of native seeds and plants that guarantee sustainability, and access to information on endemic foods that strengthen a culture of local consumption.
In this regard, this text offers a brief geopolitical context underlying the effective implementation of the LGAAS and the various dimensions involved in exercising the right to healthy and sustainable food.

Based on a documentary methodological strategy, the hypothesis posits that the applicability of the LGAAS must go beyond mere regulatory compliance by legal and non-legal institutions; rather, it must serve as a catalyst for social mobilization in Mexico that strives for social transformation through the right to healthier and more sustainable food, which entails challenging the economic power of large food corporations.