Agroindustrial development and environmental degradation in Mexico (1941-2021)

Abstract

The industrialization of agriculture in Mexico, which emerged in the context of the cold war to achieve food self-sufficiency and consolidated under the neoliberal economic model, has generated serious consequences for the environment of many producing regions, which today are vulnerable to different crises. Through the bibliographic and statistical review, in this work we show how the excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as well as the overexploit of aquifers, soils and forest areas, have resulted in various damages to nature and people's health. In view of this, it is important today to ask the question whether it was really opportune to adopt this industrializing process and, above all, whether it should have maintained or whether a paradigm change is necessary.