The Interaction Between Mayan Honey Producers and the Global Agri-Food Regime

Abstract

This chapter aims to describe and analyze the agricultural activities in Mayan communities of the center of Quintana Roo, Mexico, and the relation between a network of Mayan agricultural practices with the agri-food regime. This analysis presents Mayan communities as a niche that interacts with the regime as a particular and unique model. The methodology included a mixed methods approach of qualitative nature, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, and discourse analysis, based on grounded theory. The interaction between the regime and the Mayan communities is observed in three aspects: (1) In the activities of honey production, (2) In the activities of traditional agriculture, and (3) In the forms of social organization of the communities. The traditional agricultural systems in the communities coexist and interact with the regime, which is the dominant actor. In the activities of honey production, the agri-food regime imposes strict rules about the know-how of production and “transfers” technological packages and technical knowledge to the Mayan peasants, thereby displacing traditional practices and knowledge, for example, with respect to breeding native bees. Both in agricultural activities and social organizations, the regime does not dominate the communities because peasants maintain cultivation of the milpa (i.e., the slash-and-burn cultivation) and because community social organizations have a high degree of consolidation.