Structural barriers to food programming: An analysis of the “Mexican food system”

Plagued by widespread malnutrition, stagnant staples production, and increasing dependence on food imports, the Mexican government launched a new food program, the Sistema Alimentario Mexicano (SAM), in 1980. This program was designed to restore self-sufficiency in staples production while improving the diet of the poor by stimulating increased production in rainfed areas and subsidizing basic food consumption. In spite of its achievements, the program was soon discontinued. The major obstacles it confronted are found to be: inadequate technical information about alternative production strategies, organizational complexity, and internal bureaucratic competition; opposition from established agricultural élites; and the inadequacy of the state's financial resource base.