Update from Robbie

We’re in Day 4 of the International Agroecology Shortcourse—the 11^th one—taking place in San Cristobol de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The group of 44 from 7 countries come from various walks of life…campesinos, coffee cooperatives, educators, students,

Ngos, academics. Togetther we are finding our common connectors—our concern for

the maintenace of culture, for the value of the small producers, for the environment.

Our theme is: Linking tradition, education and science for sustainability

and after the first day we had an intense discussion full of concern for how the youth in the rural communities have no interest in their culture, in maintaining their culture, in valuing the knowledge of their families.

In Day 2 we went to market! The amazing Great Market of San Cristobol. Endless stalls

of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, live chickens, ducks, turkeys (the chickens being held upside down on the women’s arms as if they were large handbags.) —such diversity, the fruits looking so ripe.

Everything from live fauna to traditional medicinal herbs to tamales to grains of every kind. We then sat around in a circle sharing our observations. Many of the local indigenous and farmers in the group share info for how different items are used.

I was part of a team including Lorena who comes from Tuxtla Guiterrez and doña Reina, who as a local indigenous, was an amazing guide through the market.

In Day 3 we compared our visit to the traditional market with visits to large supermarkets including Sam’s Club. Once again I was with Doña Reina as we went into a large Mexican supermarket chain. She had never been there before and we were both amazed by how much ‘stuff’ was there. More than half the store was non-food items –everything from plastic toys, to clothes, to televisions and exercise machines. The food was from everywhere—local herbs and vegetables to packagde lettuce and strawberries from Watsonville, CA to pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream at $8 a pint! While Ben & Jerry’s was very expensive, most things were very cheap. The best example was the tortillas which are made there and are 5 peso a kilo compared with 10 pesos/kilo at local tortillerías. There was a line of at least 20 people waiting to purchase their tortillas—the staple of the Mexican diet. As I stood to the side to take a picture, a man said to me: “Buen precio pero no buen sabor.” Good price but not good flavor. Yet when your family may eat 2 kilos of tortillas a day, price drives the decision. After our investigation, Doña Reina and I waited outside for the rest of the group. I asked her what she thought of the supermarket. She said she would go back when she needed something like an iron because it was cheap.

hasta pronto!

Robbie