Is such an ambitious goal really attainable? Many have argued that Mexico’s
small-scale maize farmers are not worth the investment because they cannot significantly
raise their productivity. This argument, prevalent since NAFTA and now under scrutiny
due to rising maize import costs, flows from the theory of comparative advantage that
suggests Mexico, in an integrated global – and especially North American – market,
should produce what it can most efficiently produce and import the rest. The failure of
the NAFTA-based model to generate adequate employment and ensure food security,
however, has caused many to question this approach (Zepeda, Wise et al. 2009). More
recently, high and rising international prices have made such an approach very expensive.
Mexico’s soaring food import bill may well force the incoming administration of Enrique
Peña Nieto to rethink Mexico’s agricultural policies.