Expanded seeds
Exploring local market dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean
This story was originally published in Spanish. Read it here
Local market systems are living networks where people produce, exchange, and consume food and other goods within their own communities. More than simple places to buy and sell, they are vibrant hubs where knowledge, relationships, and traditions circulate, carrying the history of communities across generations. These markets sustain economies that prioritize people and the land, favor short supply chains that lower environmental impact, support sustainable production, and uphold both biodiversity and cultural identity.
The Latin America and the Caribbean region’s diversity of climates, soils, and cultures has shaped markets that reflect the character of their territories and the ingenuity of their people. Here, local markets operate as systems that withstand global pressures while adapting to social and climate shifts. Through their own rhythms and strong community ties, they have been a key tool for communities to maintain their food autonomy, care for their cultural heritage, and build resilience to today’s challenges. From the mountains to the coast, local markets embody how food, beyond sustenance, is a collective right and an expression of cultural identity and dignity.
This multimedia study brings together experiences from four countries—Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti—where peasant and community organizations show that, through creativity and collective organization, markets can become engines of resilience, equity, and dignified living.
“The chest of the corn,
the eye of the corn,
the voice of the corn,
in husk upon husk it wraps.”
Gabriela Mistral, "El maíz", poem
Latin America and the Caribbean is a region of enormous natural and cultural diversity, where communities have created agricultural systems deeply linked to their territories. The Andean chakras, where corn, potatoes, beans and medicinal plants are cultivated on the same space of land, or the Mayan home gardens (milpas), where farmers preserve herbs such as macuy, chipilín or amaranth, are examples of long-standing knowledge that blends technique, spirituality, and environmental adaptation.
This diversity, however, exists alongside deep structural challenges that vary from country to country.
In Haiti, a long dependence on food imports, coupled with hurricanes, deforestation, and recurring economic and humanitarian crises, has weakened local production and farmers' ability to sustain themselves. Much of the country's staple foods now come from abroad, while poor infrastructure means a large share of what is produced locally is lost before it reaches the market.
In Guatemala and Honduras, the Central American Dry Corridor—home to more than ten million people—faces prolonged droughts that directly affect corn and bean crops, key staples of the local diet. Unequal land ownership adds to the crisis: the most fertile land is used for export crops, forcing millions of peasant families to farm on small, often degraded plots. The result is declining yields, fragile livelihoods, and rising levels of food insecurity.
In Ecuador, despite policies promoting food sovereignty, profound inequalities remain. Land fragmentation, limited access to markets, and competition with processed products place heavy pressure on small producers. While child malnutrition indicators have improved, nearly a quarter of children under five still suffer from stunting—a sign that the food system fails to ensure access to a nutritious and diverse diet.
To face these challenges, communities are responding with strategies that combine ancestral knowledge and contemporary practices. They are recovering native and heirloom seeds as biocultural heritage, diversifying crops to face climate change; regenerating soils through agroecology; organizing community grain reserves as collective security mechanisms; creating local microenterprises to generate new income streams; and building local marketing networks to bring producers and consumers closer together.
What connects these experiences is the understanding that food sovereignty is not a distant ideal but a daily political practice. It is reflected in the freedom to decide what to plant and how, in the organization that keeps local markets running, and in the collective strength of communities facing today’s challenges.
The following experiences arise from the work of four organizations that are part of the Groundswell International network in Latin America and the Caribbean: EkoRural (Ecuador), Qachuu Aloom (Guatemala), Partenariat pour le Développement Durable (Haiti) and Vecinos Honduras (Honduras). Despite their different contexts, they all share a common goal: to build food sovereignty from the ground up by strengthening community organization, ancestral knowledge, agroecology, and local markets.
To speak of these organizations is to speak of hundreds of peasant and Indigenous families who grow, process, and sell their food with dignity despite persistent challenges. Across the four countries, their strategies show that it is possible to confront issues such as the climate crisis, forced migration, and biodiversity loss with concrete, community-driven solutions such as agroecological fairs, community grain reserves, direct sales, fair trade, seed preservation, and rural microenterprises.
Each experience offers a different and complementary way of defending the right to healthy, diverse, and sustainable food. Together, they form an interconnected web of solutions that proves another food system is possible, and already taking shape.
Local linkages
Community strategies that strengthen local markets
EkoRural
In Ecuador's Andean provinces, peasant life is affected by land fragmentation and unequal access to markets. For decades, families have relied on selling their products to intermediaries at wholesale markets, where they receive low prices and face unstable conditions. This dynamic has weakened their ability to sustain themselves and value their agroecological production.
To address this, EkoRural has developed Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). These networks directly connect agroecological producers with urban consumers through community fairs, organized food baskets, municipal market sales, farmers' stands, and door-to-door delivery. What began as a sales strategy has evolved into dynamic meeting spaces. Consumers learn to appreciate local production, while farmers build fairer, more human relationships through direct sales.
The AFNs do not operate in isolation from the farm. With EkoRural, families take part in agroecological farm redesign processes, diversifying crops, optimizing resources, and generating surpluses through these new market channels. This technical strengthening has been crucial to ensure a consistent and quality food supply for the markets.
The results of these AFNs are tangible: families earn fairer prices, consumers gain access to fresh and healthy food, and rural–urban relationships are revitalized. While the networks require time, coordination, and resources to function well, they have become a concrete strategy for shifting food systems toward fairer and more sustainable models.
Qachuu Aloom
For Mayan Achi women, seeds are a pillar of community resistance and daily life. The Qachuu Aloom organization works with more than a hundred women producers who rescue, cultivate, and commercialize native and heirloom seeds, as well as herbs and traditional food plants. What began as an effort to preserve endangered varieties has grown into an economic and cultural strategy that is reshaping local markets.
On Thursdays and Sundays, women producers gather at the plazas of Rabinal, San Miguel Chicaj, and Cubulco, offering bunches of macuy, chipilín, amaranth, cabbage, cilantro, and other herbs used in both everyday and ceremonial cooking. They also sell seeds in small quantities or in bulk, depending on demand. During the pandemic, the organization developed a mobile sales models, bringing products directly to neighboring communities when access to markets was limited.
The economic impact is significant. Producers report annual earnings between Q1,720 and Q6,100 (roughly USD 220 to USD 780), income that often goes toward household food, healthcare, and children’s education. But the transformation extends beyond economics. By selling seeds, women affirm their roles as guardians of agricultural biodiversity and carriers of ancestral knowledge. Each exchange is both an act of food sovereignty and a statement of cultural resistance against the homogenization driven by industrial agriculture.
In these markets, people see seeds as more than a commodity. They stand as a symbol of continuity, memory, and a shared future.
Vecinos Honduras
Within the Central American Dry Corridor, food insecurity is a constant challenge. Prolonged droughts, fragile soils, and structural poverty have left many families vulnerable. In response, Vecinos Honduras has developed a model based on community organization and collective food management: the Strategic Grain Reserves.
These reserves allow communities to produce, store, and market corn and beans—two staples of the Honduran diet—under a fair price system. In places like Las Trojas, corn from the “Nuevo Amanecer” reserve is purchased by local women who turn it into tortillas for daily sale. This ensures the availability of a key food staple while generating direct income for dozens of families. In other communities, such as El Peñón #2, families have diversified their businesses: producing plantain chips, doughnuts, quesadillas, and corn flour, all derived from reserve products now sold in local markets.
An important innovation has been the active role of young people. During the pandemic, a group of youth began manufacturing metal silos, addressing the need for better grain storage while creating a new source of income and service within the community. This shows how the reserves go beyond securing food; they also generate opportunities for economic participation and leadership across different sectors.
The reserves have strengthened food autonomy and elevated the value of peasant work. They function as a community safety net, helping families withstand climatic and economic shocks while opening new paths for local development.
Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL)
In Haiti's Plateau Central, local markets have historically been weakened by migration, violence, poor infrastructure, and an almost total dependence on imported food. Confronted with these challenges, PDL adopted an innovative approach: strengthening rural microenterprises led by peasant organizations to transform and market local products.
Since 2017, PDL has supported initiatives that process local crops into products like cassava bread, fruit jellies, peanut butter, cane syrup, artisanal wine, rice, and cocoa. This has added value to crops that were previously wasted or left unused on farms. The microenterprises have opened community outlets, participated in fairs, supplied schools, and in some cases, brought their products to supermarkets in cities such as Cap-Haïtien.
The impact is visible on multiple levels. Food waste has been reduced, and the value of traditional crops such as cassava has been recovered. Families have gained new sources of income, which, in turn, reduces the pressure to migrate away from rural areas. One of the most notable shifts has been in how farmers view fruit trees: once cut down for firewood or construction, they are now protected as productive assets vital to community economies.
Although limitations persist, such as the lack of public policies, weak infrastructure and low technical literacy, the success of these microenterprises shows that it is possible to revitalize local markets and create new opportunities for rural families.
Mapping local markets
Location of fairs, reserves and community microenterprises
📍EkoRural (Ecuador)
Cotopaxi & Chimborazo
In the central highlands, agroecological producers have been building a direct sales circuit that connects their farms with urban homes. Each fair or basket organized in Cotopaxi or Chimborazo is the result of months of collective work: planting, tending, harvesting, sorting, and finally delivering. The Alternative Food Networks allow fresh food to circulate without intermediaries, ensuring fair prices for producers and offering urban families healthier food.
Women play a central role in these networks. They coordinate basket groups, run stalls at fairs, and manage door-to-door deliveries. Through their efforts, agroecology has gained visibility in local markets, which now serve not only as supply points but also as cultural bridges between countryside and city.
📍 PDL (Haití)
Saint Michel, Pignon, Saint Raphaël – Plateau Central
PDL-supported microenterprises are reshaping the local economy in Haiti’s Plateau Central, where markets have long suffered from migration and poor infrastructure. In Saint Michel and Pignon, community workshops process cassava bread, sugarcane syrup, and peanut butter for local fairs and schools. In Saint Raphaël, women traders bring fruits such as avocados and mangoes to Cap-Haïtien, reducing waste and generating a steady income.
This approach has shifted local perceptions such as re-valuing fruit trees as productive assets. Each location reflects a broader effort to recover traditional foods and turn them into engines of the peasant economy.
📍 Vecinos Honduras (Honduras)
Las Trojas, Choluteca / El Peñón #2, Valle
In Honduras’ Dry Corridor, the Strategic Grain Reserves are central to community market organization. These reserves store corn and beans collectively, helping families cope with drought and reducing dependence on intermediaries.
In the community of Las Trojas, the “Nuevo Amanecer” reserve provides corn to more than 50 women who transform it daily into tortillas for local sale. This process ensures food security and a steady income. In El Peñón #2, reserves have stimulated small processing businesses producing plantain slices, doughnuts, and corn-based products.
These initiatives show that the Dry Corridor’s economy extends beyond scattered farms and informal markets, integrating storage, production, and sales into a system that structures and sustains daily life.
📍 Qachuu Aloom (Guatemala)
Rabinal, San Miguel Chicaj, Cubulco – Baja Verapaz
In Baja Verapaz, local markets revolve around the plazas of Rabinal, San Miguel Chicaj, and Cubulco, where Mayan Achí women producers sell vegetables, as well as native and hairloom seeds. Market stalls feature herbs such as macuy, chipilín, amaranth, cilantro, and cabbage, alongside grains and seeds sold in ounces, pounds, or quintals.
These markets are both economic and cultural spaces. They reinforce women’s roles as custodians of biodiversity and transmitters of agricultural knowledge. During crises, producers organized mobile sales to neighboring communities, extending the reach of their exchanges.
Mapping Baja Verapaz shows that local markets are part of a larger system, where home garden production, seed conservation, and community circulation operate together within a single socioeconomic process.
Markets in motion: local narratives
Testimonies and peasant narratives
Local markets are sustained by what happens on the farm: planting with native seeds, managing soil and water, and planning crops. These first steps determine what food reaches families and in what quantities.
The next phase is collective. Communities organize to store grains, diversify crops, and process what they produce. Women and youth play key roles in these tasks, ensuring food remains available even in times of scarcity.
At the market, all this work comes to life. Farmers sell and exchange products at fair prices, while consumers gain access to healthy, traditional food. Together, they help circulate and safeguard local culture, passing along recipes, plants, seeds, and knowledge handed down through generations.
Local markets are sustained by what happens on the farm: planting with native seeds, managing soil and water, and planning crops. These first steps determine what food reaches families and in what quantities.
The next phase is collective. Communities organize to store grains, diversify crops, and process what they produce. Women and youth play key roles in these tasks, ensuring food remains available even in times of scarcity.
At the market, all this work comes to life. Farmers sell and exchange products at fair prices, while consumers gain access to healthy, traditional food. Together, they help circulate and safeguard local culture, passing along recipes, plants, seeds, and knowledge handed down through generations.
"When we deliver the basket, we're not just selling, we're talking. People ask how we plant and learn with us."
A participant of community baskets, Chimborazo
EkoRural
Strengthening local markets through Alternative Food Networks (AFNs)
In Ecuador’s central highlands, the EkoRural Foundation works with farming communities to strengthen agroecological agriculture and its connection to local markets. Conventional commercialization presents multiple obstacles: long intermediary chains, unstable prices, poor road infrastructure, and limited access to proper spaces for selling products.
To address these challenges, EkoRural spent three years working alongside families to redesign their farms with an integrated approach.
The redesign involved organizing plots collaboratively, reviving agroecological practices, and diversifying crops. Families planned their farms as holistic systems capable of meeting household food needs, generating surpluses, and sustaining resilient production cycles. They incorporated vegetables, grains, tubers, and medicinal plants, creating farms that supply both family diets and local markets.
This transformation gave rise to the Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). Farm surpluses flow into multiple channels: agroecological fairs in cantonal capitals, weekly community baskets delivered in urban neighborhoods, peasant stalls at municipal markets, and door-to-door sales. Each channel shortens the distance between producers and consumers and reshapes local food dynamics.
These networks also foster trust and mutual learning. Consumers gain a deeper appreciation for peasant foods, while producers—especially the women who lead marketing—gain social recognition. The farm redesign strengthened production and laid the groundwork for a local market system rooted in agroecology.
“It is much better to sell here than at the wholesaler. People come because they know us. They value our products; they value the fact that they are ecological.”
- Rosa, AFNs fairs, Cotopaxi.
Qachuu Aloom
Commercialization of seeds and comestible plants from the Mayan Achi economy
In Rabinal, San Miguel Chicaj, and Cubulco, Qachuu Aloom supports over 110 women in maintaining a marketing system that integrates seeds, comestible plants, vegetables, and processed products. Every week, women arrive at the markets with local herbs like macuy, chipilín, amaranth, and cilantro, along with with seeds sold in traditional measures like ounces, pounds, and quintals. The plazas become spaces where different scales of exchange coexist: individual stalls, community sales, and organized distribution through the association.
The activity represents an annual monetary income that varies between Q1,720 and Q6,100 per producer, destined mainly for family food, children's education and health care. The local market is, therefore, as much an economic hub as a support system for peasant households.
During the pandemic, the producers implemented mobile sales strategies in neighboring communities, expanding their reach and preventing losses. At the same time, the herbs and seeds sold preserve communities’ culinary heritage, including dishes like boxboles, tamalitos de elote, and atoles de amaranto, linking food to cultural memory.
“Native and hairloom seeds are our sustenance, the one that saves us from hunger. They are a gift from Mother Earth that our ancestors left us.”
Collective testimonial from women producers working with Qachuu Aloom
Vecinos Honduras
Strategic grain reserves as a market strategy for food sovereignty
In Honduras’ Dry Corridor, prolonged droughts and structural poverty limit access to basic food. In response, communities have organized Strategic Grain Reserves and Local Agricultural Research Committees (CIAL) across Valle and Choluteca. These structures enable families to produce, store, and market corn and beans under community management, reducing reliance on intermediaries and stabilizing prices in the face of climate and economic uncertainty.
The reserves ensure that families have grains available year-round, can process them into food, and sell them locally. They also create a central space for women to participate: beyond supplying their households, women lead the production of corn-based products, turning it into a reliable source of income.
Community enterprises have also emerged from these reserves, diversifying the local economy through processed foods, by-products, and small businesses linked to production. The reserves do much more than conserve grain—they function as platforms for entrepreneurship and rural innovation.
Youth participation has strengthened the system further. Young people have built metal silos and managed agroecological practices connected to storage, helping communities reduce losses and improve production management. In doing so, youth have gained opportunities for economic and social insertion within local food systems.
The strategic reserves model has helped communities in the Dry Corridor strengthen food autonomy, secure fair prices, and dignify the role of farmers. More than a storage mechanism, it constitutes a territorial framework that combines production, processing and marketing under community control.
“I only dedicated myself to housework. Now we are producers thanks to God and Vecinos de Honduras. It has helped us to bring food to our families.”
Adelina. Plantain chips business, Peñón #2
PDL
Peasant microenterprises to supply local markets and prevent waste.
In the Central Plateau, farming families face a food system marked by dependence on imports, weak infrastructure, and rural migration. In response to these constraints, PDL strengthened a community microenterprise model driven by 14 peasant organizations between 2017 and 2023. These microenterprises were organized into collective workshops to process local products and channel them into diverse marketing circuits, in order to reduce waste and generate sustainable income.
Products processed in these workshops include cassava bread, peanut butter, sugarcane syrup, local rice, cocoa, wine, chocolate, and jellies—items that previously had little market access. Circulation occurs across multiple scales, through community fairs, local sales points, rural schools, and urban supermarkets. In this scheme, territorial proximity is key: part of the production stays in the area, and another part is transferred to cities such as Cap Haïtien, directly linking rural and urban markets.
Women traders play a decisive role in this process. Many have access to microcredit to transport fruits such as avocados, mangos, and guavas to the city, preventing them from spoiling in the countryside. By turning fruit into a stable source of income, communities have shifted their approach to fruit trees: what was once cut for firewood is now cared for and cultivated. Beyond economics, this change has also strengthened social recognition of women as managers of the peasant economy.
The microenterprises also serve as training spaces, teaching food quality, market and food systems management, and solidarity economy principles. These workshops help peasant organizations act collectively, sustaining economic and social processes even under adverse conditions.
Despite these advances, structural limitations persist. Poor roads limit expansion, low technical literacy constrains business management, and the lack of supportive public policies restricts consolidation. Still, these experiences demonstrate that processing, marketing, and community education, when led by local communities, can revitalize local markets and reduce dependence on imports.
“I harvested the avocados, sold them, and came back with the money. Allan was so surprised that he now looks after his fruit trees as if they were dairy cows.”
Susette, Saint Raphaël, Haiti
Territorial trajectories towards food sovereignty
Timeline of processes and transformations
The strengthening of local markets in Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti was not immediate. It was a cumulative process, marked by specific milestones that show how peasant communities tested, organized, and consolidated strategies to regain control over their food.
2003
Guatemala
Qachuu Aloom orients its mission and vision towards rescuing and conserving native and hairloom seeds, and ensuring organizational sustainability by recovering ancestral knowledge.
2015
Guatemala
Qachuu Aloom consolidates its network of women producers and begins selling seeds and herbs in local markets, establishing itself as a reference in agricultural biodiversity conservation.
2017
Ecuador & Haiti
In Chimborazo and Cotopaxi (Ecuador), peasant communities begin to redesign their farms, diversify crops, and regenerate soil through participatory diagnostics and family plans.
In Haiti's Plateau Central, PDL is promoting a reflection process with farmer organizations on how to reduce waste and add value to local food.
2018
Honduras & Haiti
The first Strategic Grain and Seed Reserves and Local Agricultural Research Committees (CIAL) are created to secure corn and beans in drought-affected areas.
In Haiti, the first community microenterprises are established to process and market cassava bread, peanut butter, sugarcane syrup, local rice and cocoa.
2019
Ecuador y Honduras
In Ecuador, farming families are making progress in redesigning farms and strengthening agricultural planning to produce surpluses.
In Honduras, grain reserves expand, and the first corn-based enterprises, including corn chips and doughnuts, emerge.
2020
Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala & Haiti
In Ecuador, the first Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) consolidate through agroecological fairs and direct sales, gaining importance during the pandemic.
In Honduras, young people organize the construction of metal silos to improve grain storage in the midst of the crisis.
In Guatemala, the women producers of Qachuu Aloom implement mobile marketing strategies to bring seeds and food plants to neighboring communities.
In Haiti, microenterprises begin supplying school canteens with rice, beans, and peanut butter.
2021
Ecuador & Haiti
In Ecuador, AFNs expand through community baskets and new farmer outlets.
In Haiti, the first permanent outlets for processed products are established in communities in the Plateau Central.
2022
Haiti
Microenterprises secure supply agreements with schools and training centers, expanding their reach and impact in the Plateau Central.
2023
Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala & Haiti
In Ecuador, fairs, baskets, and door-to-door sales solidify as a stable framework for direct marketing between rural and urban areas.
In Honduras, strategic reserves are strengthening as hubs for supply and entrepreneurship, with women leading tortilla and corn-based businesses that generate income and autonomy.
In Guatemala, over 110 women sell seeds, food plants, and processed products, earning between Q1,720 and Q6,100 annually.
In Haiti, microenterprises expand into urban markets in Cap-Haïtien, revalue fruit trees as productive assets, and broaden community training in food quality and the solidarity economy.
Before & after
Changes in local markets
|
ORGANIZATION |
BEFORE |
AFTER |
|---|---|---|
|
EkoRural (Ecuador) |
Producers sold their produce in wholesale markets with long chains of intermediation and minimal profits. |
Creation of Alternative Food Networks, with agroecological fairs, baskets and direct sales to strengthen the local economy and rural-urban relations. |
|
Vecinos Honduras (Honduras) |
Families sold corn and beans in a disorganized manner, without price control and with frequent losses due to lack of storage. |
Organization of Strategic Grain Reserves: farmers sell produce at fair prices, women lead tortilla and corn-based businesses, and young people build silos to secure grain. |
|
Qachuu Aloom (Guatemala) |
Native seeds were shared informally and were seen mainly as a resource for self-consumption. |
Today seeds are marketed in an organized manner in community markets and fairs, generating income of between Q1,720 and Q6,100 per producer per year and empowering women as guardians of biodiversity. |
|
PDL (Haiti) |
Local fruits and crops were going to waste due to lack of transportation and sales channels; traditional foods were losing cultural value. |
Peasant microenterprises process and sell local products at fairs, schools, and supermarkets, while fruit trees are now valued as sources of steady income. |
Field Notes
Innovations, learning and transformations that make a difference in the lives of rural families.
Did you know that a producer can sell up to 200 bunches of herbs in a single market day?
In Rabinal, San Miguel Chicaj, and Cubulco, Mayan Achí women offer macuy, chipilín, amaranth, and other food plants that generate income and keep traditional recipes alive, such as boxbol or amaranth atoles. Each bunch sold is part of an economy that connects cuisine, culture, and sovereignty.
Did you know that one family managed to harvest 18 quintals of corn from just half a block of land? By using improved native seeds and agroecological practices, a family in Honduras supplied the community reserve and even sold surpluses. In Las Trojas, more than 50 women turn this corn into tortillas daily, ensuring both food and income in the same cycle.
Did you know that the cassava bread workshops reactivated a crop that was at risk of disappearing? For years, cassava had been neglected. Thanks to the peasant microenterprises, cassava is now planted, processed, and sold in markets, schools, and fairs. Today, cassava bread not only prevents waste, but also generates income and recovers traditional flavors of the Haitian diet.
Did you know that between 40% and 70% of agroecological peasant production can be marketed locally? The Alternative Food Networks (RAAs) channel this production into agroecological fairs, community baskets and door-to-door sales. These short circuits not only reduce environmental impact, but also strengthen local economies and dignify peasant labor.
In these countries, local markets show that food sovereignty grows from collective action. The tortilla made from corn grown on a shared plot, the native seed exchanged, the active rural microenterprise, or each basket passed from hand to hand—these are concrete expressions of autonomy and local organization.
Various publications have highlighted the value of these processes. ECLAC and FAO emphasize that short marketing circuits strengthen the relationship between producers and consumers and reduce dependence on intermediaries. World Food Program reports point out that, in regions like the Dry Corridor, food security depends on community networks capable of storing and distributing food in times of scarcity.
What is happening in the territories confirms these observations. In Honduras, community grain reserves help families cope with shortages and generate income. In Guatemala, the sale of native seeds connects economy and culture. In Haiti, peasant microenterprises transform local products into reliable sources of supply and circulation in a fragile market. In Ecuador, alternative networks connect rural and urban areas through fairs and baskets, ensuring stable prices for producers and consumers alike.
All these actions are part of a large regional network that seeks to redefine the agricultural system from the ground up, through spaces where food security, climate resilience and social cohesion converge, and where communities actively contest the top-down control of food systems.
What unites these experiences is that they function as community institutions: they create their own rules, redistribute resources, generate income, and above all, give decision-making power to farmers and producers.
Local markets are strategic points where food security is inseparable from communities’ ability to adapt to climate change and sustain their ways of life. Every time a farmer tends to an inherited seed, a producer protects her fruit trees, or a group of women organizes a market fair, they actively shape a food system that works for, not against, local communities.
Local markets in Latin America & the Caribbean reveal a political and everyday process where food ceases being mere merchandise and is recognized as a collective right. In these daily gestures—sowing, storing, processing, exchanging, and selling—two competing models of the future are in tension: one is dominated by global agroindustrial chains, the other is shaped by the autonomy of communities. What’s at stake in these markets is, ultimately, who decides what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom.
Author: Luisa María Castaño Hernández
Original Spanish version↗
In collaboration with our local partners EkoRural, PDL, Qachuu Aloom y Vecinos Honduras
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