Traditional Foods, Globalization, Migration, and Public and Planetary Health: The Case of Tejate, a Maize and Cacao Beverage in Oaxacalifornia

Daniela Soleri (), David Arthur Cleveland, Flavio Aragón Cuevas, Violeta Jimenez and May C. Wang
Additional contact information
Daniela Soleri: Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060, USA
David Arthur Cleveland: Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060, USA
Flavio Aragón Cuevas: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias, Villa de Etla, Oaxaca 68200, Mexico
Violeta Jimenez: Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
May C. Wang: Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Challenges, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: We are in the midst of an unprecedented public and planetary health crisis. A major driver of this crisis is the current nutrition transition—a product of globalization and powerful multinational food corporations promoting industrial agriculture and the consumption of environmentally destructive and unhealthy ultra-processed and other foods. This has led to unhealthy food environments and a pandemic of diet-related noncommunicable diseases, as well as negative impacts on the biophysical environment, biodiversity, climate, and economic equity. Among migrants from the global south to the global north, this nutrition transition is often visible as dietary acculturation. Yet some communities are defying the transition through selective resistance to globalization by recreating their traditional foods in their new home, and seeking crop species and varieties customarily used in their preparation. These communities include Zapotec migrants from the Central Valleys of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca living in greater Los Angeles, California. Focusing on the traditional and culturally emblematic beverage tejate , we review data from our research and the literature to outline key questions about the role of traditional foods in addressing the public and planetary health crisis. We conclude that to answer these questions, a transnational collaborative research partnership between community members and scientists is needed. This could reorient public and planetary health work to be more equitable, participatory, and effective by supporting a positive role for traditional foods and minimizing their harms.

Keywords: maize genetic diversity; nutrition transition; Oaxaca; Mexico; Oaxacalifornia; planetary health; public health; sugar sweetened beverages; tejate; traditional beverages; traditional food; Zapotec culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/1/9/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/1/9/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jchals:v:14:y:2023:i:1:p:9-:d:1050105

Access Statistics for this article

Challenges is currently edited by Ms. Karen Sun

More articles in Challenges from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().