How dietary transition changed land use in Mexico

Latin American Cattle Ranching Sustainability Debate: An Approach to Social-Ecological Systems and Spatial-Temporal Scales

The significance of Latin America (LA) in the global food supply is large and prominent. The livestock sector at this time faces social-ecological challenges that will be accentuated in the future and will be incredibly challenging for small and medium producers. We conducted a systematic literature review to understand the role of LA cattle ranching in the current sustainability debate. In addition, we identified the main components of cattle ranching social-ecological systems and evaluated the institutional and ecological interactions of livestock studies by identifying spatial and temporal scales. Our results show a broad debate on livestock sustainability in LA; nevertheless, efforts to measure sustainability and analyze cattle ranching systemically are scarce. The study of LA cattle ranching in the 21st century was geographically concentrated on the main producing countries (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina) and was consistently promoted by government and academic institutions aiming to understand management strategies that improve yields. However, it less often focused on analyzing their impacts on ecosystems and climate. The complexity and dynamism of cattle ranching in LA make it necessary to address sustainable planning from a systemic approach to guide viable transformations through spatial scales.

Sustainability of Diets in Mexico: Diet Quality, Environmental Footprint, Diet Cost, and Sociodemographic Factors

Background

Little is known about the current intake of sustainable diets globally and specifically in middle-income countries, considering nutritional, environmental and economic factors.

Objective

To assess and characterize the sustainability of Mexican diets and their association with sociodemographic factors.

Design

Dietary data of 2,438 adults within the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012 by integrating diet quality measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2015), diet cost, and four environmental indicators were analyzed: land use (LU), biodiversity loss (BDL), carbon footprint (CFP), and blue water footprint (BWFP). We defined healthier more sustainable diets (MSD) as those with HEI-2015 above the overall median, and diet cost and environmental indicators below the median. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of sociodemographic factors with MSD.

Results

MSD were consumed by 10.2% of adults (4% of urban and 22% of rural), who had lower intake of animal-source foods, unhealthy foods (refined grains, added sugar and fats, mixed processed dishes and sweetened beverages), fruits, and vegetables, and higher intake of whole grains than non-MSD subjects. Characteristics of MSD vs. non-MSD (urban; rural) were: HEI-2015 (62.6 vs. 51.9; 66.8 vs. 57.6), diet-cost (1.9 vs. 2.8; 1.9 vs. 2.5 USD), LU (3.3 vs. 6.6; 3.2 vs. 5.9 m²), BDL (105 vs. 780; 87 vs. 586 species × 10⁻¹⁰), BWFP (244 vs. 403; 244 vs. 391 L), and CFP (1.6 vs. 4.4; 1.6 vs. 3.7 kg CO₂eq). Adults from rural vs. urban (OR 2.7; 95% CI: 1.7, 4.1), or from the South (OR 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.9), Center (OR 2.3; 95% CI: 1.3, 4.4) vs. the North were more likely to consume MSD, while adults with high vs. low socioeconomic status were less likely (OR 0.17; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.3).

Conclusions

The MSD is a realistic diet pattern mainly found in disadvantaged populations, but diet quality is still sub-optimal. Increased consumption of legumes, fruits, and vegetables, and a reduction in unhealthy foods, is required to improve nutritional quality of diets while ensuring their environmental sustainability.

The water footprint and nutritional implications of diet change in Mexico: a principal component analysis

PURPOSE

Nutrition transition (NT) has modified the way that the Mexican population eats, while their body composition has also been modified. These changes have been linked with environmental impacts; however, little is known regarding water footprint (WF). The objective of this paper was to analyze the NT process in Mexico and evaluate its impact on WF using principal component analysis (PCA).

METHODS

A validated Food Consumption Frequency Questionnaire (FCFQ) was modified and applied to 400 adults from the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara, Mexico. The WF was calculated according to the WF Assessment Method. PCA and tertiles analysis was carried out to define dietary patterns WFs (DPWF). Questions covering sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as body composition data and physical activity levels were measured.

RESULTS

The average DPWF was 6619.58 ± 3182.62 L per person per day (L p^-1d^-1). We found three DPWF by PCA: Medium NT (55% from the total sample), Healthy plant-based (28%), and High in animal protein (17%). The highest energy consumption, western and Mexican foods intake, and dietary WF were found in Medium NT DPWF, as well as obesity prevalence. Fruits and vegetable consumption was higher in Healthy plant-based DPWF. Muscle mass percentage was higher in the High in animal protein DPWF.

CONCLUSIONS

Although most of the population is currently on Medium NT, new dietary patterns have emerged, where there was found a trend to plant-based diets but also diets high in animal food sources that can influence nutritional status.

Sustainable Agri-Food Systems: Environment, Economy, Society, and Policy

Agri-food systems (AFS) have been central in the debate on sustainable development. Despite this growing interest in AFS, comprehensive analyses of the scholarly literature are hard to find. Therefore, the present systematic review delineated the contours of this growing research strand and analyzed how it relates to sustainability. A search performed on the Web of Science in January 2020 yielded 1389 documents, and 1289 were selected and underwent bibliometric and topical analyses. The topical analysis was informed by the SAFA (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems) approach of FAO and structured along four dimensions viz. environment, economy, society and culture, and policy and governance. The review shows an increasing interest in AFS with an exponential increase in publications number. However, the study field is north-biased and dominated by researchers and organizations from developed countries. Moreover, the analysis suggests that while environmental aspects are sufficiently addressed, social, economic, and political ones are generally overlooked. The paper ends by providing directions for future research and listing some topics to be integrated into a comprehensive, multidisciplinary agenda addressing the multifaceted (un)sustainability of AFS. It makes the case for adopting a holistic, 4-P (planet, people, profit, policy) approach in agri-food system studies.

Effects of Land Use Change from Natural Forest to Livestock on Soil C, N and P Dynamics along a Rainfall Gradient in Mexico

The effects of converting native forests to livestock systems on soil C, N and P contents across various climatic zones are not well understood for the tropical region. The goal of this study was to test how soil C, N and P dynamics are affected by the land-use change from natural forests to livestock production systems (extensive pasture and intensive silvopastoral systems) across a rainfall gradient of 1611–711 mm per year in the Mexican tropics. A total of 15 soil-based biogeochemical metrics were measured in samples collected during the dry and rainy seasons in livestock systems and mature forests for land-use and intersite comparisons of the nutrient status. Our results show that land-use change from natural forests to livestock production systems had a negative effect on soil C, N and P contents. In general, soil basal respiration and C-acquiring enzyme activities increased under livestock production systems. Additionally, reduction in mean annual rainfall affected moisture-sensitive biogeochemical processes affecting the C, N and P dynamics. Our findings imply that land-use changes alter soil C, N and P dynamics and contents, with potential negative consequences for the sustainability of livestock production systems in the tropical regions of Mexico investigated.