Mexico's “Sugar Tax”: Space, Markets, Resistance

Abstract

Sugar consumption recently has become an object of political deliberation in the context of public health concerns about “obesity” and high prevalence rates of type 2 diabetes. Mexico has attracted significant attention in this regard, especially since its government introduced a “sugar tax” in 2013. The sugar tax was widely acclaimed by public health campaigners as a victory amidst an otherwise corporate-run foodscape. In this article, I interrogate the political debate over the tax as it played out in the Mexican Congress in 2013 and 2015. Analysis of political debates has value when it takes seriously the sociospatial constitution of the economy and its unending iterability. Debates illuminate interrelations among space, markets, and resistance; that is, core issues engaged by scholars in geography (and beyond) in the light of the expanding scope and depth of market relations. I argue that the debate sheds light on the concept of “foodscapes of hope,” to which geographers have turned to summarize new spatial formations regarding the production and consumption of food. Specifically, I argue that foodscapes of hope emerge via processes of “marketization”—and using the political debate regarding Mexico's sugar tax I demonstrate how geography is drawn on and reproduced when marketization occurs. Space, markets, and resistance are bound up with one another in complex interassociations. Against this backdrop, the frontiers of intellectual deliberation on “alternative” social formations must engage the full significance of market relations, a challenge that geographers are well placed to meet.

晚近的糖分消费, 已在 “肥胖” 与第二型糖尿病的高度盛行率之公共健康考量脉络中, 成为政治商议的对象。墨西哥在这方面受到了高度关注, 特别是该政府自 2013 年引进 “糖税” 之后。糖税被公共健康倡议者广泛讚赏为由厂商所决定的粮食地景中的一大胜利。我于本文中, 探讨 2013 年与 2015 年中, 墨西哥国会上演的有关该税的政治辩论。政治辩论的分析, 在认真看待经济的社会空间组成及其不断发生的重复性上具有价值。这些辩论阐述空间、市场与反抗之间的相互关系; 亦即地理学者 (及其他) 在面对市场关系不断扩张的范围与深度时涉入的主要议题。我主张, 该辩论对于 “希望的粮食地景” 之概念提出洞见, 地理学者已转向概述有关粮食的生产与消费的崭新空间形式。我特别主张, 希望的粮食地景通过 “市场化” 的过程浮现——我并运用墨西哥有关糖税的政治辩论, 展现市场化发生时, 地理学如何被利用与再生产。空间、市场和反抗——三者以复杂的相互关联性彼此连结。在此般背景之下, 对于 “另类” 社会型构的智识考量之前沿, 必须涉入市场关系的全面重要性——一个地理学者具有优势以迎接之挑战。

Recientemente, el consumo de azúcar se ha convertido en objeto de deliberación política en el contexto de las preocupaciones de la salud pública acerca de la “obesidad” y las tasas de alta prevalencia de diabetes tipo 2. A este respecto, México ha atraído considerable atención, especialmente desde que su gobierno introdujo el “impuesto al azúcar” en 2013. Este impuesto fue aclamado ampliamente por los activistas de la salud pública como una victoria en medio de un paisaje alimentario muy diferente controlado por corporaciones. En este artículo interrogo el debate político con referencia al impuesto, según se desarrolló en el Congreso Mexicano entre 2013 y 2015. El análisis de los debates políticos es valioso cuando se toma con seriedad la constitución socioespacial de la economía y su interminable iterabilidad. Los debates iluminan las interrelaciones entre el espacio, los mercados y la resistencia; esto es, asuntos medulares abordados por eruditos de la geografía (y de otros campos) a la luz del alcance y profundidad de las relaciones de mercado en expansión. Sostengo que el debate arroja luz sobre el concepto de “paisajes alimentarios de esperanza,” hacia el cual los geógrafos han dirigido sus miradas para resumir nuevas formaciones espaciales relacionadas con la producción y consumo de alimentos. De modo específico, arguyo que los paisajes alimentarios de esperanza surgen a través de los procesos de “mercadización”—y, usando el debate político sobre el impuesto al azúcar en México, demuestro el modo como la geografía es involucrada y reproducida cuando ocurre la mercadización—. El espacio, los mercados y la resistencia son ligados entre sí en complejas inter-asociaciones. Contra este telón de fondo, las fronteras de la deliberación intelectual sobre formaciones sociales “alternativas” deben enfrentar la total significación de las relaciones de mercado, un reto para abocar el cual los geógrafos están bien capacitados.

Key Words:

• foodscapes of hope
• marketization
• Mexico
• resistance
• sugar

关键词：:

• 希望的粮食地景, 市场化, 墨西哥, 反抗, 糖。

Palabras clave:

• azúcar, mercadización, México, paisajes alimentarios de esperanza, resistencia

Acknowledgments

The bulk of this research was conducted during a sabbatical spell in Mexico. I give special thanks to Álvaro López López and María del Carmen Juárez Gutiérrez for their support during that time and for offering me space to write in the Instituto de Geografía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. I also thank Vicente Ugalde and Veronica Crossa for research support and advice during that time and extend thanks to Nik Heynen and the anonymous reviewers for providing suggestions to strengthen this article. Finally, I thank Nancy Ettlinger for making critical but helpful suggestions early on in this process. Of course, any errors in this article are my responsibility.

Notes

1. Although commonly viewed as a clearly defined medical term, I retain inverted commas around “obesity” throughout this article to denote its contested, politicized nature (e.g., see Guthman 2012).

2. I use the term foodscapes as a way to imagine the places and spaces produced and connected together with diverse subjects to make food consumption possible. Elsewhere in geography, scholars have argued that foodscapes are constituted by “processes, politics, spaces, and places … produced in and through the provisioning of food” (Goodman et al. 2010, 1783) or that foodscapes are “a social construction that captures and constitutes cultural ideals of how food relates to specific places, people and food systems [which can] variously capture or obscure the ecological sites and social relations of food production, consumption, and distribution” (Johnston, Biro, and MacKendrick 2009, 512–13).

3. Although I occasionally requested some assistance from a native Spanish speaker, I completed translations of the following statements from the Spanish language to English and I accept responsibility for any errors.

4. Much like other urban governments tackling societal problems only when they appear, because they cannot tackle their causes, Mexico City resembles a “responsibilized city”: a city trying to assume responsibility for something it is ultimately unlikely to influence, much as has been the critique of schools trying in vain to take responsibility for “obesity” programs (Gibson and Dempsey 2015).

5. Other evidence available at the time suggested that the tax had contributed to a drop in consumption of certain food and drinks products by up to 8 percent (Colchero et al. 2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alistair Fraser

ALISTAIR FRASER is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected]. His research, which cuts across political, economic, and cultural geography, includes the struggle for land in South Africa, rural change generally, and foodscapes.