| This is a study of the rise and decline of the Mexican government's intervention in the marketing of basic foodstuffs since the 1930s. To set government food policy within the wider context of government policy, it explores the various factors that prompted the State to intervene in the market, the forms that the intervention took, how and why intervention changed over time, and the results of the intervention. Whereas prior to the 1930s the federal government had minimal intervention in the basic food markets, by 1985 Mexico's food agency was the third largest enterprise in Mexico and was involved in diverse activities: purchasing and selling twelve different grains; operating a retail store chain with over 20,000 outlets; controlling a network of grain silos throughout the country; and running a large complex of food processing plants. Contrary to most assumptions regarding government intervention in the Mexican economy, this study links Mexico's statism to the official party's need to create political stability first in the rapidly expanding urban areas and then in the countryside.;Drawing upon the records of Mexico's food agency, presidential papers, personal papers of those involved in policy-making, and from newspapers and periodicals of the day, this study makes use of qualitative and quantitative data to analyze government food policy. A number of statistical time-series are constructed to demonstrate the nature and effect of government food policy on both basic grain production and distribution. The quantitative data and institutional records are combined to explain the evolution of government policy in a chronological format. After two general chapters on government intervention and agriculture, chapters 3 and 4 demonstrate the socio-political and economic context in out of which the federal government intervened in the basic food markets. Chapters 5 through 7 show how and why government's food policy becomes increasingly urban-oriented between 1940 and the 1960. Chapters 8 and 9 explain the expansion of the State Food Agency into rural areas, targeting for the first time both rural consumers and producers during the 1960s and 1970s. Chapter 10 describes the various factors surrounding the dismantling of the State Food Agency. |
