The FAO says that while many countries put corporations above the common good, Mexico is doing "the exact opposite": more than 8 million people left poverty.

This article by Laura Poy Solano originally appeared in the October 17, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

In a global context with multiple challenges for food production, Mexico “is doing well,” said Lina Pohl Alfaro, representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in our country.

On the occasion of World Food Day, which was celebrated yesterday, she stressed that while in many countries the interests of large corporations are placed above the common good, here “the exact opposite is being done: more than 8 million people left poverty, that is, they left hunger. And Mexico is about to leave the hunger map that the FAO builds, it is very close,” she said.

Let’s set aside pettiness and unite. We have to leave aside any ideology, we are doing well.

Lina Pohl Alfaro, FAO representative in Mexico

A farmer tends a nopal field

The country “is doing well” in food production, said Lina Pohl Alfaro, the organization’s representative in our country. Photo: Marco Peláez

For her part, the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (Sader), Columba López, announced support actions for the 19 communities in the municipalities of Chilapa de Álvarez and Olinalá, in the Montaña Alta region of Guerrero, where farmers suffered displacement.

Among the actions that, she said, the federal government will carry out is the delivery of 250 maize seeds, with which the production of grains for distribution and planting in the area will begin. In addition, she said, they will be guaranteed the delivery of maize and beans for 19 months, so that “they have food, while agricultural production gets back on its feet.”

At that event, which brought together farmers from the Montaña Alta of Guerrero who participate in the Sembrando Vida and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro programs, Lina Pohl recalled that in the world more than 700 million people suffer from hunger. “And it is not a problem of food production, but of how, how much, what and who are included in production,” since of the total cost that consumers pay for their food, only 25 percent reaches the hands of those who sowed, tended and cultivated it.

Accompanied by Dr. Daniel Aceves, director general of Public Health of the Secretariat of Health, and by César Abarca García, director general of Development and Innovation of Sader, who stressed that to strengthen the transformation actions in the Mexican countryside, it is not only necessary to recognize and reinforce the leadership of women farmers and producers, but also access to machinery that “they can use and that is adapted to work on smaller agricultural plots.”

The specialists agreed that the world faces various food challenges, from climate change to the effects of the wars spreading across various regions of the planet and the constant pressure of large corporations that seek to impose their interests, even at the cost of driving up food prices.

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