The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also known by his initials AMLO, gave his decalogue this past weekend to come out of the coronavirus crisis. I am not going to talk about many of the precepts of the quasi-sermon, that although well intentioned, seemed more like the words of a religious or spiritual leader, I think, than that of a president of a nation. Let's go then to point 7, on good nutrition.
In addition to corn, beans, fruits and vegetables, fish, and tuna, he referred to animal proteins, but about "trying to obtain them from backyard animals and paddocks, not raised with hormones." There was the first bomb explosion. Although he did not directly refer to the poultry industry, some shrapnel reached us. Why do they always talk about "hormones?" Is it the only thing to feed and raise animals? I really would like them (politicians) to be informed of what it is done before issuing these comments.
The second bomb was that "it was a practice to consume what was produced in the backyards and then, due to a misunderstood modernity, they stopped raising animals in backyards and started buying farmed chicken and farmed eggs." What era was he talking about, the Aztecs? From the 1930s? I don't know if he has realized that the "misunderstood modernity" is that there are 130 million Mexicans who need to eat every day. I can't even imagine a megalopolis like Mexico City, with backyard chickens. Or other Mexican big cities like Guadalajara, Monterrey, or Puebla, or ...
Finally, the third bomb was that he recommends producing or purchasing organic food. He has spent years calling rich people derogatory names (by the way, contrary to precept 9 of his decalogue of eliminating in general racist, classist, sexist and discriminatory attitudes) and he exactly refers to the most high-class of foods ─ organic foods, those that are the most expensive, those sold in exclusive stores in urban wealthy/hipster areas.
Hopefully, there will be a response from the animal production industry, the industry that has continued to feed the population during the pandemic.
What do you think?
