Does the “natural” economy confront the global one? Challenges to the debates on Mexican maize

Abstract

This article examines the principal contradictions in the debates about the production and consumption of maize in Mexico. It pays particular attention to the controversies to do with genetically modified maize, considering the scientific, political and ideological merits of the different positions. In the process it offers a critique of the arguments used and of the images of society that they project, as well as of their political inconsistencies.