Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

In the course of the last five years, amaranth (a pseuo-cereal rich in protein and free from gluten), went from being a marginalized crop to officially becoming a part of Mexico City’s cultural heritage. This was made possible by the emergence of the Grupo de Enlace para la promoción del amaranto en México (GEPAM) that, by vindicating ideals of food sovereignty, succeeded in turning the crop into national patrimony and including it in the “basic food basket” of millions of Mexicans. This happened in the broader context of “patrimonializing” local “cuisines” and food products as public policy and official cultural project. Through ethnographic data in this paper, I discuss this case to explore: 1) the emergence of a discourse that “ancestralizes” food by celebrating precisely those attributes that were responsible for its centuries-long marginalization; 2) the role this discourse plays in the demand for for food sovereignty; and 3) whether or not appointing amaranth as “heritage” depoliticizes that struggle.