Contribution of Mexican livestock to national food security, three six-year periods of NAFTA

Abstract

In recent decades Food Security (FS) has become a topic of global interest, with food shortages and deficient diets at home being a serious problem faced by humanity. The objective was to analyze the role of livestock in the FSof Mexico, period 1994-2012, toevaluate and contrast, livestock production and the availability of food for the national population. A descriptive and comparative multidimensional analysis was carried out with statistics from official sources, finding a significant increase in the volume of livestock production, a significant rise in prices and a sustained deficit trade balance. Therefore, livestock shows a significant contribution to the Mexican food security, supplying with national production the nutritional requirements established by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) for a balanced and healthy diet.