Fernando Camacho Servin
Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, April 6, 2022, p. 4
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador received Tom Vilsack, United States Secretary of Agriculture, yesterday at the National Palace. The Mexican president highlighted the bilateral commercial exchange that has grown 35 percent. Later, the US official warned that the conflict in Ukraine could generate a significant shortage
of food in the world, for which they called for a regional strategy.
We had a very good meeting with the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. In three years, agro-industrial trade between our countries went from 47.4 billion pesos to 64 billion dollars; grew 35 percent. The future will remain promising
López Obrador said in a Twitter message after the meeting, which was also attended by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Víctor Manuel Villalobos, and of Finance, Rogelio Ramírez de la O.
The chief executive rushed the morning press conference to be on time with his guest, who left the National Palace minutes after noon.
Later, at a joint press conference, the Secretaries of Agriculture of both countries stated that the production and supply of food worldwide have been seriously affected both by the effects of the pandemic and by the war in Ukraine.
They added that both Mexico and Washington are working on various plans to mitigate inflation in food prices, and even take advantage of the opportunity to make North America a food power
.
Vilsack admitted that the pandemic made it clear that food supply systems they were not as reliable or resilient as needed
so they must be reconstructed with a regional perspective.
The war in Ukraine, he warned, has led us to consider the real possibility of significant food shortages during the year
so it is urgent to design an agricultural model productive, sustainable and profitable
in which Mexico and the United States cooperate, instead of competing with each other.
According to Vilsack, López Obrador is deeply concerned about the impact of inflation on those who are most vulnerable
but also aware of the need to work collaboratively to create a powerful force in agriculture globally
.
Villalobos stated that Mexico’s priority to mitigate inflation and possible food shortages has been increase our production capacity
per surface unit, with a more rational use of water and land, but not doing it at the expense of border expansion
. He stressed that during the pandemic, food production in Mexico did not stop.
(Fabiola Martinez and Roberto Garduno)
