The Toluca Earth Market Is a Key Component of the Slow Food Farms Network in Mexico

A Decade of Community, Sustainability, and Food Education Involving Farmers and Consumers

26 May 2025

Slow Food Farms are our response to the climate and environmental crisis. By bringing farmers together in a vast network, we empower the key players in the food system to unite, amplify their voices, share experiences, and work towards an agroecological transition.

Each month, we will feature a Slow Food Farm from a different part of the world, showcasing diverse ecosystems and social contexts to demonstrate how the agroecological model can be applied effectively in any setting to foster agroecology on a global scale.

This transformation is not the work of farmers alone; it requires the concerted effort of the entire Slow Food network, including local groups, markets, cooks, and consumers. Through these collective efforts, Slow Food Farms are cultivating a new food system that is just, sustainable, and deeply connected to the local communities it serves.

That is why this month we bring you to Toluca, Mexico, where Ireri Origel, Slow Food Earth Market coordinator presents their activities.

A Marketplace with a Mission

This year, we’re proudly celebrating the 11th anniversary of the Mercado de la Tierra Slow Food (Slow Food Earth Market) in Toluca, State of Mexico. What began over a decade ago as a fair-trade initiative has since evolved into so much more—a space for food education, cultural exchange, and environmental dialogue.

From the very start, our approach has shaped the market into a dynamic space—not just a place for transactions, but a forum for cultural and environmental engagement. The market brings together local projects that share the philosophy of the Slow Food Earth Market: small-scale, agroecological, and artisanal production, supporting the local economy while directly benefiting families in our community.

We hold the market twice a month on Saturdays and, starting in March, we’ve added Tuesdays as market days. Just last month, we launched a new call for projects to join us, allowing us to grow and deepen our impact. We’re deeply committed to the agroecological transition and want to support those who are ready to take that step but may lack resources or guidance. Over the years, we’ve cultivated a communal model of support—building strong partnerships and collaborations that provide guidance, training, and shared knowledge.

Our network includes other Slow Food initiatives and educational institutions like the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico and the Metropolitan University of Lerma. We also work closely with researchers from CONAHCYT and the State of Mexico’s Science and Technology Council. These partnerships have helped transform the market into a space for workshops, discussions, and exchanges of ideas.

Growing Together: New Projects and Community Support

Beyond our market days, we’ve taken the initiative further by organizing visits to production sites. These field trips aim to connect consumers with the people who produce their food, promoting mutual understanding and knowledge-sharing between farmers, citizens, and researchers. Whether discussing irrigation, pest control, or seed-saving, these visits allow for the exchange of practical, localized knowledge.

Each month, we release a schedule of visits to gardens and milpas (traditional farming plots), where we dive into topics like seed preservation, soil regeneration, sustainable food systems, conscious consumption, and agrobiodiversity. These activities also support our participatory certification process—a community-driven model that helps validate and reinforce sustainable practices among our producers.

In addition to our regular market programming, we organize public events and thematic fairs such as the Seed and Roots Fair, “Urban Agroecology: Roots in the Asphalt,” and “Milpa and Agrobiodiversity.” These gatherings reflect our ongoing commitment to education, community engagement, and knowledge exchange.

Centering Women in the Food System

While gender may not be a central theme in our messaging, it’s a core element of who we are. Women lead roughly 60–70% of the projects involved in the market. We’ve offered workshops on the solidarity economy for women, ecofeminism, gender studies, and the vital role of women in conserving agrobiodiversity. Last year, in collaboration with UAM, we hosted a panel honoring the rural women in our market community.

Shared Responsibility for a Sustainable Future

We’ve also produced educational materials like a seed-saving manual and a community cookbook, both of which showcase the rich biocultural wisdom within our collective. These resources serve as tools for learning and invitations to join us in practicing sustainable food culture.

Most recently, I’ve been working alongside a team of researchers and colleagues on a declaration for Shared Responsibility Agriculture. Our vision is to make visible the role that citizens and consumers play in sustaining these alternative food systems. These initiatives can only survive and thrive through collective effort, and this declaration is a step toward building stronger, more resilient networks of shared responsibility.

Pictures related to this story are part of a joint campaign by Slow Food and TerraProject Photographers, a collective of documentary photographers founded in Italy in 2006. Its members are Michele Borzoni, Simone Donati, Pietro Paolini, and Rocco Rorandelli. With a focus on both Italian realities and the most pressing social and environmental issues, the members of TerraProject have produced numerous individual and group projects, experimenting with an original collective approach to storytelling.