ABSTRACT
The forms of production in the agricultural activity can turn healthy products from the nutritional perspective into dangerous from the health perspective. This chapter focuses on the perception of food risk related to agrochemicals used in agriculture. The field of study is located on the coast of Oaxaca (Mexico) with the objective of examining how farmers’ perceptions of chemical pollution take part in social representations of risk and food security. In this sense, the concepts flojo (lazy) and débil (weak) constitute sociocultural factors that condition the risk perception of agrochemicals used in the field, and hence the use of protection measures or the therapeutic itinerary in case of intoxication. It is seen how the rupture of traditional agriculture with the introduction of the industrial crops, is the starting point for the decline of the ecosystem. Agrochemicals become a “necessary evil” accompanied by an ambivalent feeling caused by the positive crop effects and the negative health consequences. This study also analyzes how discourse on the risk perception influences agricultural practices and the presence of alternatives to the industrial agricultural model. These alternatives could be the seed for a new agricultural model suitable for combating the effects of climate change.
