"MEXICO CITY — Cassandra Garduño squinted in the sunlight, her pink boots smudged by dirt as she gazed out over her family’s chinampa — one of the islands first built up by the Aztecs with fertile mud from the bottom of a lake that, later drained, would one day become Mexico City.
Food from these islands has fed people for hundreds of years, but the chinampas are under threat from urbanization. The produce grown here doesn’t fetch much money, and many families are abandoning the ancient practice to rent out or sell their land for more lucrative uses such as soccer fields.
“People don’t want to farm anymore,” said Garduño. “They don’t see it as a necessity, they don’t want to produce, and people don’t want to buy the products.”"
Mariana Martínez Barba and Julián Trejo Bax report for the Associated Press November 3, 2024.
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