“Rewilding” the Mezcal Market: Cultural Practices and the Conservation of Agaves in Oaxaca, Mexico

This article presents a tentative proposal for biodiversity and endemic agave species conservation from a cultural anthropology perspective based on qualitative ethnographic research with a mezcal-producing community in Oaxaca, Mexico, and a comparative analysis of broader scientific research regarding agaves and mezcal production throughout Mexico. I argue that there is an urgent necessity for the implementation of processes of what I call “rewilding” in the mezcal market. Rewilding entails the development and application of locally based strategies that focus on feasible practices of environmental sustainability that can ensure the future of mezcal and the socioeconomic security of those who produce it while protecting biodiversity as follows: reducing the overall rate of mezcal production, establishing practical collaborative networks, implementing feasible reforestation programs, the replanting of endemic agave species, and water-recycling strategies, avoiding the piracy and illegal sale of wild and endangered agave species as well as massive monoculture agave planting projects, and by promoting a return to more “homemade” mezcal production techniques.