No trust, no interest: Mexican farmers’ perceptions of Covid-19 and Scientists’ role in society
Author: Lourdes Mateos Espejel – Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Mexico
Co-authors:
- José Luis Estrada Rodríguez – Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Mexico
- Haydeé Margarita Hernández Ruíz – Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Mexico
- Helga Ochoa Caceres – Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Puebla, Mexico
The state of agriculture had already been in crisis before COVID-19 due to food security and nutrition. However, the outbreak of the pandemic added challenge on primary agriculture specially in developing countries because businesses increased their capacity to manage larger inventories, moving to on-line platforms and hiring temporary staff. In the case of Mexico, the country is in eleventh place in food worldwide production. Therefore, Mexico’s biggest challenging tasks come from the measures need to contain COVID-19 in agricultural labor-force. The main objective of this article is to highlight the perceptions of Mexican farmers about Covid-19 and their views on scientists’ role in society. Based on a qualitative approach, five focus groups were conducted with 30 farmers in total. We identified Mexican farmers have been exposed to the virus without enough scientific information and critical understanding of the serious threat they are facing. Main perceived barriers to access to scientific information were lack of interest and credibility in daily TV press conferences conducted by scientists and public workers. Besides, extensive labor hours and limited access to internet were obstacles that inhibit voluntary searches of scientific information. The realization of the present work contributes to generate hypothesis about perceptions of science in the agricultural labor force and provides a starting point to generate science communication strategies to prevent COVID-19 in the agricultural sector.
The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.
Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Time