Changes in household food consumption and land demand in Mexico

Agricultural activities require extensive areas of productive lands. In Mexico, it is estimated that 80% of annual deforestation is due to agriculture activities, and almost 46% of wildfires are associated with agricultural cleanings (SEMARNAT, 2000). All over the world, expansion of arable land has been associated to population growth, production systems and consumption patterns (Kastner et al. 2012, Ramankutty et al., 1998). In recent decades, dietary changes have made important contributions to the expansion of productive land (Gerbens-Leenes et al., 2002; Zhen et al., 2010)
In this paper, we examine first whether the level and composition changes of household food intake changed between 1992 and 2008, expressing income distribution and demographic changes in Mexico. Using the Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) we compare household dietary patterns using latent class analysis to identify consumption profiles based on quantities of food consumed at two points in time (1992 & 2008). As a second goal, we estimate environmental impact of each food consumption profile and calculate the productive land requirements for every food item consumed by the household. Finally, we examine how consumption profiles are related to sociodemographic variables using multinomial models.