Food Systems, Plants, and Policy: Braulio Torres, MPP'10, and the Power of Health

Hazelnut and pecan trees have been planted. Nearby is chaya, the leafy perennial much like spinach. Soon Maximino will help his dad scatter seeds for the seasonal vegetable patch.

And work to adapt the earthbag yurt for family life is nearly complete.

Braulio Torres (MPP’10) describes it as “magical,’’ this land and house designed using permaculture principles.

Here Torres, his wife Paola Abril Campos, and their little boy will build their lives. They will capture rainwater to drink and use the composting toilet to feed their forest garden.

Passionate about food systems, plants, and policy, and their inextricable relationships to environment and health, Torres strives to create a micro version of the food system he advocates at policy forums -- one that relies on the cycles of nature to produce good food while reducing the associated carbon footprint.

Torres’ project is ambitious. In just two years, he expects the plot in the central Mexico municipality of Amealco to produce fully half of his family’s food and, importantly, to provide a model and discussion platform encouraging others to consider the complexity of food systems and their impact on health and environment.

“We are trying to be the change we want to see,’’ he said. “Maximino will be connected with nature -- he will know where water comes from and where his food is coming from.’’

While his son inspires Torres to work for a healthier planet, it was his father’s diabetes that first led him to study food policy. Agustin Torres has struggled with diabetes for 20 years.

The magnitude and complexity of diabetes as a global health issue emerged for Torres as he worked as a public policy consultant in Mexico City. After receiving his master’s degree at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Torres worked as Mexico Country Director for Innovations For Poverty Action for about three years. Then he became Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for the Mexican policy firm C230 Consultores, overseeing a project that examined diabetes through the lens of health systems.

Delving into statistics, Torres began to understand the epidemic. While 14 percent of all adults in Mexico have Type 2 diabetes, the number rises to 30 percent for Mexicans 60 to 70 years old.

“When you look at diabetes with the onset of age, you see it’s a much bigger problem than people realize,’’ Torres said. “We are not getting at the root cause by approaching it through the health systems perspective.’’

The narrative around diabetes is largely around responsibility and lifestyle choices, Torres said.

“But when your options are unhealthy, it’s hard to make the right choices. My whole point is that it is more a food systems disease than an individual responsibility disease.’’

While 14 percent of all adults in Mexico have Type 2 diabetes, the number rises to 30 percent for Mexicans 60 to 70 years old.

He saw this through his father’s eyes. Shopping for groceries, they found healthy fats, vegetables and complex carbohydrates in short supply and much more expensive than simple carbohydrates.

“Our food systems provide a lot of food. Unfortunately, it’s the cheap calories – and that’s at the core of the diabetes epidemic.’’

In 2017, as his wife studied for her doctorate at Harvard, Torres became a SPURS Research Fellow in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He seized the opportunity to focus on the intersection of diabetes, food systems, and cities.

“There is an urban bias in policy. In cities, we are completely forgetting where food and water are coming from and how food is produced and the implications on health.’’

In a paper titled "Dear Medicine: Diabetes Prevention Is Not Your Battle to Fight,'' Torres argued that because Type 2 Diabetes is preventable and not necessarily progressive, the focus should be on “comprehensive solutions beyond soda taxes, such as creating value chains for nutrition.’’

“We should focus on how to produce, distribute, process, market, and cook more beans or broccoli….Medical and dietary advice should be integrated with food systems analysis,’’ he wrote in the Harvard Public Health Review.

“Even if the health sector were to convince all people to eat their daily five fruits and vegetables, not enough is being produced currently to guarantee this consumption. And even if we were able to produce enough fresh produce, with current supply chains much of it might go to waste,’’ Torres argues.

After MIT, Torres launched a short-lived agroecology demonstrative farm in central Mexico aimed at changing the way we think about food. Proyecto La Guajolota failed largely due to land tenancy issues, Torres said.

The same principles are in play at a smaller scale at their new home in Amealco, where several environmental and social initiatives already are in the works by a core of like-minded change agents.

Braulio Torres (MPP’10) describes it as “magical,’’ this land and house designed using permaculture principles.

Building this progressive food system to be inclusive is crucial, and that requires building networks and alliances.

“Inclusive means that if I want good food and I have a good life, I expect that the farmer has a good payment, decent conditions, no land grab. It has to be just for the farmer and for the consumer.’’

Today farmers and agriculture laborers are getting the least from the supply chain, he said.

Torres credits his time at Harris Public Policy for preparing him to tackle the complex systemic issues at play.

“You cannot think of improving the environment without thinking of agriculture and you cannot think of agriculture without thinking of the tradeoffs required to get to food that is healthy, in abundance, and produced in an inclusive way.’’

His dream is that the Mexican food system is transformed in 10 years so that it is easier to find and afford healthy foods.

“We want to move these ideas into the national policy debate. The food movement is growing in Mexico, like in the U.S., and policy people need to be at the forefront of the movement.’’

He, Paola Abril, and Maximino are in Geneva for a few months, where Abril works at the World Health Organization. They soon will return to Amealco and dig in, continuing to experiment with the right mix of plants.

Perhaps they will find a place in their forest garden for amaranth. A cousin of quinoa, it is a balanced protein and drought-resistant -- just the thing in their quest for a resilient local food system.