Territorio, agaves y destilados en México: organización espacial e impactos económicos y ambientales

Despite the differences and reputation of both the agave species used and their standardized alcohol content, mezcal and tequila dominate the spirits market due to their similar expansion and the logic of the third parties involved. This article, based on contributions immersed in territorial ecology, identifies the dissimilar special forms of anchoring, dependence, and footprint left by the coverage of both distillates on shared territories; a scope that is introduced when analyzing their respective lines of discourse in legal protection litigation. Secondly, the territorial construction of pulque distillate is highlighted; its relevance is no less important, as it is based in areas lacking protection of origin, but still with ample availability of agave, derived from its historical national relevance as a maguey producer. The methodological strategies ranged from gathering primary and secondary information to describe the productive logic of tequila and mezcal, to constructing, between these and pulque distillates, the quantitative differences of a physicochemical nature. Thus, it is feasible to affirm the virtuous disconnection between the so-called historical epicenter of tequila (Jalisco) and the aforementioned shared territories, since, despite their strategic location (Tamaulipas), the high availability of plants with increasing yields (Guanajuato) and the expanding border (Michoacán), the economic benefits are still limited, while the environmental costs are high. Furthermore, in all the positive interpretations of the expansion, despite being based on historical and cultural relevance, the reality is that, before the declarations were expanded, there was a limited presence of human and technical factors, much less agave plantations specific to the distillation processes to be protected. In contrast, given the artisanal nature of pulque distillates, the main dilemma for survival in the spirits market will be to move away from the certified models that have existed in Mexico until now or to adopt them.