Governance and Integration of Rural Families to Livestock Production Chains: the Case of Ejido Cobachi, Sonora

The integration of rural households to global food system has been achieved through increased specialization at the expense of the ability to produce their own food. Also, these families have lost autonomy to decide what, how much and how to produce, the use of their natural resources, the inputs and distribution channels used. This article aims to illustrate the loss of governance of these production units, with a case study of Sonoran livestock families, that are integrated both in global chain of beef cattle, through the raising calves for the us meat industry, as in the local chain of milk by producing cheese. The results reveal the disadvantages of families in the global chain, compared with the high level of governance that they have achieved in the local chain.