If you’ve visited Mexico City in the last few years, chances are you’ve tasted Lucio Usobiaga’s vegetables. Since 2009, the 38-year-old has supplied produce to some of the city’s best restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Pujol and Rosetta, and the popular Máximo Bistrot, as well as Malix, Meroma, Masala y Maíz, and Tetetlán.
The vegetables are grown in Xochimilco, a southern borough of Mexico City, where small, artificial islands known as the chinampas have been cultivated since before Aztec times. Lucio has dedicated his life to re-invigorating ancestral culture and helping peasants overcome such modern challenges as industrial agriculture, pollution, and urban growth encroaching on their land.
