Objective:

Carry out an exploratory socioeconomic study to identify the level of poverty of the General Cárdenas community, municipality of Cintalapa, Chiapas, based on characterizing their food sovereignty, basic food basket and food consumption, from the perspective of the Labor Theory of Value.

Methodology:

A socioeconomic survey carried out in the second half of 2016, and the first quarter of 2017, applied to 87 families in the town. The information obtained was processed with the IBM SPSS Statistics V21 and Excel software, complemented with qualitative techniques such as participant observation and field diary.

Results:

95.40% of the population received daily per capita income below the international poverty level (1.25 USD_PPA) and 60.92% equal to or below 1 USD_PPA, placing them according to the UN, in conditions of extreme poverty, in addition to presenting an Engel coefficient of 0.77. The per capita daily intake of the community was 2,263.66 Kcal/day, 47.76 Kcal/day (2.15%), above the 2,215.90 Kcal/day per capita regulated by the CBANR and presented a decrease in its cost of the order of 4.27 %. Cereals and beans contributed 72.46% of the kilocalories in the diet, and there are serious deficiencies in animal origin forming foods.

Limitations:

It is necessary to build new methodological theoretical frameworks, based on the actors themselves and their interaction with the new realities of the community, to understand their problems and generate comprehensive solutions in a participatory manner.

Conclusions:

There is self-sufficiency in maize and beans and a low consumption of food of animal origin, a factor that can contribute to a vulnerable state of health. Coupled with limited government involvement.