Knowing how the environment can impact livelihoods, Senior Sustainability Scientist Maria Cruz-Torres focuses her research on the relationship between adequate fishing resources and food security in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa. Here, the shrimp industry serves as a source of both income and food for coastal communities, but is suffering as a result of pesticide and fertilizer overuse. For this reason,  Sinaloa's women are taking bold measures to help their communities cope.

Cruz-Torres's research identifies several trends that illustrate the resilience of Sinaloa's women. Some are migrating north to find work in maquiladoras, border factories run by United States companies in Mexico. Many are also organizing unions and becoming labor activists in an effort to improve working conditions in both the border-town maquiladoras and Sinaloa’s shrimp fisheries. Additionally, more and more are managing small family businesses that sell shrimp within the larger hierarchy of Mazatlan’s seafood processing and marketing industry.