Great Mexican Tortilla Crisis

[docsconz]

This article claims that there has been a "great Mexican tortilla crisis" due in large part to an increased price of corn secondary to the use of corn as a biofuel.

Has there in fact been such a "crisis" in Mexico? If so what are the perceived causes? Has the promotion of corn based ethanol in gasoline been a factor?

[esperanza]

This article claims that there has been a "great Mexican tortilla crisis" due in large part to an increased price of corn secondary to the use of corn as a biofuel.

Has there in fact been such a "crisis" in Mexico? If so what are the perceived causes? Has the promotion of corn based ethanol in gasoline been a factor?

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Here in Mexico, we're not seeing a shortage of tortillas, but the price of tortillas has skyrocketed in the last two years, and particularly since January 2008. In the not-too-far-distant past, tortillas usually cost six pesos per kilo.

In Morelia, the price of tortillas at the tortillería near me is currently at 10 pesos the kilo. A family of five people might eat two kilos a day, especially if the consumption of tortillas is filling out an otherwise meager diet. Twenty pesos (about $1.60USD) for two kilos (4.4 lbs, for you who are metric-challenged) doesn't seem like much money, but many Mexican families don't bring in much more income than that per day.

I know one corn grower who didn't plant a crop this year because the price of raising the corn versus the price he'd receive for freshly harvested corn wouldn't bring enough to make it worth while. What did he raise instead? Marigolds, the traditional flower for the Day of the Dead.

So: why is this happening? The article you posted is accurate: Mexico can't raise enough corn now to meet its own food needs (we import a huge amount of corn) and there is currently enormous pressure for Mexico's farmers to raise the yellow corn necessary for biofuel rather than the white corn necessary for food. In addition, Mexico has not succumbed to the move toward transgenic corn--until recently. There is a lot of fear now that transgenic corn will make Mexico's traditional corn crop obsolete, and that transgenic corn will take its place. These fears are well-founded, as the government here is pushing for the use of transgenic corn.

I don't know about a tortilla crisis, but I can certainly vouch for an economic crisis. There's an old saying: when the United States gets a cold, Mexico sneezes. We're sneezing, folks.

[Jmahl]

True, another unforeseen consequence of globalization. Much of the third world is now suffering food shortages because of climate change and the globalization of food supplies. If the world is not careful the extent of suffering will be unprecedented.

Jmahl