boutons_
01-27-2007, 10:12 AM
A Culinary and Cultural Staple in Crisis
Mexico Grapples With Soaring Prices for Corn -- and Tortillas
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 27, 2007; A01
NEZAHUALCOYOTL, Mexico (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/mexico.html?nav=el) -- Thick, doughy tortillas roll hot off the conveyor belt all day at Aurora Rosales's little shop in this congested city built on a dry lake bed east of Mexico City.
Using cooking techniques that date to the Mayan empire, Rosales has never altered her recipe. Nor did her father, grandfather or great-grandfather.
On good days, the neighbors line up for her tortillas.
But these are not good days, and sometimes hours pass without any customers.
Mexico is in the grip of the worst tortilla crisis in its modern history. Dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the grain-based fuel ethanol, have led to expensive tortillas. That, in turn, has led to lower sales for vendors such as Rosales and angry protests by consumers.
The uproar is exposing this country's outsize dependence on tortillas in its diet -- especially among the poor -- and testing the acumen of the new president, Felipe Calderón. It is also raising questions about the powerful businesses that dominate the Mexican corn market and are suspected by some lawmakers and regulators of unfair speculation and monopoly practices.
( so the heavily US-tax-payer subsidized corn ethanol boom:
a) enriches US farmers
b) has no effective impact on imported oil
c) fucks the poor who are forced to each corn, a low quality food
same ol same ol, heavily subsidized agri-business in industrial countries fucks over poor farmers in poor countries as agri-business can dump their subsized commodities on the world market. Ethanol is not the answer and wasting tax payers $ subsidizing ethanol is stupid and harmful. If ethanol were the answer, it would to pay its own way. )
Tortilla prices have tripled or quadrupled in some parts of Mexico since last summer. On Jan. 18, Calderón announced an agreement with business leaders capping tortilla prices at 78 cents per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, less than half the highest reported prices. The president's move was a throwback to a previous era when Mexico controlled prices -- the government subsidized tortillas until 1999, at which point cheap corn imports were rising under the NAFTA trade agreement. It was also a surprise given his carefully crafted image as an avowed supporter of free trade.
....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601896.html
Mexico Grapples With Soaring Prices for Corn -- and Tortillas
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 27, 2007; A01
NEZAHUALCOYOTL, Mexico (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/mexico.html?nav=el) -- Thick, doughy tortillas roll hot off the conveyor belt all day at Aurora Rosales's little shop in this congested city built on a dry lake bed east of Mexico City.
Using cooking techniques that date to the Mayan empire, Rosales has never altered her recipe. Nor did her father, grandfather or great-grandfather.
On good days, the neighbors line up for her tortillas.
But these are not good days, and sometimes hours pass without any customers.
Mexico is in the grip of the worst tortilla crisis in its modern history. Dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the grain-based fuel ethanol, have led to expensive tortillas. That, in turn, has led to lower sales for vendors such as Rosales and angry protests by consumers.
The uproar is exposing this country's outsize dependence on tortillas in its diet -- especially among the poor -- and testing the acumen of the new president, Felipe Calderón. It is also raising questions about the powerful businesses that dominate the Mexican corn market and are suspected by some lawmakers and regulators of unfair speculation and monopoly practices.
( so the heavily US-tax-payer subsidized corn ethanol boom:
a) enriches US farmers
b) has no effective impact on imported oil
c) fucks the poor who are forced to each corn, a low quality food
same ol same ol, heavily subsidized agri-business in industrial countries fucks over poor farmers in poor countries as agri-business can dump their subsized commodities on the world market. Ethanol is not the answer and wasting tax payers $ subsidizing ethanol is stupid and harmful. If ethanol were the answer, it would to pay its own way. )
Tortilla prices have tripled or quadrupled in some parts of Mexico since last summer. On Jan. 18, Calderón announced an agreement with business leaders capping tortilla prices at 78 cents per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, less than half the highest reported prices. The president's move was a throwback to a previous era when Mexico controlled prices -- the government subsidized tortillas until 1999, at which point cheap corn imports were rising under the NAFTA trade agreement. It was also a surprise given his carefully crafted image as an avowed supporter of free trade.
....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601896.html