Mexico leader in tortilla pledge (ethanol boom hurting food prices)

"Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has pledged to intervene to tackle the soaring price of tortillas, the flat corn bread which is a local staple.

The price of tortillas, the main source of calories for many of Mexico's poor, rose by more than 10% last year."

snip

"Under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico used to get cheap corn imports from the US, but Mexico's Economy Minister Eduardo Sojo said that with more US corn being diverted into ethanol production, supply was dwindling."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6255781.stm

Wow, who would have imagined this every happening?

As much corn as fast as possible and the impact in the U.S. may be bad for the environment despite ethanol's green appeal.

With all the reckless building of ethanol plant in the US, expect higher prices here too! Tyson and other ag groups have clearly stated that meat and poultry prices will be rising because of ethanol..

if Mexico does not want US problems..
stop trading with the US.
take matters into your own hands

I hope this isn't the same rightwing moby grape of the northwestindiana discussion group..


But back to your stupid comment, I guess you wouldn't mind if Mexico quit exporting 1.5 million barrel a DAY to the US..

Why can't Mexico feed their own people???? Why do they need to buy corn from the USA?

Maybe if Mexico actually practiced and understood birth control, they wouldn't have a 10% rise in corn prices, which is insignificant if you understand that corn has been undervalued for the last 25 years.

In order for a farmer to make a profit on corn that he can subsist in a comfortable manner for him and his family, he has to raise in the nieghborhood of 400+ acres to make $40k per year, which in most areas won't even pay the bills.

Mexico can keep their oil, if they would only take their citizens back, we would not need as much oil.

I think you shuld try posting these ideas in GD (General Discussion)
rather than waisting yor time in the Environment/Energy forum!

:hi:

I mean it. Barely knowledgeable at all. First of all up to this point it has been illegal to import white corn into Mexico and, for those of you who don't know, white corn is what is used to make virtually all tortillas. That's the corn used to make food. Yellow corn is what comes largely from the US and Canada and it is mainly used as animal feed, sweeteners, and for fermenting.

The price of white corn is mostly increasing because for several years the Mexican harvest has been larger then Mexico could consume but subsidized corn from the US meant white corn was not competitive to sell as animal feed. Lots of marginal peasant farms (who often farmed less then 20 acres) couldn't survive on their tiny plots at the low prices and were forced to get jobs in the city. Over all production of white corn in Mexico is flat but prices are rising slightly (10% in a year) due to increased consumption. White corn remains more expensive then yellow corn so yellow corn is what is getting fermented. In any event corn prices in all of North America could be brought crashing down simply by ending government tariffs on imported sugar. The problem is greedy corn farmers in all NAFTA countries don't want to compete against imported sugar so they force everyone to pay higher prices.

Why should you care? It isn't just because you want cheaper sugar it's because ethanol would be much cheaper if we made it from sugar cane instead of corn because sugar cane has many times more sugar per pound. End the massive tarrifs on imported sugar cane and corn prices will come down forevery one.

End Tarriffs on sugar and begin using sugar cane to make ethanol, corn prices will plummet even lower, and more subsidies will have to be handed out.

Obviously, many are unaware of how little actual profit the american family farmer makes, even with gov't subsidies.

Keep driving the price of corn down, and driving the small farmer into bankruptcy and foreclosure, and you will have the same result you have with power, telecom, and oil-assraping of the consumer.

or at least, vastly expanded it.

first bad law, oxygenated gasoline, money transfer
feom the working class to oil companies.
market reaction --> MTBE.

OK, MTBE is bad for groundwater,
market reaction --> widespread increase in demand for ethanol,
the infrastructure expands.

ethanol needs special handleing.
once the infrastructure for distribution is in place,
it will be used, that is just the way it is.

the infrastructure for ethanolis being put in place.
the price of corn, sugar, gasoline, are mow connected.

bad laws