Posted on June 6, 2008 by Gerald Pugliese
The demand for corn for biofeuls has left Mexico’s poor short on tortillas. Lorne Matalon of
National Geographic News reports:
Tortillas are filling—Mexicans eat up to ten every day—but a dramatic rise in the cost of corn flour has driven up the cost of a dozen tortillas from the equivalent of 30 U.S. cents to 50 cents or more in some stores.
By some estimates, a kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of tortillas now takes up about one-fifth of the daily minimum wage of Mexico's working poor.
"I will not make my customers pay more—at least not for now," said Francisco Barriga, the owner of a tortilla factory in the border town of Reynosa, near McAllen, Texas.
"But I am paying 12 to 20 percent more for 20-kilogram [44-pound] bags of flour I need to make the tortillas."
For the country's low-income citizens, who already spend a large percentage of their money on food, the increases are disastrous, sending frustrated citizens to the streets to rally against the biofuels and trade policies they feel are the cause.
I know tortillas are part of their culture, but, they’re not exactly the healthiest food in the world. From Dr. Fuhrman’s
Food Scoring Guide:
Aye carumba!
