Wirrarika-(5) Ethanol's effect: Expensive tortillas

            Ethanol's effect: Expensive tortillas

Associated Press
Published January 13, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- Soaring international demand for corn has caused a spike in prices for Mexico's humble tortilla, hitting the poor and forcing President Felipe Calderon's business-friendly government into an uncomfortable confrontation with powerful monopolies.

Tortilla prices have jumped nearly 14 percent over the past year, a move the head of Mexico's central bank called "unjustifiable" in a country where inflation ran about 4 percent.

Economists blame increased U.S. production of ethanol from corn as an alternative to oil. The battle over the tortilla, the most basic staple of the Mexican diet, especially among the poor, demonstrates how increasing economic integration is felt on the street level.

"This is direct evidence of the way globalization is affecting all walks of life in Mexico and all over the world," said David Barkin, an economics professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City.

The federal government's antitrust watchdog announced this week it was investigating allegations companies were manipulating corn prices, and making deals to limit the supply of corn to boost prices of tortillas.

For low-income Mexicans, who earn about $18 a day on average, the increasing prices have hit hard. According to the government, about half of the country's 107 million citizens live in poverty.

"When there isn't enough money to buy meat, you do without," said Bonifacia Ysidro, but "you can't do without" tortillas.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said ethanol plants and foreign buyers are gobbling U.S. corn supplies, and the benchmark price of corn reached an exchange-imposed limit of $3.965 a bushel shortly after trading began Friday at the Chicago Board of Trade.

Nationwide in the U.S., supplies of corn are expected to drop to 752 million bushels this year, a drop from last month's forecast of 935 million bushels and a steep decline from last year's supply of 1.967 billion.

The increase in tortilla prices has outpaced inflation and minimum wage hikes of about 4 percent for the past year. Grains traders forecast tortilla prices will rise 20 percent to 25 percent during the first quarter of 2007.

That prospect worries Ysidro, who said, "If it goes higher, what am I going to give my children?"

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Sierra Madre Huichol
Naranjito de Copal - Municipio del Nayar - Mexico

Travelling in Mexico

Taken on: May 2, 2007

Tags:

mexico

messico

jalisco

nayar

naranjito

naranjito de copal

wirrarika

huichol

huicholes

indigenous

indios

indios huichoil

nina

niña

handcraft

sierra madre

sierra

nicola okin frioli

www.okinreport.net

bambina

child

comunity

huichol comunity

photography

life observed

tortillas

mais

etanol

etanolo

making tortillas

the prize of mais grow up

ethanol's effect

EXPENCIVE TORTILLAS

gmo free / sans ogm

GE free corn « less

Sets appears in: • Huichol Sacred Pilgrimage

Groups appears in: • FlickrCentral • Photography more » • Global Photojournalism • Documentary Photography / Photojournalism • National Geographic • Forum Monterrey 2007 - The Original and Cool Group!! • Canon EOS 5D Series • magnumesque • The World Through My Eyes ... • CentralFlickr • Lightstalkers.org « less

Stats: 4,845 views / 13 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: