Price of basic food for Mexico's poor increasing due to sudden explosion of the US ethanol industry

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/americas/view.bg?articleid=180416

Tens of thousands march in Mexico City to protest tortilla prices
By Associated Press
Thursday, February 1, 2007 - Updated: 05:55 AM EST

MEXICO CITY - About 75,000 trade unionists, farmers and leftists marched through downtown Mexico City on Wednesday to protest price increases for basic foods like tortillas - the staple of Mexico’s poor - and to demand a change in economic policy.

The march represented a challenge to President Felipe Calderon’s market-oriented policies and one banner read ”Calderon stole the elections, and now he’s stealing the tortillas!” Others waved handfuls of the flat corn disks and chanted ”Tortillas si, Pan no!” a play on the initials of Calderon’s National Action Party, the PAN, which also means ”bread” in Spanish. snip

The protesters were mobilizing to demand that Calderon take stronger action to control prices of basic foods.

Since taking office Dec. 1, Calderon has drawn the greatest criticism for failing to control the largest spike in tortilla prices in decades. The national uproar has put him in an uncomfortable position between the poor and some agribusiness industries hoping to profit from the surge in international corn prices, driven mostly by the sudden explosion of the U.S. ethanol industry.

[fasttense]

1. No wonder they are coming over here.

They can't even afford food in Mexico.

[NNN0LHI]

7. We divert 95% of the Colorado River before it gets to Mexico too

So huge corporations can grow fruits and vegetables and have immigrants harvest them here.

Crazy world.

Don

[shaniqua6392]

2. Can't we grow corn here in the U.S.??

How ridiculous. I can see buying some from Mexico, but do we have to import everything. Put our farmers to work and quit buying stuff from foreign countries that we can make ourself.

[Sherman A1]

4. The whole ethanol thing is really a sham

we cannot grow enough to replace petroleum (which of course is the dream scenario, No gas? Just grow some more corn and we can still drive our SUV's). Ethanol can make a small difference in a blend for fuel, but there isn't enough corn, grass, etc to be able to grow our way out of petro dependency. We need improved fuel economy standards, hybrids and alternate powered vehicles.

[lonestarnot]

10. Yes we need all of the alternatives you mention here, but

how is Brazil energy independent through its ethanal production?

[foo_bar]

15. sugarcane

They succeeded. Brazil's ethanol is about 30 percent less expensive than gasoline; according to the World Bank, it's about 50 cents cheaper per gallon to produce sugarcane ethanol. And although ethanol gets slightly less mileage, it's still cheaper on a per-mile-driven basis.

"The way we figure it, ethanol will be cheaper than gasoline as long as the price of oil is over $45 a barrel," said William Bernquist, coordinator for research and development at the Sugar Cane Technology Institute in Piracicaba, Brazil.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/29/eveningnews/main1454613.shtml

Thus sugarcane nets 7/.34 or about 20 times as much energy as corn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel

Requires a hot humid climate, alternating with dry periods, and thrives best at low elevations on flat or slightly sloping land, with stiff loamy or alluvial soil; however, it flourishes in any ordinary good soil, provided the necessary moisture is available (MacMillan, 1925). Sugarcane in commercial production has endured a maximum of 53°C (127°F) and a minimum of -13°C (9°F). The high is endured by standing cane and the low by overwintering stubble. Standing stalks of sugarcane freeze at -4 to -5.5°C (25 to 22°F) depending on cv and length of exposure. Sugarcane will survive and tiller at temperatures below 21°C but stem elongation, which occurs at night, is inhibited by lower temperatures. Saccharum tolerates occasional flooding. While the total water requirement of sugarcane is high, utilization efficiency is also high, with about 250 parts of water used for each part of dry matter produced. Cane is grown on volcanic soils of Hawaii, alluvial soils of Louisiana, muck soils of Florida, and on the bewildering variety of tropical soils in Puerto Rico.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Saccharum_officinarum.html

[RC]

6. You must be a city slicker.

For starts, the United States Does not have enough land to grow all the corn required for ethanol.

For another has it ever dawned on anyone why corn and only corn is good enough for ethanol? Why not sugar beets or any other high sugar crop?

Answer that and be enlightened at how controlled this country really is by big business.

[necso]

3. Biofuels competing for

food/feed crops will (likely) drive-up the prices of these crops -- and the prices of animals fed on them. (I have also read that the speculators are speculating (looking to make money by creating/producing nothing) in these commodities to a degree unfamiliar before -- oh, goody.)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Interesting "unintended consequence"

Try to extract ourselves from dependence on foreign oil, and we expand dependence on foreign food crops.

This will just increase pressure on small farmers to sell crops and land to the big food export cartels and increase famine as a side-effect.

Perhaps it's time to legalize drugs. When the price of marijuana and coca plants declines, more acreage might be used for food crops. Maybe.

It may also be time to re-establish normal trading relations with Cuba. All that sugar would make great ethanol. If we can trade with mainland China and VietNam, why not Cuba?

[nam78_two]

8. K&R.nt

[NNN0LHI]

9. I don't understand why this thread gets so little attention?

Its written in English and everything.

Don

[lonestarnot]

11. My lack of understanding of this point is similar to yours.

I think that it is now every man for "himself" in the good ol USA these days.

[NNN0LHI]

12. We took their land, divert their water, and make their food too expensive to purchase

And then we can't figure out why them damn Mexicans keep coming here.

This is a crazy world.

Don

[lonestarnot]

13. Yes it is.

[Moby Grape]

14. the numbers seem hard to believe

commodity corn sells for 7 cents a pound,
up from 4 cents

45 cents is difficult to believe

..................
edited fur speling

[matcom]

16. "the sudden explosion of the U.S. ethanol industry"??????

:wtf:

since when is the ethanol industry EXPLODING?

i haven't seen ONE ethanol pump around here!

[NNN0LHI]

17. All the gas I buy has 10% ethanol in it now

They are building several new ethanol processing plants around here. (Indiana and Illinois.)

Don

[Moby Grape]

18. ethanol is the functional replacement for MTBE

once it is established in an area,
it doesn't go away.

too useful as an additive