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“
When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last
year to protest a 60 percent increase in the price of tortillas, many
analysts pointed to biofuel as the culprit. Because of US government
subsidies, American farmers were devoting more and more acreage to corn
for ethanol than for food, which sparked a steep rise in corn prices.
The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one cause
of skyrocketing prices, though speculation on biofuel demand by
transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an
intriguing question escaped many observers: how on earth did Mexicans,
who live in the land where corn was domesticated, become dependent on US
imports in the first place?
” source...