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| Hungry Mexicans, U.S. to blame |
Itsdb |
01/12/07 |
Everything's our fault isn't it?
Mexico leader in tortilla pledge
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.
Mr Calderon said the government would clamp down on speculators and search for cheaper providers of corn.
But he ruled out imposing subsidies or price controls, which were lifted in the late 1990s.
"We will take all the measures within reach of the federal government to avoid escalating prices," Mr Calderon said.
In the meantime Mr Calderon has told his agriculture secretary to import corn to ease the problem.
"I don't care if it's brought from thousands of kilometres away, the most important thing is that this [shortage] is not used as an excuse to raise prices," he said on Thursday.
Earlier this week, angry housewives heckled Mr Calderon at his public appearances, pleading with him to bring tortilla prices down.
"When there isn't enough money to buy meat, you do without," one woman in Mexico City, Bonifacia Ysidro, told the Associated press. "Tortillas you can't do without."
Ms Ysidro said she paid 25 pesos - about a sixth of her family's daily income - for enough tortillas to feed her family of six.
On Thursday, government officials from the Federal Competition Commission said that they were investigating claims that tortilla companies around the country were manipulating prices and restricting supplies to boost profits.
"If we detect monopolistic practices, we could impose fines of up to 70m pesos [$6.4m]," commission director Eduardo Perez Motta said in a statement.
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.
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As a huge fan of tortillas I can certainly sympathize with how Mexicans are now paying a premium for tortillas, so what shall we do to help out?
We're kind of between a rock and a hard place here aren't we? If we curtail ethanol production so we can send more cheap corn to Mexico we'll be back to depending more on fossil fuels and a greater contribution to global warming. If we clamp down on illegal immigration there won't be enough money going back home to Mexico to buy tortillas. What can we do???
Btw, I prefer flour tortillas in most cases, heated on an open burner and slathered with butter. Sometimes sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar or spread with a little honey. |
Clarification/Follow-up by HANK1 on 01/13/07 1:26 am:
EAT HOT TAMALES!
HANK Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 01/13/07 4:03 pm:
Hank, unless you're referring to the candy, hot tamales require lots of masa, more than tortillas.
Clarification/Follow-up by captainoutrageous on 01/14/07 12:05 am:
Oops, sorry. I saw Hank's name above the question and totally spaced it. Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 01/15/07 2:23 pm:
No prob, Cap'n.
Clarification/Follow-up by ETWolverine on 01/16/07 5:29 pm:
>>>But how do you like your tortillas?<<<
With a schmear. :)
Hey, what can I say? It's a Jewish thing...
Elliot Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 01/16/07 6:16 pm:
Elliot,
Unless it's the wrapping for a taco, a chimichanga or an enchilada you gotta have a schmear of something :)
Steve
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