Saturday, January 13, 2007

Tortilla Costs

The demand for environmentally friendly corn-based ethanol fuel is having some unforeseen consequences; the price of corn in Mexico has risen by 400% in recent months. Corn, of course, is used to make the dietary staple tortillas- and the poor of that country are struggling to cope.

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

Of course, I'm sure that most "greenies" won't be at all concerned about the 53 million or so people
currently living in poverty who are on the verge of sliding into starvation- saving the planet is more important than mere people to them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jay, This was no unforseen. I remember reading an article about this saying that if we redirected food to fuel then there would be a world wide shortage of food. The thing about oild and coal is nobody can eat it so nobody starves if it is just burnt. But corn oil etc. is redirected from an existing purpose to a new one and no replacement can be put in place. People starve.

There are side effects for everything. Unlike politicians who never think anything ahead. We need to identify these and work out a balance. Food/Fuel.

Don't think for a moment this upsets the greens. They are more bothered about a single tree than a single brown person.