The price of tortillas, the main source of calories for many poor Mexicans, recently rose by over 400%, according to the BBC, which adds that the price rise may be due to a shortage of cheap US corn. Leading to tortilla protests by tens of thousands of Mexicans in Mexico City.
"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."
That quote came from the BBC's excellent earlier report on the dissatisfaction in Mexico at the rising price of tortillas a key staple, the tortilla. Like the price of gas in the mid west, the Mexican government is probing to see if the price is really due to a shortage, or sharp practice by Mexico's tortilla makers.
To quote from the BBC once more
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.
contrast this with Thomas Dorr, speaking at the first Clean Fuels Finance Forum in London this week
"The next couple of years are going to be difficult transition years, but I believe that markets work well"