After the tortilla crisis: Mexico to cooperate with Brazil on biofuels

Even though biofuels were in no way to blame for the ‘tortilla crisis’, which affected Mexico, mainstream media perceived it as such. The main causes of the increase in corn prices are (1) the protection by tariffs of inefficient corn-based ethanol in the U.S., (2) the subsidisation of this fuel, (3) the vast corn subsidies in the U.S. and (4) a free trade agreement that both put millions of Mexican maize farmers out of business since the mid-1990s and made the country dependent on imported corn (see earlier). This has resulted in the massive and irresponsible use of a crop to make a biofuel that is not worth the energy (corn ethanol has a very bad energy balance) and that is not beneficial to the environment.

Biopact.