The "tortilla crisis" currently hitting Mexico seems to be the first example of the food v fuel issue I posted on a while back. The Mexican Government is trying to hold back the prices but given the huge push in the US to produce ethanol from corn I think they would be better off trying to find an alternative staple crop for their people or turn all the dope plantations into corn fields. With the Cantarell oil field rapidly dropping production they won't have the money to buy corn from the US for much longer and Mexican growers will be under serious pressure to sell their corn into the US market. I'm wondering when this issue is going to hit our supermarket shelves given many processed foods have corn additives. Then there's the soyabean additives which will also compound the problem.

In Australia as we come out if this drought I can see corn production being marketed to farmers or at least being seriously attractive to farmers that need to make some quick cash to get back in the good books with the banks. I've already seen a mention on a commodities analysis on TV of Australian farmers that don't traditionally grow much corn perhaps moving into it based on the surge in the corn market.

Here's a link to find out more on the "tortilla crisis": http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/23094.html

PS To to folks from the permaculture forum I've taken the map thing down in the hope that murray will put one on the forum home page.