Corn! Mexican Farmers Protest Tariff-free U.S. Corn

The dramatically increasing food prices have been blamed in part by the U.S. subsidies of corn for biofuel, not to mention that corn is in most processed foods and the basis for the (unhealthy) American diet. Here is another example of the rest of the world fighting back. Mexican corn farmers protested the end of the tax on imported corn products into Mexico yesterday. Tens of thousands of people joined them, jamming the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.

“How are you going to compete with the enormous subsidized farms in the United States and Canada?” said Francisco Hernández Juárez, the president of the National Union of Workers. “It’s totally unequal.”

On January 1 of this year the tariffs on corn, beans, sugar and milk were lifted on those goods being imported to Mexico from the United States and Canada. This is a final step in the opening of the markets of the United States, Canada and Mexico under NAFTA.

If you want to learn more about the corn industry in the United States be sure to check out a new film by mosaic films incorporated, King Corn. The story is inspired by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dillema (also totally worth reading), and follows an acre of corn planted in Iowa all the way (or, as best as they can) through the American food chain. It’s a great illustration of a very complex story.