U.S. sugar tariffs may prove saving grace to South American corn growers
As Autoblog Green has previously reported, U.S. tariffs on sugar has effectively barred Brazil and other nations with their less expensive and more efficient sugar-based ethanol from competing in the U.S., giving American corn and soy growers the lion's share of the market. But according to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the rising demand for corn in the U.S. may prove ultimately beneficial to Mexico, Central, and South American nations in the long run. The increased demand for corn to create ethanol has culled shipments to such countries. Domestic corn growers, who once couldn't compete against the cheap U.S. corn imports, now find their home-grown products priced competitively. Even better, other nations who normally purchase U.S. corn may soon be turning to such farmers as U.S. prices continue to rise.Related:
Poor could lose out in world ethanol market
World to suffer corn shortage as ethanol demand increases
[Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs via Brazzil Magazine]
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Marc 12:22AM (7/29/2006)
Another story about the threat of U.S. corn to poor Mexican farmers (who might decide to emigrate to the U.S. if their farm income is destroyed by cheap U.S. corn imports) and corn biodiversity: Michael Pollan in the LA Times, April 23, 2004 (link: http://michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=23 ).
An excerpt:
"The river of cheap American corn began flooding into Mexico after NAFTA took effect in 1994. Since then, the price of corn in Mexico has fallen by half. A 2003 report by the Carnegie Endowment says this flood has washed away 1.3 million small farmers. Unable to compete, they have left their land to join the swelling pools of Mexico's urban unemployed. Others migrate to the U.S. to pick our crops—former farmers become day laborers.
"The cheap U.S. corn has also wreaked havoc on Mexico's land, according to the Carnegie report. The small farmers forced off their land often sell out to larger farmers who grow for export, farmers who must adopt far more industrial (and especially chemical- and water-intensive) practices to compete in the international marketplace. Fertilizer runoff into the Sea of Cortez starves its marine life of oxygen, and Mexico's scarce water resources are leaching north, one tomato at a time.
"Mexico's industrial farmers now produce fruits and vegetables for American tables year-round. It's ridiculous for a country like Mexico whose people are often hungry to use its best land to grow produce for a country where food is so abundant that its people are obese—but under free trade, it makes economic sense."
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