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Mexico's Poor Seek Relief From Tortilla ShortageLorne Matalon in Reynosa, Mexico for National Geographic NewsJune 4, 2008 During a protest in México City in January 2008, 28-year-old secretary Anibel Ordonez was one of many chanting "Tortillas si, Pan no!" while waving some of the flat corn disks in the air. The chant was a play on the initials of Mexican President Felipe Calderón's National Action Party, the PAN, which also means "bread" in Spanish. It was also a potent reminder of the effects of skyrocketing food prices on Mexico's poorest citizens. Tortillas are filling—Mexicans eat up to ten every day—but...

Feeling hair in her mouth, a 16-year-old vegan from Partille outside of Gothenburg looked down to discover a mouse cadaver in her bag of tortilla chips. “It was terrible. I went through the roof when I heard what happened,” said Thomas Sällström, the girl’s grandfather. He arrived at his daughter's house shortly after his granddaughter realized a mummified mouse was nestled among the chips. “They were just sitting eating chips like you would on any normal Saturday night and then this happened,” he told The Local. “She didn’t actually eat the mouse, but did get some hair in her mouth.”...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz on Wednesday urged the government and food companies to renew price caps for tortillas that have acted as a buffer against inflation. Tortillas, thin corn patties, are a staple of the Mexican diet. After a price rise began fueling inflation toward the end of 2006, the government pressured food producers and retailers to limit prices for corn flour and tortillas. "For consumers, the price containment so far has been a success, and from my point of view it is important that this containment continues," Ortiz told reporters, according to a...

MEXICO CITY — Soaring international demand for corn has caused a spike in prices for Mexico's humble tortilla, hitting the poor and forcing President Felipe Calderon's business-friendly government into an uncomfortable confrontation with powerful monopolies. Tortilla prices jumped nearly 14 percent over the past year, a move Mexico's Central Bank Gov. Guillermo Ortiz called "unjustifiable" in a country where inflation ran about 4 percent. Ortiz pinned the blame on companies monopolizing the market and blocking competition. "We clearly have a problem of speculation," he said. Economists also blame increased U.S. production of ethanol from corn as an alternative to oil....