Free Republic

A proposal to designate the tortilla as New Mexico’s official state bread had unanimous support from lawmakers. On Friday, though, it ended up falling flat. It wasn’t because Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham isn’t a fan of the round wraps that have long been a staple of Mexican, Central American and Southwestern U.S. cooking. It was because she believes lawmakers missed opportunities to debate bills that deal with weightier matters as the state faces extraordinary challenges. “Of course, I enjoy celebrating our unique culture,” she wrote in her veto message, ticking off numerous official state symbols and songs that New Mexico...

Authorities say a man is accused of breaking into a Phoenix apartment and helping himself to tortillas and soup. Court documents show that 31-year-old Jerry Christopher Drane was arrested March 1 on suspicion of criminal trespassing. According to charging documents, a female occupant smelled something burning. She found Drane in the kitchen cooking tortillas on top of a stove burner. She yelled for her roommate and both women demanded Drane to leave. They told police Drane then went onto the balcony and began eating a can of soup. Responding officers say he showed signs of being intoxicated and was subsequently...

Consumption of the corn tortilla, the very symbol of Mexican cuisine, has dropped by some 40 percent over the past 30 yearsConsumption of the corn tortilla, the very symbol of Mexican cuisine, has dropped by some 40 percent over tahe past 30 years while losing flavor and texture, despite the varieties of Mexican corn that exist in the country, Rafael Mier, businessman and promoter of the corn tortilla, told EFE. "In Mexico, right at the center of where corn originated, there's not just one kind of tortilla, there are hundreds of tortilla varieties, as there are of Mexican masa harina...

Seattle police are scratching their heads about this one. A car prowler shattered a window of a parked Jeep, stole nothing and left behind a little something for the car's owner - a dozen tortillas scattered across the floor. The crime...

So what's more important to you: energy independence and this state's "new energy economy," or the fight against hunger?

MEXICO CITY (AP)--Mexican legislators, producers, and consumers are battling with the government over how best to control the rising price of corn tortillas, a centuries-old staple of the Mexican diet. Some lawmakers are calling on renewing price controls used in the past, while incoming economy secretary Eduardo Sojo says a better move would be to help farmers increase production. Rising demand is a major factor pushing up corn prices, Sojo told a news conference Monday - in particular the fact that more U.S. corn is being diverted for the production of ethanol, instead of heading to Mexico’s consumer market. Farmers...

Also, packages may be returned for full refund Checking the batches of corn tortillas at the local H-E-B manufacturing plant Thursday, quality assurance workers noticed chunks of metal showing up in the popular foodstuff, and immediately issued a precautionary recall, H-E-B spokeswoman Shelley Parks said. "We don't know how many are affected," Parks said. "But to be on the safe side we issued the recall." The tortillas in question are H-E-B and Mi Tradicion brands white and yellow corn tortillas, in all quantity packages, according to a statement from H-E-B. The exact items are: H-E-B brand yellow corn tortillas, 10,...

HARLINGEN - Tortillas made with contaminated corn may have caused a rash of newborns with missing or rudimentary brains in the Rio Grande Valley in the 1990s, new data suggest. According to the February issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers now have human studies linking a toxin in corn mold called fumonisin with babies' neural tube defects. Scientists have been searching more than a decade for answers to the surge of anencephalic babies - babies born without brains or with underdeveloped brains - in the Rio Grande Valley from 1990-92. There were six such cases in six weeks...

Now, food companies and retailers are hoping for similar happy results by focusing on products that fit the Atkins plan. But some of those sales gains are coming at the expense of companies whose foods aren't Atkins-friendly. :VERY LARGE BREAK IN ARTICLE: A low for carbs The Atkins boom worries companies that depend on carbohydrates – such as pasta, tortilla and bread makers. Pasta consumption is still growing, but hardly at the carbo-loading inspired rates of the 1980s, according to American Italian Pasta Co., the largest U.S. pasta maker. "Our industry would be growing faster if not for the Atkins...

The University of Arizona is putting a wrap on tortilla tossing at graduation.UA president Peter Lykins is urging students not to bring the discs to fling into the air at Saturday's ceremonies because it's a waste of food and culturally insensitve to some people.Patti Ota, the UA's vice president of executive operations and senior associate to the president, will personally try and talk students out of the tortillas at the door,using food bank boxes to play on their guilt.