Should Canadian farmers cash in on biofuel boom?
When the ethanol market caused the price of corn tortillas to climb by 55 per cent last summer, tens of thousands of demonstrators protested in Mexico City. A year later, Mexican farmers are burning their fields of blue agave, the main ingredient in tequila, to grow corn and feed North America’s appetite for biofuels. Canadians will likely have to pay more for tequila as less agave is planted. But before drowning your sorrows in a few shots of Cuervo Gold, cursing those who dare destroy its staple ingredient, you might want to reconsider where you’re placing the blame. Eric Holt-Gimnez, who worked alongside farmers in Central America while completing his PhD, said their change of heart isn’t all that hard to understand. “If it makes money, farmers will grow it,” the executive director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy said. Corn is netting more than agave because the world is using ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels — and Mexico isn’t the only Latin American coun
