Mexico's Corn Crisis Will Only Get Worse

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00:00Which country do you think consumes the most corn? It's not the US even with the

00:04Midwest or Argentina where I'm from. It's right here in Mexico. In fact Mexico's

00:11nationalist movement has a saying sin maíz no hay país. Without corn there is no

00:16country. But a crisis is brewing because unfortunately domestic production can no

00:22longer meet demand. Mexico reserves its price white corn like this for household

00:27consumption including of course tortillas. But the country increasingly relies on

00:31US imports of yellow corn to feed livestock and for industrial uses. Pricing

00:36temperatures, recurring droughts and a constitutional ban on genetically

00:39modified crops have all deepened that dependence. AMLO and his successor

00:44Claudia Sheinbaum have tried to help small farmers by guaranteeing minimum

00:48prices. But a record corn yield in the US has pushed prices down everywhere. And

00:53many rural farmers have to deal with violence and threats from the cartels too.

00:56The tension finally erupted in October. Farmers blocked roads and highways

01:01across the country to pressure the government for more support. Crisis was

01:05averted for now with new subsidies. But if the current situation persist the

01:10problem would only get worse. The ban on planting genetically modified corn is

01:15especially harmful. It denies Mexican farmers access to higher yield more

01:19resilient seeds. If Mexico wants to keep silk corn and its country as the saying goes

01:24shamebound needs to find ways to mitigate this crisis. She's a scientist after all.

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